Great quiet and safe location to stay in Astoria Heights. A group consisting of me and my friends came for Pride weekend to explore the city. Check in/out process was easy. The home was very big and the pictures TRULY do not do it justice. We were greeted by some great music and big comfy couches upon walking in which made it easy to unwind and relax immediately after our long commute.
Everything was accessible by bus/train and there was also parking on the street incase you bring your car and want to drive. There was a street festival (amazing!!) within walking distance, great shopping, plenty of food/restaurants right by the home. Host was extremely accommodating and polite, even allowed us to check out two hours late upon request. Although I was not the best with communication, the host still gave us all of the necessary information we needed before check in to have a great time, which allowed us the space needed to have a great stay.
There was a massive TV with great speakers in the living room, access to SMART TV apps (Hulu, Netflix, etc.), Alexa; beautiful open dining room space made it nice and easy to eat at the dining table while speaking to friends sitting in the living room. Lots of utensils, plates, and cups. Kitchen was clean. Bedrooms were very big and cozy with large smart TV’s. Bathroom was clean overall and bright. There were towels and washcloths. Toilet was clean and applied cleaner automatically after every flush. AC units throughout the home were powerful and felt GREAT!
There are a few cons that I am adding out of consideration for others who read this because of the negative review before mine that may make anyone weary of booking. Because I was weary at first until after staying, and I’m glad that I was able to make my own judgments and see that the negative reviews were just exaggerated. And I want to instill beforehand that these “cons” on my end were so extremely small that you would honestly be doing yourself a disservice but not giving the airbnb a chance.
The FIRST thing I did was check the internet upon walking into the airbnb and noticed I was unable to access it. This wasn’t a massive deal. SMART TVs worked fine still so did Alexa. And it’s not like there wasn’t strong connection in the area. Everyones phone data worked find and only had to use it for a bit. Unless you’re booking this massive place to immediately sit on your computer or phone all day; this shouldn’t be an issue and it wasn’t at all for me or anyone I was with. The host sent the updated password the next day and this was without my asking. Again, WITHOUT my asking. I have no doubt that with a bit of communication on my end, it would have been fixed immediately.
The smell of the freshener’s in the home were a bit strong for my partner who is a bit sensitive to smells but everyone else was unbothered by this and even if we were, this is something that we could have easily remedied if we had decided to/or needed to but we did not feel the need to.
We did see one small roach in the kitchen upon entering. As one of the reviews mentioned, in New York this can be completely inevitable and is BOUND to happen. But this is the ONE and ONLY roach we saw the entire time, there was Raid in the kitchen, we took care of it, sprayed the kitchen a bit, saw nothing else. I think it’s likely the roach got in somehow from outside. Because the place was clean overall.
We only ran 1-2 AC unit at a time due to the review that mentioned turning them all on MAX caused the caused the sockets to blow. So it got a bit hot in the home but this did not inconvenience us as we were out of the home most of our stay. But I once again did not communicate and ask the host how many AC units we could have on or not have on which I easily could have done. We stayed when the temperature was hitting mid 90’s and the heat was NOT THAT BAD inside even when all of the AC units were all off by our choice.
Those were the only cons that stood out in all honesty. And all of my cons do not even feel very fair to list as such because I did NOT communicate with the host about these very small things that weren’t even necessarily problems because they did not bother me or anyone I was with and I do believe that if they did, the host would have taken care of it. But I wanted to bring it up again, to hopefully shed some light because of the detailed review left on the host’s place that had caused me to doubt booking this to begin with despite the many positive reviews there are. And I have no regrets, I’m HAPPY I did and would love to again in the future if the host would have me.
I want to reiterate again how amazing this airbnb is, ESPECIALLY for the location: it feels safe, it’s quiet, it’s clean, you’re VERY close to Manhattan and LGA, transportation is very much within walking distance, there’s food and shopping in the area, there’s a lot of street parking which makes it nice if you want to drive. The BNB is very spacious. Some things were a bit outdated, was a bit of dust on a few knick knacks in the living room, but the place was not unclean and did not feel or look unclean. It was an amazing stay. Bedrooms were comfortable, bathroom was clean, great!
Cozy, very spacious, great area. Host was accommodating and communicative but not overwhelming. You don’t want to miss out or overlook