Christopher got back to me within hours of the initial request, and had confirmed the reservation after a quick chat on the same day. He followed up with tips how to best get to the studio and how to get hold of him in case anything went wrong.

I arrived a bit early, but again Christopher was very flexible, gave me the tour -- including the freshly stocked fridge -- and handed over the keys. The studio is larger than I expected, and certainly larger than some studios I lived in previously. It's within 5 minutes of the express train downtown, and while it _is_ West Harlem I didn't feel uncomfortable at all in terms of safety. Quite the contrary, had a few friendly chats with the neighbours.

Unlike some of the previous comments I didn't have any problem with the cleanliness of the apartment, and Christopher went out of his way to make the stay enjoyable.