We really wanted to love our stay at this apartment as NYC is a place we hold dear and wanted to find a bolt hole to return to. Unfortunately the apartment fell well below what we expected.
We concede the building is pretty ‘rustic’: we were prepared to carry our cases up to the 4th floor and expected traffic noise but we were very disappointed by the severe lack of cleanliness.
When we arrived it was apparent the bathroom hadn’t been cleaned at all. The sink had toothpaste and hair in, two wet towels were hanging on the back of the door, there was dirt on the Sonos speaker. But the worst was a filthy wet towel hanging over the bath that had left a tide mark on the bottom of the bath.
We tried to consider how best to detail the issue, then contacted the hosts and they replied fairly quickly to apologise. Long story short, they had a new cleaner and it was teething problems: we eventually agreed we would be provided a 10% discount on our stay for the state of the apartment.
Unfortunately the tone had already been set: the night we arrived I strongly considered moving us to a hotel because we had real concerns about the overall cleanliness of the apartment. It had an unusual smell in itself but in the corridor was a bin that absolutely stank, so putrid we had to hold our noses to get past it. The hosts said the building management new about a smell and nothing more they could do.
The kitchen wasn’t clean, had a socket hanging from the wall, dirty utensils and cutlery. The fridge wasn’t clean. The towels that were left were also stained, bedding didn’t smell great… it left a really poor impression on us from the moment we arrived and marred the stay significantly. We had no confidence in the cleanliness of the apartment until we bleached & vacuumed it ourselves and bought new kitchen sponges.
Communication was okay, although I would say our hosts were travelling so in and out of signal. I had to chase the refund well into our second week. Just disappointing.
Good points: location is superb for Columbus Circle or 57th street subways. We ran in the park most days and enjoyed the City that never sleeps. We would strongly recommend earplugs as 8th Avenue is very busy but you soon get used to it. If the place had a deep clean and an air freshener or two then it’s a solid base for exploring NYC.