I booked this place for a summer internship. The room is amazing and just like the pictures. Huge, plenty of light. Good sized closet. Comfortable bed and couch. Nice desk. The AC is weirdly placed in the room so it does get hot in the summers and if you have people over. If you leave food out in your room, you will get rats. Don’t leave food out.
However, I didn’t really know I would be sharing the apartment with 2 other Airbnb tenants. There is only 1 bathroom with no vent, so smell and heat stays in there unless you leave the door open.
One time, the toilet clogged and overflowed. Apollo was quick about bringing over a plumber. However, he kept asking me if I had flushed feminine products down the toilet, and like…. no. I did not. He claimed management found feminine products in the sewage system, which doesn’t really make sense because the building sewage is all connected. So how can someone pinpoint it on me?
Because the toilet overflowed, the downstairs neighbors wrote us a note and demanded we paid them because their bathrooms flooded too. Just ancient building things.
Kitchen is small and when I came in, didn’t even have a microwave. I had to ask Apollo to order us one. I also think there’s one fork in the entire kitchen.
The address was also different from when I booked it to when I checked in by a couple blocks. Not a huge deal though.
4th floor walk up, so get ready for cardio everyday. I got used to it within 2 weeks.
Location is good and bad. If you’re a young attractive woman, the LES is not the best area to be in, especially at night. I was harassed multiple times by men on the streets. However, it is very conveniently located to good restaurants and bars. But do I think that’s prioritized over safety? No.
A laundromat is right around the block, but it’s expensive obviously and you have to bring your own detergent, which is really dumb.
Let’s get into the bad. The host is having legal issues with the landlord, so we were served 2-3 eviction notices in my time. The host kept trying to convince us that it’s fine and he has a lawyer on it, which might be true. But it was extremely stressful to have to deal with. The super downstairs, who works for the landlord, constantly harassed me and my visitors verbally as we were entering. He tried to physically stop me from entering the building too. One of my roommates checked out early because she couldn’t handle it. Apollo asked if my statements could be used in the legal case with his landlord, but the last thing I want is to be involved in a legal case. Also, Airbnb Support will not help you because Apollo has convinced them that it’s going to be okay.
Building management changed the locks 2-3 times in my stay, so we had to struggle to get new keys. Oh yeah, there was also a robbery in the building recently. Fun.
Overall, I had an okay time. The apartment is cozy and comfortable but I dealt with a slew of other issues that was stressful and should not have been issues in the first place. Apollo is usually nice and responds pretty quickly. This wouldn’t be my first choice place to stay, but I guess it was a good NYC experience.