Where to begin with this review.. I stayed here with my aunt for 9 nights and our overwhelming opinion is AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Pros:
1. Great Location.
Very good for tourists. 10 minute walk to times square and subway lines, lovely area to walk around in (during the day). Plenty of restaurants and American Diners close by.
*** BE AWARE it’s a 5th floor apartment and the stairs are a night mare if you are carrying heavy cases (inital steps are wobbly).
Cons (strap in):
1. Apartment itself is filthy.
Dust in absolutely every corner and crevice, I dropped something under the bed and was met with piles and piles of dust; Ceiling fan above the bed is coated, sinks, shower and bath still has hair on them. Oven and stove top were so dirty we abandoned the breakfast items we had bought to cook with and ate out only.
2. THE KEYS.
We had a MAJOR issue with the keys into the building. Peter became extremely condescending when after 6 DAYS of issues opening the front door and an evening of being harassed on the street in the early hours of the morning, I insisted we have a replacement pair. It became a extreme safety issue at that point – to prove this point other tenants and even the LANDLADY in the building told us that the keys were a bad cut and should be replaced as theirs worked perfectly. If keys require PRACTICE, they are not fit for purpose. ** Buzzer is also broken - didn’t bother mentioning this as we discovered this a couple days prior to leaving and were sick of the host doing nothing.
3. Instructions.
I responded to Peter’s Query over arrival times on Sat Eve (NY time) I proceeded to send FOUR messages before receiving a response as our plane LANDED in NY at 1pm Monday [NY Time) (2 hours delayed so prior to this we would be none the wiser) – the instructions consisted of a photo of the Key lockbox location, apartment number and location as well as the infamous photo of how to USE the keys to open the door – keys that require this much attention should be met with the host so everything is clear
4. Safety.
As I mentioned we were left locked out numerous times – not a great area (or city) for women to face in the evening or late at night – a fact this host didn’t seem to care about despite my numerous reports of issues. We also obliged to a request to allow the building super over to fix an AC issue (city issued a violation) at MIDNIGHT – we were also instructed to not alert the super that we were Airbnb guests, instead friend of the host (if you were not aware most short-term rentals are illegal in NYC – requiring data sharing – so we were very uneasy with this request). Further to this the super informed us the AC unit had been installed incorrectly leaving the window accessible via the fire exit facing the street so anyone could have climbed up (not to mention it was also blocking our designated fire exit
5. NO STORAGE.
There was absolutely no space to store belongings. Every nook and cranny was filled with the hosts belongings. We had a couple hangers which we used on the standing coat rack but apart from that we live out of our suitcases and any available surface we could find.
To note the host moved conversation to WhatsApp and would try to call numerous times in response to texts despite informing him we were out with WiFi and data most of the day - long story short avoid and save yourself some hassle. We escalated this to Airbnb and received little compensation for this, save your money and go somewhere else, not worth the cost.