Overall the apartment is great. It looks just like the photos so you get a really good amount of space, especially for NY! It was mostly really clean and you get a little bag of toiletries when you check in too. The bed is really comfy and the bathroom is a lovely size too. It has a small balcony which is nice but you have to climb over the bed to get to the door.
The neighbourhood is nice but bear in mind that it is very quirky. There are LOADS of bars and eateries around but if you're after just a normal restaurant you're probably not going to find it here. The delis nearby are good but expensive for everyday groceries eg. Water/bread so I'd definitely recommend walking a bit to Kmart or supermarkets near Stuyvesant town for more practical items.
Lauren uses Happy Host to check people in. Our experience of this wasn't great. The intercom downstairs wasn't working so we couldn't ring up to the flat and didn't have any contact info for the host. I had to get hold of Lauren which cost me quite a lot of money in data roaming charges until we managed to find a cafe with free wifi (Black seed bagels round the corner). Once Lauren managed to contact the host and she came down to let us in, the Happy host seemed a bit...annoyed that we were late but we'd been outside for about an hour! She took us up to the flat and the first thing she said was that we had to be really careful what we said to the superintendent as Airbnb is illegal in NY. As you can imagine, this wasn't the warm welcome we were expecting. She did very briefly explain a few things to us about the flat but we got the impression we were holding her up.
The superintendent issue ended up not being a problem as we didn't meet him but it meant we weren't able to fully feel at home. This was a shame as the flat itself was just what we needed. I think the flat could be improved by making sure everything is where the manual says it is but besides that it was fine.
NY itself is brilliant, but you probably already know that!