Accurate descriptions are important, and that is the biggest issue I had with Owen’s air bnb listing. For $180 a night a two bed room is advertised in the Upper West Side, a bit pricey, but hey, it’s Manhattan.
My brother and I came down from Maine for a concert at MSG.
Check in was listed at 2pm. We arrived in NYC at 1 and contacted our host, only to be told that he would not be home until 4pm and we couldn’t check in until then. So after traveling for 8 hours we had to hang around the city for 3 hours waiting for him.
When we finally arrived we were greeted by Owen, who was polite but far from friendly. He showed us right to our room after telling us to be clean and warning me to not come back drunk and loud, disturbing other guests. I understand making ones guests aware of house rules, but he was far from tactful in his approach, had barely spoken to me at all before bringing it up (I felt very stereotyped) and he never apologized for being late.
Upon entering our room we were very shocked and disappointed to find there were 4 beds, not 2, and we were sharing the room with 2 strangers.
Coffee/Tea as well as WIFI were also pictured in the ad as well, but there was no evidence of them being available and Owen was not forthcoming with them.
For the absurd cost of a shared room with poor amenities and an unfriendly host we might as well have stayed in a hostel.
The icing on the cake was when I woke up at 7 am to find no toilet paper in the bathroom and had to go find and wake up the host for some. Absolutely ridiculous.
I also had to make my phone a hotspot for the young German man also staying in my room (who I met at 7am), so he could access his plane tickets (no WiFi...).
I can give zero reasons to stay at Owens place. If he had been forthcoming about what to expect, been friendlier, and didn’t charge so much for a hostel-Esque room, I would have zero problem with it, but that’s not the reality.