I booked this Airbnb in hopes that it would be safe, with the kitchen, and close to a subway station that goes to Rockefeller Center. Upon booking, I asked Ricardo if there was free parking outside of the apartment. He said yes and so I believed him. After driving around for 30 in the neighborhood, realized that parking was a lost cause. I parked in a paid parking garage for $50 tonight. It was my only choice. While walking the 3 minutes to the apartment, I was approached by one homeless man and two children asking for money. While walking into the apartment building, I smelled an overpowering scent of weed but I brushed it off in hopes that the apartment would exceed expectations.
Once I got into the apartment, we noticed that the kitchen is in the middle of his Photography Studio. For anybody trying to cook during the day, this very difficult as Ricardo works out of his Studio during that time.
If you're looking for a place to feel like home. This is not it. With a constant amount of different people coming in and out of the apartment, you never really know who's going to be in your home at what time.
I tried to settle in at night and it was near impossible because his young child was screaming outside my door from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. Which I have audio and video recording of.
Ricardo is a photographer. And that is obvious because in his photos studio lighting is used. There is one light in the room on the ceiling. The way that Ricardo saturated and overexposed the photos of the room makes it look as though there's more light than there really is. In reality, the room is more of a tan tone with no full white walls.
I paid $1450 for an entire month. After staying one night and feeling unsafe, I left the apartment with all my things and let Ricardo know that I have changed my mind. Ricardo was very nice, but offer any kind of refund. Meaning, that I had paid $1450 for one night at the Harlem apartment. After days of going back and forth with Airbnb support, Ricardo offered a $300 refund. So now I only paid $1150 for one night. The Airbnb support people said that Ricardo explained that that's all he had, meaning that spent the other $1150.
I'm extremely disappointed with my stay. I'm out $1,150 and I only stayed one night. Ricardo was great in person, just was hoping for more from him.