The basics: Clean, nice, home-away-from-home feeling. Safe neighborhood, few-frills but many comforts way to visit NYC. I'd stay here again in a heartbeat.

Details on my experience: This was my first time using AirBnB, and I thought that it was a great experience. I've already recommended the site to many friends, and will use it again. My sister's family used it simultaneously, and my brother and I stayed at Allen and Irina's place while she stayed at one of the Hotel Toshi properties. We were both very happy with our stays, but I think that I got the better deal.

Allen and Irina were *extremely* proactive communicators, confirming dates and arrival times and printing out neighborhood maps with recommended restaurants. Allen had a parking space right outside the front door, which he gave to me for unloading (my initial spot was 1.5 blocks away - safe, free parking is easily found nearby). Both were very concerned about making sure we had everything we wanted, and freely offered info, but they never felt intrusive. Helpful, friendly and truly concerned with ensuring we enjoyed ourselves - some of the best customer service ever!

The place itself was really nice. Brooklyn on somewhat of a budget nice, not W hotel nice, but I liked it better than my stay at the Waldorf Astoria several years back. Bigger rooms, fridge and pantry spare but stocked with breakfast essentials, bathroom built for tall people (I'm 6'2" and my brother is 6'4" and neither of us had to do the usual ducking for showerheads or sink mirror). Also, they provided way more clean towels, blankets, etc than we might ever need, and everything looked and felt very clean. Seriously, getting this space at this price was great!

The negatives:
Our last night there, wireless internet went out. Out of their control, as they lost their residential phone, internet & cable upstairs (as usual, TWC sucks) and they obviously wanted it fixed more than we did. The TV in the room (as I saw in the photos) was a very small oldschool TV/VCR combo - not a problem for me but perhaps for others. The apartment is obviously furnished by people rather than by IKEA, which I prefer but some may not like.

Overall, I'm glad we stayed here rather than one of the Hotel Toshi properties, which have nicer stuff (big flatscreen TV's, ultramodern furnishings) but require dealing with a more corporate machine type of customer service (separate building for check-in, sub-par customer service, maids rushing you to leave so they can clean, etc). Anyone wishing to contact me for more details is welcome to do so. Thanks Allen and Irina!