I stayed with my family at Al's for almost two weeks. Overall, unless I need to stay with my family together in a single unit, I'd rather stay at a hotel or somewhere else. One could say it's NYC, and it's just dirty and old. However, I do think there are plenty of other modern accommodations that are more pleasant to stay in, at a similar price range. Here are pros and cons:
Pros:
-Good location: walkable to Times Square, Intrepid Sea and Air Museum, maybe Columbus Circle. Hell's Kitchen area has bars and restaurants that have local vibe away from touristy stuff.
-Al and Guli who checked us in were friendly.
Cons:
-Privacy:
-One night (maybe 10pm), a guy just opened the door with a key and walked in looking for Al. Everyone was already in bed at this time. Al said he was a maintenance guy, but where I come from, people don't just open the locked door without knocking.
-Cleanliness/Functionality:
-Floor was dirty and we had to buy flipflops for inside. It's definitely a shoe-indoors type of place. I don't want to know when the bath mat was last washed.
-Drains were barely draining.
-Overall, lots of things were old or falling apart (fridge, toilet seat, etc). Some of these would have been nice if they were better quality items. Couch had large patches of fabric sewn on to cover holes/rips. Mattresses were uncomfortable. Sheets were pretty mediocre. Closet door was banged up and sounded like a banshee. I had to fight lots of extension cords and almost broken floor lamps that are in inconvenient locations. Etc, etc... Just overall inconvenient, still functional, but one should expect more.
-No washer/dryer
-The listing says washer/dryer, but there aren't. To me, "washer/dryer" means in-unit, not a shared laundromat 24 floors down. I packed thinking I could do laundry at nights, but no, and that definitely became inconvenience.
-Not enough A/C
-One of the bedrooms is made by splitting the living room. This is done such that there is no A/C in the living room. If you want living room cooled, the only way is to leave the bedroom door wide open, and tolerate the freezing bedroom.
-A/C is really noisy.
-Overall, lacking attention to detail.
-A tiny cheap coffee maker with incorrect coffee filter, with no coffee. It works, but coffee drinkers appreciate a good cup of coffee the morning after travel.
-One bathroom.
-It's tiny, and the drain is slow, but it works. However, one bathroom does get problematic just with three people. To be fair, it's not like I didn't know.