We wanted to visit New-York and have a place in New jersey with a kitchen so we could cook a little and not eat in restaurants all the time. Even if the reviews were half and half, we decided to give it a try.
Pros :
- Easy check-in and check out
- Very responsive host (Wi-Fi was down, was fixed by next morning)
- some key areas were kept clean kitchen, bathtub, toilet and linens (even if some were stained)
- easy to go to PATH trains to reach New-York
Mixed feelings:
- Parking lot ; fun to have one but not suitable for a minivan since there is a tree a the end of it, parking is very narrow and the tree produce a lot of blue berries, our shoes had to be washed before entering the apartment and going back home.
- Had to ask were the password was located, wish the owner left further details like Wi-Fi password location or how to use things around the apartment.
- Neighborhood : You can see that its disadvantaged but friendly. But I wouldn't have slept with windows open at night.
Cons:
- Floor, walls and window sill were heavily dirty. We were afraid to walk barefoot in the apartment, thank god we brought our inside flip flops. There is water damage in the bathroom and again the floor mat was super filthy. We try to put nothing on the floor and put our luggage on top of chairs and furniture.
- The only fan in the apartment was broken (the host propose to replace it the next day and told me that it was weird because the cleaning lady didn't tell him but I just saw a previous comment stating that the fan was broken...) So we went that same night to Walmart to buy 2 fans because I needed to buy 2 for my house anyway. Since the is no A/C and it was a zillion degrees even if its a basement, it was the best purchase of the weekend.....
- There were dead cockroaches in the hallway (did not see in the apartment), building smelled like mold and humidity (but the odor in the apartment was ok).
- Upstairs' neighbour spent hours and hours at night to walk around and move around furniture, first night we didn't slept much.
So if you wonder why we stayed, its because we had already payed and didn't want to loose the money, we spent has little time has we could there (only sleep) and left first thing on the last morning to escape what my kids kindly called the pigsty... When we arrived home every little item that came out on my car were disinfected and immediately was at super high temperature to be sure we didn't brought unwanted guest back home.