I took a bit of a risk on this booking as the host/listing didn't have many reviews. Location for the place wasn't bad and check in was alright as host was communicative, but that's where the positives ended. Overall, the unit was in quite rougher shape than it appeared in the listing. Overall, everything from the kitchen to the bathroom to the dining area just were a bit older/more worn than I was led to believe in the pictures. Overall Airbnb has started to see a notable decline in quality, and this place sadly was not much of an exception.
Some specific gripes include non functioning overhead lights in the bedroom area and shower. In the bedroom it was frustrating as the room was fairly dark without it. The host told me that I can leave the shades open to allow for more lights, but A)it was 95F/35C in Vienna with no fans or air conditioning so I didnt want to let sun light in and B) this doesn't help at all during the night. In the bathroom, the lack of an overhead light would make it essentially impossible to do much in the bathroom at night other than brush your teeth/shave at the sink.
The biggest issue and caution I have for anyone looking into this place is the darkness when entering the building. It's a fairly typical older european building- spiraling staircases with one very narrow elevator. While the entry are is incredibly run down, it's bearable in the daytime as it at least functions as a way to get to your room. My first night I was shocked when I got home after a day of exploring to find how dark it was coming back to my airbnb. The entry way is pitch black, save for a few lights that you have to manually turn on as you walk through the halls. When I did finally make it to the elevator and rode it up the multiple floors to get to my airbnb, i was shocked when i stepped out and found myself in complete darkness once the elevator closed behind me. No exaggeration- I had to get my phone out and turn on the flashlight as I couldnt see a thing in the darkness. It was frightening- even in a city with a safety record like vienna, I found myself incredibly uncomfortable and felt very unsafe in this moment.
After this feeling of a loss of security, I ended up (attempting to cancel) my stay and going to a hotel. While no fault of the host at all- the support from Airbnb was pitiful. At times taking 12-24 hours to reply to one message at a time, attempting to cancel this stay was a complete mess and has completely turned me off from using the platform at all. I think this is relevant to the review- as if you choose to book it and find it is not up to what you are expecting, airbnb will make it incredibly hard to cancel and will offer you no support whatsoever.
To be fair- the host seems like a real person and not one of those lifeless companies that list stays on airbnb- but this stay was unfortunately one of my poorest airbnb experiences to date.