Would not describe this as "Brooklyn's finest" or "luxury." The pictures in the listing were clearly taken the very first day this was listed however long ago. I booked this apartment for a long weekend as we were attending a wedding at the Brooklyn Grange. The good: This apartment was in a great location, had good outdoor space, and Curtis was very responsive when I contacted him about multiple issues. The bad: it was not what I would call clean. I don't expect to eat off the floors, but the whole apt/terrace could use some TLC and refreshing (deep clean, replace stained rug/furniture, coat of paint, properly screw in hooks/etc.)
The biggest issue by far though was lack of working showers. I understand from Curtis that it was a building-wide issue, which was out of his control. Thank God the sinks & toilets worked, but we were unable to shower before the wedding we were there to attend - luckily I had brought wet wipes and had to use those as an alternative. Due to the busy nature of the weekend (rehearsal dinner, other events) we had no time to figure out another option for showering so we made it work. We boiled water to use as a makeshift "bath" like we were on The Oregon Trail. At least there was no dysentary to deal with. Curtis let me know on Sunday (we checked in Friday) that the showers should be operational. Only the 1st floor bathroom shower managed to work, and I use that term loosely. The water pressure was super low, and it never got beyond lukewarm. And the ENTIRE time the shower was on, the pipes literally screamed. The noise alternated between sounding like a tornado siren and like I was summoning a demon. The upstairs shower never got enough water pressure beyond a trickle. Curtis was very responsive, and did give us a discount for the inconvenience (although it was less than a full night's cost, despite not having a working shower for basically the entire stay.)
Starting from the top: the couple we stayed with called the upstairs bed "the taco" - it was super soft and dipped when they layed on it. The curtains in the room were also about 6 inches short of the bottom of the window, meaning the room got bright as hell as soon as the sun came up. One of the lamps mounted on the wall was broken. They also said the sheets smelled of B.O. When I asked about additional linens, I was told there was a tub in the closet with linens. The tub had a cracked/half lid, and contained 1 fitted sheet and 1 blanket that appeared not to be clean as it had human hair on it & looked dingy.
The 1st floor bedroom: curtains were longer but in bad shape. The bed was relatively firm/comfortable though. The A/C unit was... cantankerous. When the fan was on it was fine, but if the A/C kicked in it sounded like a freight train. The bedroom door also did not lock. We were all provided with a total of 4 body towels, 2 hand towels and 1 washcloth. When I asked about more washcloths, Curtis said they stopped providing them b/c people either didn't use them or stole them. It would have been nice to have a complete set of towels per person, and maybe some extras on hand. My husband used a clean pair of boxers as his "washcloth" when he had to bathe in the sink before the wedding.
The kitchen and main room were laid out well, functional. The fridge could use some stainless steel cleaner (idk why there were so many scratches on it?? Perhaps racoons got in through the terrace door, which did not lock.) The rug should absolutely be replaced. The hanging shelf for the TV accessories was doing just that - hanging by a thread, and super scuffed up.
The terrace space was nice in that it was nice to have outdoor space. But the furniture was clearly worn (I get it, it's outside - but all the more reason to update/clean frequently) and there was just a lot of junk out there (mop heads, brooms, random dirty cleaning equipment behind the couches - a bin of something on the terrace, some trash left by previous guests I assume...just very cluttered.) The terrace door DID NOT lock. I told Curtis this and he assured me that it did lock and told me how to lock it. As the person who was actually there & tested it extensively, I can assure you that it does not lock. You don't have to be a NASA engineer to understand how door locks work. We found the terrace door opened randomly if you didn't shut it hard enough.
Check in was quick & easy, but only one key is provided for the unit. Would be nice to have at least 2, especially when travel with another couple so you don't have to do logistical acrobatics to figure out who has the key, who will be home when if you want to do separate things.
I suspect Curtis will respond to this review (as I have seen him do on other reviews that are less than positive.) Hopefully instead of being defensive he will take some very easy, minor steps to make this apartment & the overall experience great, because it truly has a ton of potential.