tl;dr: Hosts sent wrong directions to get in, so I slept outside the apartment on the floor of the hallway. Neither a neighbor nor two other friends could follow the directions to unlock/lock the door. Neither Erol nor Jay came when I invited them to show me; they sent another video of the lock (but still incomplete). Two days after "check-in" they clarified, and I could finally get in, but by that time I'd booked a hotel. They would not refund my payment unless someone else booked and I paid for the night on the floor.
Longer version: This experience was so bad I'm quitting AirBnB. I'm not a complainer: every place I've stayed I've rated 4 or 5 stars, even one where I had to sleep on a chair because the description was incorrect and sleeping with a friend on the bed would have been weird. But this one, and AirBnB's handling of it, takes the cake.
The taxi driver escorted me to the front door because he said this was a very unsafe neighborhood, and it was 2 am (delayed flight). Entering the building was no problem, but the keypad to the apartment door do not work. Erol and Jay sent me a link to a video of a lockbox (the kind with a key inside), but this was an electronic keypad. I have a similar keypad at home, and I've used others when staying at AirBnBs, so my inability to open the door wasn't a result of lack of familiarity with this kind of lock.
No matter how I tried, I could not get the keypad to unlock the door. A kind neighbor lady even helped for a while, but was unable. Given the taxi driver's warning, I didn't feel safe going back out to find a hotel. The neighbor eventually loaned me a blanket, and I slept on the floor of the hallway outside the apartment with the lights on. Not a great experience the night before I had to present at a conference!!!
The next day over the lunch break, I went back with two friends, and neither of them could open the door. I contacted Erol and Jay, and asked if they could come in the evening after the conference to show me how to use it. Instead, they came by during the day and took a video then sent me the link (i.e., the video they should have set the first time). Going back, again with a friend, I was able to open the door occasionally, but not every time, and I was not able to lock it at all. Because of this, I didn't feel safe leaving my passport, computer, etc. in there while at the conference, so decided to rent a hotel room. I left the door unlocked and told Erol and Jay.
At this point I contacted AirBnB, and they said they'd "have my back" (their words). After explaining the situation, they asked me to go back to the apartment and take a video of me trying to open it. This time, I could open it, but I still could not lock it from the outside. (A friend who came with had the same problem.) Again, I didn't feel safe leaving my stuff there while I was gone.
By this time I was trying to cancel the entire reservation. AirBnB contacted the hosts (Erol and Jay) to see what they'd accept. Their offer was their "standard" cancellation policy--I'd pay for the first night (the night I slept on the floor!!!), then *if* they found someone else to rent the room, I'd get my money back for the remainder of the days. That's a fair cancellation policy for a "standard" cancellation, I think, but what does a cancellation policy have to do with not being able to use/enter/lock the room? If I rent a car, and it's broken, I should get all my money back, not pay for the day I couldn't use it and only get money back if someone else rents it! So why should I pay for sleeping in the hallway and only get refunded if someone else books the room?
AirBnB's response to this was that the hosts wanted to protect their revenue. I totally get that, in normal circumstances, but what about my revenue and what about an unusable apartment? And why should I pay to sleep in the hallway on the floor? Again, the rent-a-broken-car analogy holds.
It was *two days* after my "check-in" that Erol and Jay finally clarified the directions for locking/unlocking. AirBnB's argument was that since they showed me how to unlock/lock the door, they closed my ticket and rejected my cancellation.
I can't say much about the apartment itself, as I was in it for less than 5 minutes on the few occasions I was able to unlock the door. This was the worst experience I ever had staying anywhere, and "having my back" was more like "stabbing me in the back."