If you enjoy staying in a dirty teenage boy’s dorm room, in the middle of the ghetto, without security, then this is the place for you.
First off, the listing states it’s in a gated community. Brooklyn. I get it. That’s why I picked “gated” in Brooklyn. The gate is always open, morning, evening, and middle of the night. Anyone can come in whether you live there or not. Security doesn’t even care. When we got there at 1am, there were large groups congregated by the stairwell we need to use to get to the apartment. Drunk, high, belligerent individuals making your walk to the apartment uncomfortable as well as a bit terrifying because they now see where you’re staying. Thankfully, nothing happened to us, but it was uncomfortable and we did not feel safe at all.
The apartment looked like it had not been cleaned since the photographs were taken for this listing. The white furniture was all grey if dirt and grime. The couch smelled like someone let their wet dog lay on it all day. And when we went to sleep the first night, we heard a loud clinking noise, terrified someone was trying to break in, we checked around. Only to find that it was an aluminum tray with paper towels in it that fell between the wall and the bed. Who cleans like that?! Old disgusting food tray on the bed side?! No thanks.
Additionally, the fire alarm kept beeping all night because it needed battery. We messaged the host, and no response. Only after we contacted AirBnB support did we finally get a response. Her assistant came a little while later to bring a battery for the fire alarm. I think she was under the impression we were going to change it for her, and wasn’t too happy that we said the key was in the lock box, go on in and change it. So of course… the ladder she needed to use was behind our clothes in the closet. Guess what… she changed the battery. But also in the process dropped all our clothes from the hangers in the closet and put the ladder right on our clothes! Dress shirt… dresses… t-shirts… you name it. It’s almost like she purposefully dropped it all to spite the fact she had to come over on a Sunday morning to change a battery.
This leads me to my next complaint… we’re in Brooklyn, right. It’s not the safest neighborhood, right… well the lock box, the one that holds the key to your apartment, the one that we needed to leave for the assistant to go in to change the battery on the fire alarm, well that lock box slides right off the door handle. Anyone can walk away with the lockbox, and do what they want to get it opened and freely come into the apartment where all our belongings are…. WAY TO GO! Genius! I called the host to let her know “it slides right off” and her response was “just push it against the door”… yeah… that’s not going to stop ANYONE from taking the lockbox with the key located inside.
As a side note, the hosts personal items are all over the place, including hygienic care products in the shower and bathroom, food in the fridge… it was not very welcoming. Oh yeah… and you only get two towels for your whole stay. So make sure to hang them to dry somewhere before your next shower… Good luck finding a place to put all your belongings without mixing it in with her stuff. The drawers are empty for your use, but who knows when the last time those things were cleaned. The washer and dryer are shared in the building, so if you want to wash while you’re out getting to know the town, don’t plan on it.
Needless to say, we will not be staying here again.