Karsten is a fantastic super host. The best experience we had with this Airbnb booking was our interaction with Karsten and him being super accommodative in checking us in. Our flight into Berlin got delayed because of unexpected stormy conditions and we reached quite late to the apartment (almost midnight). Karsten waited for us to check us in. He gave us a very nice introduction to the apartment and explained us everything in detail, although it was super late. He was super precise and very thoughtful in his communication with us and it really makes a big difference, when you use Airbnb facilities.
Now for the apartment, it is very important to know that this is quite an old apartment in an old building, although in quite a decent residential neighborhood. The apartment is probably 29/30 meters from the Swhazrkopfstrasse U Bahn and has pretty good cafes and supermarkets at reasonable walking distance. Although a small section of the street approaching the apartment building from the U Bahn station is pretty dark (probably because of thick leafy trees), it is very safe part of the Mitte district. We travelled in first week of August and very close to almost two heat waves in Central Europe. Although the apartment being an older construction has very tall ceilings, it gets quite stuffy and there was desperate need of a fan, which was not available. The bedroom had very big windows opening to the lane and it being on the ground floor, somehow made us uncomfortable, because of lack of privacy. Anyone walking on the footpath could look inside and that too without making any effort. There are thick curtains provided, but it didn’t make sense because the whole purpose of opening the windows was to ensure proper air circulation or cross-ventilation.
Although the apartment is very old, it had all the fixtures working perfectly well. The bathroom is quite well made with beautiful tiles and a very good shower. It has all the amenities one could need, including SPF creams and sunburn gels. We had two pairs of very clean towels and more available in a cabinet. There was quite a small cabinet available to put your clothes, we travelled very light on this trip and hence it didn’t make any difference to us. But if we were traveling regular, we would have been disappointed with lack of storage space.
We read many reviews stating that is an artistic apartment, which probably is true to a large extent, because the apartment has some unique lighting arrangements and also is painted quite loud on bedroom walls and bathroom; additionally, it has some super vintage (many could say “old”) furniture, specially the kitchen cabinets. It gives you a feeling of vintage home, like in the movies. However, it was very surprising to see concrete kitchen floor that seemed to have a big patch that appeared as a fixing of a big hole in the floor. The passage floor was very old and we felt the walls were very porous, because one of the nights we could hear people walking in the corridor of the building as if walking in our apartment, which freaked us out.
I’m not sure if it was an unfortunate coincidence, but we had bad experience with the WIFI of the apartment. It worked very well on the first night, but after that it was super sketchy. This was very irritating, because we struggled to access internet to plan out our days.
Overall, I would say that it is very important for people to bear in mind what they get into, to avoid any shocks or bad experience. I would recommend this for very short travel, which does not involve staying in the apartment for more than sleep and shower. Definitely good for couples, but for sure not suitable for families.