I am really surprised that this place has such high reviews. Maybe NYC can get away with anything, but I really think they could do better here.
1) For check-in, you are asked to meet with a “greeter” upon arrival. Trying to coordinate this meeting added unnecessary level of stress to travel. Her availability was complicated and in the end she wasn’t even there when we arrived even though we had given her frequent updates of our ETA and she hadn’t told us she wouldn’t be meeting us as planned. When we arrived we were knocking on the door in the rain with no answer. I finally texted saying we are here and she called and told me the code to the lock box on the door so we could let ourselves in. Would have decreased stress a lot if we had known this was going to happen in the first place.
2) There is plenty of space as described and we all had the room we needed for a big family. The furnishings are very uncomfortable, however. Couches covered with very poorly fitting slip covers that slid around and hung loosely. The beds were not fully made - no top sheets or mattress pads on several of them and the sheets were very low quality and scratchy. There was NO toilet paper in the place upon arrival (not good after a long car trip with 5 kids!).
3) the internet sucks. Luckily we were out and about most of the time, but we did try to steam a show twice and it was constantly cutting out. I messaged Grover to ask for suggestions and he did not reply.
4) The location is so-so. Yes, it is close to the subway (easy walk to two different lines to lower Manhattan), and the part of the street where the house is was quiet and nice. The corner to get to the subway station was quite rowdy each night when we were coming back at 10-11pm, though. Definitely felt like we needed to hustle past and didn’t feel too safe.
I’m sorry to say that while we highly enjoyed our trip to NYC, we just weren’t too comfortable in this apartment.