We had a bit of a disappointing experience for a range of reasons which I will try and summarise. There was a complete absence of any cleaning - as well as some bizarre and incredibly unprofessional communication from the Superhost in response to our request to seek a resolution to these issues, which is a style of communication we unfortunately expect will continue in response to this review.
We were not able to get into the property on the Friday night for approx. 2.5 hours due to the lockbox not working and the host being uncontactable - which meant we weren't able to eat dinner until about 9.30pm at night, which was extremely disappointing as some of us had taken annual leave to get to arrive at the property in time for dinner, and we were celebrating a birthday. Most importantly, despite advertising "enhanced cleaning" it was clear that no even basic cleaning at all had been undertaken for a very long time (this was agreed by the Superhost) - there was visible dirt, grime, hair and dead bugs around the property, and most disturbingly 2 dead/decomposing mice in the bathtub (which clearly had been there for a while - I have a photo of this I was tempted to post, but thought that would not be nice for readers to see!). The property was also very untidy and cluttered (which had apparently increased over Covid according to the Superhost) and all of these factors combined made for a very unpleasant and disappointing stay. In addition, there were also some inaccuracies with the listing and set up (which the Superhost did seek to address when we showed him the listing) however these were minor compared to the above-mentioned issues.
The Superhost described this as the "worst booking" he's ever experienced (out of thousands of check-ins), in terms of the presentation of the property, and kindly provided a small partial refund for the inaccurate listing only. He indicated that we could let him know if we did not find this acceptable. When we reflected on how significantly our weekend away was negatively impacted by all of the cumulative issues (most of which arose after the partial refund), we contacted the Superhost to suggest that a full refund might be more appropriate - though we were not necessarily wedded to this and were open to negotiation. We had no alternative suitable accommodation options that late and at short notice.
However, we were completely shocked to receive a response from the Superhost that refused to consider any further refund (which in itself we may not necessarily have had a problem with), but most concerningly in a tone that was full of derision (and unprofessional at best), telling us that the inaccurate listing was a "first world problem", not replying to any of the other (more significant) issues that we raised, and suggesting that we take this up with his lawyers. This seems like a completely bizarre response and overreaction from someone whose primary job is customer service. I would certainly not be happy with this style of communication with guests if I was the owner of a property under the management of this Superhost.
In summary: The property is nothing like it presents in the photos or the description. It was messy, dirty and felt like you were living in amongst a family’s personal belongings. Further, if you are looking to book with this Superhost, I suggest you take a look at some of the public reviews that have been written by him in response to even mild negative feedback (much less significant than ours), and make your own judgement: Do you want the enjoyment of your (no doubt long overdue) holiday to be contingent on the Superhost's ability to maintain professionalism in the event of even a minor hiccup, let alone a major one?