We genuinely enjoyed staying at Kat's place but our experience was ultimately spoiled by her bad faith attempt to charge us additional cleaning costs for allegedly having left the place "very messy". We left the apartment in the exact same condition we found it in, save for leaving the beds unmade and our used towels atop them. Moreover, we followed her check-out requests to the word, taking the rubbish out and washing all the used dishes. Were we expected to also make the beds, wash/fold the used towels, vaccum the flat and undertake a detail clean? Those are an entirely unreasonable expectations and no Airbnb host has ever mandated any such conditions in my experience. The bedsheets needed to be stripped and washed for the next guests anyway, along with the used towels. Costs for any reasonable cleaning that needs to be undertaken are also already included in the rather steep price of the Airbnb, so attempting to squeeze us for more was rather contemptible. Kat's behaviour is even more disgraceful given the obscene profit margins that some Airbnb hosts already make (noting that we paid $1,877 for just 3 nights).
When I responded to Kat's email seeking further clarification and explanation for the assertion, she failed to reply. We took that lack of response as a concession that her claim was entirely unjustified, given that she couldn't even precisely identify how the place was left in a "messy" state. All of this is a shame given the fact that we otherwise really enjoyed the stay and thoroughly respected her property. If you look at my profile, you will note that I have never had a bad experience with any Airbnb host and have always left their properties the same way I found them.