Me and my boyfriend stayed with Heather for a month during the summer. It was fantastic! Heather is such a lovely person, and sharing the apartment with her was perfect. The room is like in the pictures, with a comfortable double mattress, air condition, a chest of drawers, a desk and chair. It was very warm when we were in the city, but having an air condition in our bedroom as well as the living room was a life saver. We were free to use the rest of the apartment, including a bathroom, a cozy living room and a kitchen. Most of the time we had the apartment to ourselves while Heather worked, but how much privacy you need is up to you. Whatever time we spent with Heather was lovely. When I was down with a cold, she went out of her way to make me feel better.
Heather gave us some really good recommendations to where to eat and drink (she’s a food writer!), and we went back to some of the places several times.
Williamsburg is a very nice neighborhood, and you’re a short walk from a lot of restaurants, shops and bars. The subway runs straight to Manhattan, and is very frequent. We had no issues getting around. Getting to and from JFK takes about an hour. The neighborhood feels fairly safe, and we had no issues. Checking in was simple. Heather was not around when we arrived, but that wasn’t a problem at all. There is a key storing service almost literally right next to the apartment, where we got the key.
I would absolutely recommend staying with Heather, for short or long stays. If I’m coming back to New York, I’ll hope to stay here again.
PS: Her dog Gandalf is ADORABLE. He was overall a very gentle and kind dog, and also super cute and cuddly. We chose how much interaction we would have with him ourselves, as he was usually in Heather's room, but we could let him out whenever we wanted to.