I feel like maybe I stayed at a different apartment than the other reviewers, but perhaps that is because my daughter and I stayed for 3 weeks and maybe the other reviewers stayed merely a few days?
Pros: relatively close to several subway stations, including green, yellow and red lines; microwave, kitchen sink, refrigerator, and bathroom toilet/sink were clean; plenty of pillows; decent bathroom storage space; no bugs.
Cons: floor and shower were dirty, check-in was awful, no extra bedding for the futon, white curtains in bedroom allowed street lights to light up the room all night, no cooking utensils, read more below.
If you are a budget traveler and staying just a couple of nights, this place is probably fine. However, if - like us - you need a place for longer term, here are some things you should be aware of.
1. Check in was NOT good. The keys were left with a local market down the street from the apartment. We arrived around 5:50 pm or so and the market was CLOSED. My daughter had a bathroom emergency and we were left on the street with all of our luggage. Fortunately, Aura responded to my ugent Airbnb message almost immediately, but it took over 40 minutes for her to arrive to let us in. My daughter was in agony while we waited on the street - packed with large crowds, many smokers and definitely NOT what we needed after spending over an hour in the cab in NY traffic.
2. This place needs a deep cleaning. While the appliances were clean (thankfully), the floors were nasty. After 2 days of walking around in socks and ruining them, I bought slippers - the bottom of which were gross after just a couple hours of wearing them. In 3 weeks I never once felt comfortable going barefoot, even though I swept the floor daily. And while the toilet and sink were clean, the shower was not. There is a bathmat in the tub and after the first week, it became loose and slid around - revealing the tub under the mat to be black.
3. I'm not sure if any of the other reviewers needed to use the futon, but there was no appropriate bedding for it. There was a quilt (?) and a blanket, but no sheets. There was also no top sheet for the queen bed - just a heavy comforter. With the temps in the 90s while we were there, I did not need a comforter. I ended up BUYING a set of sheets, an eggshells foam mattress pad, and a light blanket - all of which I ended up leaving and hopefully future guests can use. While on the topic of the bedroom, you should also know the white curtains provide NO light blocking - so the room is lit up all night long. I also BOUGHT room-darkening black curtains so we could finally get some sleep (these I took home with me).
4. If you're not planning to cook then this next issue won't be a big deal... while there are appropriate dishes and utensils, there are no cooking utensils or pans to bake it. The reason I got an Airbnb over a hotel is because I couldn't afford for us to eat out every single meal for 3 weeks. This place had all we needed (good size refrigerator, stove, microwave) but no spatulas, wooden spoons, bakeware (for cooking frozen pizzas, fish sticks, etc.). I ended up having to buy these items as well. And while on the subject of the kitchen, there was food left in the oven...fries?...and they were green.
5. Finally, there are a lot of personal items and just general clutter lying around. Looking at the pictures, you think the brown cabinet by the entry door could be usable storage - but it was filled with shoes. There are numerous nick-nacks that take up space and also need a good cleaning. Among the nick-nacks, there were a couple of dirty glasses in the window - which I left alone.
I have rented a LOT of Airbnbs over the past several years - several of which I have stayed at for 3+ weeks at a time. This is the first time I have written such a detailed review. Would I have still rented this place if I had known all these things in advance? Maybe, because it was one of the only places that offered what I needed in terms of kitchen and 2 beds at a price I could afford. But I felt like the place had been misrepresented by previous reviewers. Again - if you're only staying a night or two, maybe none of these things matter to you. But hopefully this review gives you a slightly better idea of what to expect.