PROS:
1. It was very clean, with a maid service making sure there was no dirt or dust anywhere.
2. The hosts were very responsive, replying within just a few hours even when they left to go on vacation.
3. The location is excellent, within walking distance of a major subway line and many fantastic restaurants down the street. (Tip: bring cash because some of the restaurants are cash only). Rite Aid in short walking distance to get essentials, Whole Foods in longer walking distance to stock up on groceries. The neighborhood is full of families and feels safe.
4. The stove/oven looks new and worked great. Microwave, full-size fridge, large sink. Good dishes and utensils. The kitchen was generally handy and spacious.
5. Lots of living space for a NY apartment.
6. Use of laundry machines in the building's basement is included, which means you can pack lighter.
7. TV with satellite programming was nice for watching movies (with commercials) some nights.
8. We liked the decor and style of the apartment.
9. Plenty of sheets, blankets, and towels.
CONS:
The apartment was not the relaxing "home base" space we hoped it would be in NYC, due to finding badly stained furniture, stained walls and ceiling in the bedroom, many little details that created a negative experience, and lack of fresh airflow in the hot summer due to the fact that it is a basement apartment. The pictures of everything in the apartment being white and bright are misleading when confronted with the reality of the following:
1. Old stained furniture. The sofa in the pictures is not the same one as what we found. There was a larger gray sofa with huge horrible stains on it. We didn't even want to sit on it. We covered it with a sheet right away. The bed in the bedroom was uncomfortable and made our backs hurt in the morning. It was an old mattress, because we could hear the springs creaking. The hosts want guests to take out their own trash and pile up their own bed linens and towels at the end of the stay. If we hadn't had to do that, I would not have discovered the shock of how horribly stained the mattress was! And there was no mattress cover, just a bare sheet on an old mattress. It was gross.
2. Walls and ceiling. Brown water damage stains on the ceiling above the bed are not the nicest view when settling in for the night. The walls need a refresh as well, covered with spots and marks. Simply applying new paint in the bedroom would go a long way to improve guest experience.
3. Small details of attention were lacking. Many of the towels and handtowels are old and stained, although they smelled clean. The grout around the kitchen sink and between the shower tiles is stained black and could use a refresh. There were numerous used toiletries from previous guests piled up in the bathroom cabinets and two bars of previously used soap in the shower, instead of fresh unwrapped soap as one would expect. There was an old Brita pitcher in the refrigerator that looked gross. There are instructions for a DVD player, but no DVDs. There is an iron, but no ironing board. There was no nice flowering tree in the bathroom as in the pictures, there were no niceties at all to make a guest feel welcome or special. The back door was stuck and we were unable to open it; we thought it was bolted from the outside, but when I mentioned it to the hosts after our stay they told me that it wasn't and that I should have said something to them while we were there. With a bit more thought, like a note on the door that it sticks, we wouldn't have to ask the hosts about every little thing. There are just a bunch of little things that add up to being a not so great guest experience. It looks like the apartment has been run on automation for awhile.
4. Having to ask for things that are included. The hosts were accommodating when I asked for things like a fan, recycle can liners, and paper products, and even some WD-40 because the bathroom door creaked so loudly that it would wake us up when anyone else went in there at night. (The WD-40 fixed that problem in one second.) However since the listing includes a fan, I found it a nuisance to have to ask for one. Our son slept in a hot front room the first night, because the air conditioner is only in the back bedroom.
5. Noise. Bring earplugs - there is a major construction project down the street that creates loud booms and drilling noises during week days. The hosts live upstairs and wake up at 6-7am to bring their dog down to the backyard. They don't make more than reasonable noises, but anyone who's ever had an upstairs neighbor in an old apartment building can relate to the loud sound of footsteps above one's bed. During the night, it was very quiet, though! Surprisingly quiet for NYC. It's just early mornings that are the issue. The older fridge does make a rhythmic whirring noise that can be heard when it's quieter at night that I believe another guest mentioned, but it wasn't too bad for us, and can be blocked out with fan noise and ear plugs.
6. The water pressure in the shower is some of the worst I have ever experienced. Don't forget to hold down the toilet handle for a full minute or the toilet won't flush. The old bidet attachment that doesn't work should just be removed from the toilet.
7. We were given a warning to not run the air conditioner too much or we might be charged extra. For an apartment that says it includes AC, we found this off-putting. It was August. We tried