This apartment looked pretty much as the photos on Airbnb suggested. We found the location, space, style and fittings and facilities of the duplex apartment a good solution for our 5 night stay in New York with our 19-year old son. We are familiar with the Upper West Side, and the apartment was quite conveniently located for the subway downtown and Central Park.
The main positives for us were: the excellent space for both our living and sleeping arrangements, the well equipped kitchen and the use of a washing machine and drier in the apartment.
However, there were a few problems which had a material impact on our stay.
The most critical issue was finding a mouse active in the kitchen trash bucket. Fortunately, we were able to trap it and release it on the street away from the house. We photographed the mouse and sent it on to Cedric as a record. This was very distressing and alarming. We couldn’t help thinking there might be more pests around and it certainly limited our use of the kitchen from then on. No one really wanted to open the cupboards for fear of what we might find. We did not tell our son because he would have insisted that we move to a hotel, an option which was also on our minds. We reported the mouse to Cedric but no remedial action occurred nor any conclusion or assessment to the pest situation which left us in a very uncertain and anxious state.
Other problems fall into the category of annoyances. For one, the apartment was not ready when we arrived and a number of advertised amenities did not work. Again, although Cedric was responsive no remedial action took place while we were in residence.
-There was rubbish on the stairs
-The TV in the yellow bedroom did not work for cable TV stations
-The clothes dryer didn’t dry our clothes
-One of the windows in the front was unusable (top half fell through to bottom and could not be adjusted).
Cedric was clearly shocked by the mouse and potential infestation. He wrote to owners Francesca and Jack about our experience to see if they would compensate us in some way in recognition of the severity of our issues but they were not willing to offer anything although they did apologise for the ‘scare’ and other complaints. This was clearly more than just a scare and we left feeling overall dissatisfied with our experience.