Budget Friendly Location in Midtown
Availability the week after Thanksgiving was very hard to find for a family of 6 wanting to vacation in Manhattan. After researching and communicating with a half dozen "available" locations on VRBO, we found that only 2 of the 6 were actually available for the nights that VRBO said they were available causing us to be frustrated with the reservation process in general. However, Marea was a breath of fresh air. She communicated quickly and thoroughly (almost too much information at times) to ensure we knew what to expect in Midtown. Here are some of the Pros and Cons you can expect
PROS:
1) Marea and Chivita were great to work with and helped ensure that our 1:00 AM check in would work out on a Tuesday night.
2) It is located close to Fairway Market, 28th street Subway stops, walkable to Empire State Building and Macy's, great restaurants and bars all around, and set aside in a mostly quiet part of Manhattan.
3) The kitchen has updated countertops and nice size fridge. It is very small (as expected) but gives you a dishwasher, stove top, and microwave to cook smaller meals when travelling with kids.
4) Courtyard out back is nice to step out to when you get there. This time of year it is cold and wet but seemed like a nice little spot in summer.
5) The master bathroom is tight but nice. The shower head is an overhead model and gives you a very consistent temperature. There were plenty of aged linens.
6) Bottle of white wine awaits you in the fridge.
CONS:
1) It was old and dusty throughout most of the units which left the place with a dirty, damp feel. The carpets were clearly worn and aged. We even had a mouse run through the main room.
2) They have packed a LOT into a small space. I would have preferred it if they would remove half the furniture and most of the books to free up space for visitors to unpack.
3) The 3 bedroom option is two separate apartments on the same lower level which causes some logistics issues of showering and sharing common areas. Not truly a 3 bedroom.
4) Old fixtures throughout and most of the furniture was well worn.
5) Mismatched and jammed kitchen table chairs made the table hard to navigate.
6) Kitchen had a broken toaster, no cereal bowls (that we could find), and was missing almost all the knives from the cutlery. It also lacked certain cooking staples like Pam or cooking oil.
7) The TV only functioned well on a few channels even though they had a high definition Samsung cable box.
8) Beds were big but just OK.
Stayed November, 2016