This is a large, interesting apartment in a great part of Paris. Lionel was very communicative and accommodating with arrival on the front end. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a bad stay in the end for several reasons:
1. SEX DUNGEON. The apartment is very clearly used for sex parties -- there's a Saint Andrew's BDSM X in the hallway, hand chains on each side of the master bed, whips and other BDSM and sex toys throughout the apartment, and we found a used condom in the bed of the master bedroom (photographic evidence available). There are also racy photos in the entry way to the apartment, and a bedside statue of the word SEX in the master bedroom. We did not suspect any of this given the absence of any sexual imagery in the AirBnB photos, and the fact that there is a child's bedroom in the apartment, but we felt a bit creeped out as soon as we figured out what was going on.
2. DIRTY FACILITIES. The toilet room was completely filthy upon arrival (dirt and urine on the toilet and floor).
3. KEY FIASCO. There were some flight cancellations within our party, and the host was accommodating to receive them a day later than anticipated, but sent a "concierge" instead of himself. We had requested two keys, and the concierge brought only one. Near the time of departure, the host asked when I would leave, and we set a time for the concierge to come to the house. I informed the host we were ready to leave 15 minutes prior to that time, and he asked me to call him. I told him we had received only one key, not two, and he said to just leave the key in the apartment, which we did. After our departure, the host says the concierge provided us with the only two keys to the apartment (which was untrue), and he therefore could not get in. He allegedly called a locksmith to open the door. He claims the second key which was allegedly left in the apartment was missing, and therefore someone had stolen it. Impossible -- we only ever received one key, and there was never a second key to "go missing." The owner demands payment of 650 euros for the "locksmith", which seems like extortion to me. I refuse to pay this.
4. ACCUSATION OF PARTY. The owner accused us of having a party in his apartment, which is completely false. He apparently bases this on the number of water glasses four people used over the course of a five day stay (some we washed and left on the dish drying rack, some we left dirty in the sink). Absolutely bizarre basis for this allegation, which we patently deny.
I've had many wonderful AirBnB experiences and have always been respectful of host apartments. It's a shame that the experience in Lionel's apartment turned out as it did, as it seemed promising from the photos and description, and Lionel was quite accommodating on the front end of our stay. For the reasons described above, however, this turned out to be a terrible stay, and I would not recommend this apartment to anyone.