Jess' place is awesome, but even more importantly, Jess' hospitality is above and beyond; you'll love staying with her! I stayed with her for 2.5 weeks and during that, she made her place feel like a second home and reminded me of why I love Airbnb – because of hosts like her :)
It was all top-notch, where do I even begin? Let's start with the check-in: Jess made sure that she was home when I arrived to welcome me, open up the whole apartment to me, give me tips about the area, and get to know me. I've lived in NYC before, but that was 10 years ago and Long Island City has come up so much since then, so this was an amazing experience.
One thing you'll notice with her is that she's there when you need her, but she also knows how to give you your space when you want that, so sharing the space with her can feel like you have the space to yourself, but when you want, you also have some company in the form of a new friend!
Let's take a moment to talk about the room and apartment: it's in the perfect location, just a quick 5-7 minute walk to the subway station that takes you everywhere. It's also both equidistant to the waterfront and Court Square which is coming up with a lot of eateries, cafes, bars, and more.
The room has a very comfortable bed, a sofa to lounge, low table to use with the sofa to eat or get some work done, a piano if you play music, and all the creature comforts like enough storage space, a TV, and what I really liked – a fan so that you don't necessarily have to use the A/C at the tail end of the summer. But perhaps the best part of the room was the amount of light and the fact that it overlooks both Manhattan and the Queensboro bridge. The only bummer I'd say is that being in the heart of LIC/NYC, you do get street noise, even at night. This doesn't bother me, but Jess provides a white noise machine if you need.
The apartment has large sofas and a dining table to just relax on when you get back, supplemented by a full kitchen that Jess opens up to you. Just like the room, the living space and kitchen also gets tons of natural light. The bathroom is nice for New York City standards and although there's only 1, in my 2.5-week stay with Jess, we only had to use the bathroom once at the same time – she's very thoughtful in making it available to you when you need it. Not to mention, all the bathroom amenities you could want are provided as well, so you really don't need to bring much from home unless you want to. The only bummer would be that it's a 4th-floor walkup, but this really doesn't feel tiring at all.
All of this is coupled with Jess' amazing hospitality that shines through the place. Your room has small knick-knacks like a converter, a map of NYC, and more that really welcomes you. And Jess goes out of her way to make you feel at home. Due to Hurricane Ida, the hot water went out one morning; not only did Jess make sure to work with the super to have it fixed, she also felt bad with the late arrival of one of my packages and bought me a shaving cream as I was out. She goes out of her way!
Staying with Jess is an experience I highly recommend, and having traveled to many parts of the world, I don't do that lightly! I almost wish I could keep this place a secret for myself or my friends to stay in when we visit NYC ;)