I do not recommend staying at this place based on a 34 night stay as a family of 2 adults + 2 toddlers age 1 and 2.
Positive - the unit size is nice for NY - bedrooms are big and both toilets are fine; the apartment has windows in all divisions and it's on the top floor so during the morning the kitchen window gets 30m of direct sunlight
Negative - the host, the windows/heating/water; the laundry; the lack of cooking appliances; the lack of spare bedsheets.
The host flat out lied to us:
1. we've contacted asking if we had to go through stairs to reach the apartment - host said no - we've booked and find out there were stairs outside the building by looking at Street View so we've contacted the host - host offered to cancel but by then it was too late for us - once we reached the apartment, we found not only the outdoor stairs we had spotted on Google Maps but also a set of stairs inside the building;
2. the apartment was advertised as having washer and dryer and that's false - there is an in building very small laundry room (2 washers and 2 dryer) that you have to pay extra to use; the laundry is located on the basement and it's only reachable by going through the outdoor fire escape stairs, through rain or snow; after complaining about it the host said "oh, sorry, I'll improve the listing" and offered no reimbursement or any kind of solution - we ended up spending almost $100 extra and I won't even talk about the pain of having to go through snow and into the basement to check if one of the only 2 washer/dryers were available/to wash/to dry/to pick it up.
3. the host said they'd go the extra mile and offer as a crib for our 1 year old baby - upon arrival, there was no crib to be found at the apartment; host instructed us to talk to the unit manager that provided a crib the day after - the crib provided was for up to 8 month old babies and our baby is 13 months old - may sound the same for someone who was no kids but if you do, you know there's a big difference so our baby couldn't fit on that crib - after reporting the situation to the unit manager, he purchased a new one from Amazon that took more than a week to arrive only to be the exact same model provided in the first place - after that, no more communication from anyone regarding this issue so promise wasn't fulfilled so we end up buying a mattress and having a baby sleeping on the floor - host declined to reimburse us for that as well.
4. after we requested the reimbursement and the host refused to take responsibility for all the lies, a week after checking out, we got a message asking us to pay $153 for electric over charge. No proof whatsoever was provided, just a simple message saying we spent too much and have to pay back part of the electric bill. I indeed saw the note on the listing saying they only cover $150 of the bill for a 30 day stay. Even if this is true, after paying almost 6k for a 34 night stay, this is just ridiculous - more on this issue below
5. host provided contacts for building super - we've complained about the bathtub drain stopper not working and upon inspection super suggested it was our wrongdoing and mumbled something about "I will have to now fix it in the future". During our whole stay, the issue wasn't fixed.
To be fair, host was never hostile or rude and did allow us to checkout 4h later than the advertised time.
The windows/heating/water:
1. windows are terrible, you can feel the cold air coming through and can hear everything that goes in the street; if you happen to be the one sleeping by the window side on the bedroom with two windows, get ready to feel the below freezing temperature air coming through the window during the whole night;
2. as soon as we turned off the AC, the whole place would be cold just like we were outside; therefore, AC was on all the time as both my wife and kids spent pretty much 34 days inside due to not being able to carry the stroller through the stairs to go out
3. there was an electric water heater in unit and probably that counts for the electric bill - the one they're trying to overcharge us for - so beware that after 2 baths you run out of water and have to wait for a while until hot water is available again
The laundry:
- in building, on the basement, reachable only through a narrow fire escape stair; located outside of the building so you must go through rain and snow to reach it - also, it was always very dirty full of hair and breadcrumbs inside the machines and sticky floor, something I've let the building manager know about.
The lack of cooking appliances:
- there is just the bare minimum - we had to buy several things to be able to bake/broil, etc.
The lack of spare bedsheets:
- for a 34 night stay, we're only provided with the bedsheets that were on the beds and no extras so we had to wash and dry it on the same day to use it again; same with consumables like toiler paper and kitchen roll, there was only the bare minimum that lasted a couple of days and from then on, it was on us.
I've asked to be reimbursed for the laundry expenses + the mattress + the stairs lie that made my wife/kids stay at home for a full month - host refused all of it.
So, all in all,