My wife and I spent Christmas week in Ross's apartment and found some things to like about it but some others that were less agreeable. Ross replied quickly and in detail to my messages, and his use of Key Cafe made the key exchange straight-forward. His apartment's location makes the East Village and the Lower East Side, as well as public transport, all accessible by foot. The apartment and the building itself are clean and secure.

The building is also, unfortunately, home to some very noisy neighbors. On our first night the person directly below blasted the television from about 3 am until dawn, and on two subsequent evenings we had to ask him to turn down his music, which throbbed at club-level volume.

The building is also very warm, with no temp. control in the apartment. That leaves just the windows as a way to moderate the heat, though opening them exacerbates the noise problem.

The apartment also had virtually no storage space for our clothing, and so we lived for a week out of our suitcases and from from what we could make room for on the floor, chair backs, and one small table. A four-foot tall corn plant blocked access to the stove.

I understand that Airbnb arrangements do call for some compromise, but given the cost of Ross's apartment and its generally uncomfortable nature, I feel that we did all of the compromising. We would definitely not rent it again or recommend it to friends.

Roderick Hofer