Our stay at Kumar's place went smoothly the first two days. Although Kumar was not in town, he welcomed us via text message and responded to our questions in a timely and accommodating manner (for example, he arranged to have more toilet paper and sheets brought over). The apartment overall was comfortable and within walking distance of the subway, although the unoccupied adjoining apartment (with its racoon occupant) was an eyesore.
We did have an issue arise on Saturday that started when we very unfortunately lost the key to the apartment while sightseeing in the City (likely at one of the many museums with metal detectors). It’s worth noting that the smart/combination lock to Kumar’s residence is only on the building entrance, not the apartment door. Sadly we discovered the problem in the late evening, and Kumar was not in town to let us in, so we had to find a costly hotel room at 11 pm Saturday night. The next day Kumar arranged for us to gain entry in the morning through a relative (no one was available the night before). We spent considerable effort on Sunday trying to locate the key at the museums we had visited, with no success, and did not see any sights before we had to leave for the airport in the afternoon. Our added disappointment was that because the key for this type of lock cannot be duplicated as you would a normal key, Kumar verbally asked us to pay for the cost of a locksmith replacing the entire lock. It surprised us that given this is a business renting out an apartment, he would not be better prepared for such an event. We felt some form of replacement fee would be understandable, but given his choice of lock and the nature of this business, and after the cost of the hotel and Ubers and lost vacation time on Sunday, we felt billing us for the cost of a full lock replacement was not necessary and showed some lack of empathy.
In summary, Kumar seemed to be very hospitable and was responsive when we had questions or needed assistance. The incident with the key was unfortunate and did leave us disappointed that we had to find a hotel, lose a day of vacation, and then negotiate around paying for a locksmith. We hope Kumar will take this into consideration going forward.