Jose Frances Air BnB Chelsea Apt

I rented Jose’s apartment via Air BnB. It was advertised as «This Chelsea studio has elevator, doorman, and all the amenities of a luxury building. Spacious and with a private outdoor space!»

When we arrived in NY it turned out that Jose was renting his apartment illegally and needed us to lie to the doorman and say we were his «friends» every time we came in and out.
The apartment had a terrible rotting fish smell. We noticed a strong scented candle smell coming from the unit next door all hours of the day and night. We contacted Jose about the problem and he said it was the garbage disposal… Try as we may to air out the unit, run the disposal, plug the disposal and burn scented candles of our own the apartment always stunk hideously.
The «luxury private outdoor space» was only accessible through a BROKEN patio door. It was a major struggle to drag the door against the wood floor and literally wrestle against the pressure of the hinge that was wedged against the wall. Once outside we found cigarette butts and milk crates. Not exactly the experience we had hoped.
Other surprises included pillows so hard we contemplated buying some while in NY. There was a television but it wasn’t connected to anything. After checking with Jose, he explained that he «had apple tv» but that there was no access for us. We spent a week in a rented apartment and could never watch the local news.
The apartment didn’t have many of the basic things you would expect with a vacation rental – like a blow dryer, basic toiletries etc.
We tried our best to tough it out but in the end left one night early – we just couldn’t take the smell anymore! We didn’t give Jose a review on Air BnB because we didn’t want to bash what seemed like a nice guy for renting us his crummy smelly apartment.
To my surprise and horror Jose gave US a really nasty review on Air BnB. (Below)
«After the check in she complained about a smell, I offered to go help her after work but she refused. I also suggested possible solutions. She didn’t accept. She also complained about me not having cable (my listing doesn’t show that I have cable). I only have Apple TV as I never watch TV. Lastly she complained about the hardness of my pillows (she never expressed this discomfort) after the fact that she checked out sooner than expected. She requested a refund for her last night, which I have her. During the whole time her attitude wasn’t the nicest. «
“You should really learn how to communicate better. Your complaint about the smell, pillows, jammed door (you had no idea that there was an outdoor space) are valid but the way you communicated was far from ideal»
WOW. Save yourself the trouble of an uncomfortable night’s sleep in a fishy smelly apartment and getting scolded by the obnoxious host.