I have stayed in one other tenement style apartment in East Village just a few blocks away that was actually the same price just two months before staying here. This location is not what I was expecting. If you are looking for a place to stay and there are no other options, this is a small tenement apartment with two rooms and a bathroom. The neighborhood is very cute and it feels relatively safe for NYC.
The noise was intense in the room with the window. There was a cold breeze blowing through the cracks in the thin accordion plastic of the window unit air conditioner. My husband and I did not sleep well. The noise was something mentioned in the comments at the other tenement apartment I stayed in, but that was not a problem there. It is a real problem here. There was cigarette smoke blowing into the room from someone outside, and the car garage just outside the window is active all night long. If they take the window air conditioning unit out and allow the glass to close, that won't be a problem anymore.
I can understand not updating the old tile and old stained bathtub, but I cannot understand not taking care of the mold in the caulking around the bathtub. It is easy to fix and if they fix that, the bathroom will be much better. To me the bathroom was not cleaned frequently enough between all the guests. And I know the hot water heater is small in all these tenements- if there are multiple guests and you go last in the morning, there might not be hot water (happened 2 of the 3 mornings we were there Sun-Wed).
All in all I have experienced better for the same price in short walking distance from this very location. Very cute neighborhood with lots of businesses and restaurants to explore.