We were very disappointed with this apartment, and after spending one night in it decided to book another AirBnB in Berlin. Here is a summary of our experiences with it:
The good:
- The apartment is in a very central location in Berlin; steps away from the Brandenburg Gate and many many other sights
- The beds are actually quite comfortable and spacious; although we only stayed one night in them, we had a good night's sleep
- Katarina is very responsive as a host, even in difficult situations (e.g. when we started filing complaints about our stay and the state of the apartment)
The bad:
- The apartment is in a quite run-down late DDR (East German) era apartment building; the first thing that greeted us when we entered the stairwell upon check in was an overflowing trash can and what looked like vomit or feces smeared on the floor
- As a result, getting to and from the apartment itself is not a pleasant experience
- Although there is an elevator in the building, it does not go up to the top floor (where this apartment is located); therefore you have to haul all of your luggage up a final flight of stairs
- The furnishings and equipment in the apartment (e.g. kitchen utensils, dishes) are truly "bare bones"; this is not somewhere where you will immediately feel "at home". A big part of the reason why we as a family stay at AirBnBs is to have that "at home" feeling even when we are in another city on another continent; we did not feel that here at all. It felt more like a youth hostel. I recognize this is a question of taste and expectation, but for us it just did not work (and I doubt that most would be satisfied with it, given the price point)
- The couches in the living room are made of a synthetic leather which has worn out and started flaking. My 12 year old son laid down on the couch in the morning and when he sat up a few minutes later, the whole side of his body was covered in flakes of synthetic leather that had come off of the couch upholstery.
- There were no extra sheets or towels anywhere in the apartment to cover the sofas so that we could sit on them without being covered in this synthetic leather...so we ended up not being able to use them at all
- The wifi in the apartment "switched off" between 10pm and 9am...so, that family movie night we were planning after a long day of driving didn't have a chance to happen...
- The selection of cable TV channels consisted of: channels in Polish and Russian,a s well as soft core pornography channels...at least according to the "guide" function on the TV, as even those did not play (we only were able to get "snow")
- The door to one of the bedrooms looked like it had been kicked in...it had a huge dent/hole at the bottom
- When I reported these issues to Katarina, she seemed genuinely surprised by them...which makes me wonder how recently she, or anyone from the apartment rental company (since all check-in and -out is handled by the local apartment rental company, not Katarina herself) has been in the apartment to check on its status? Kicked in doors are hard to miss, and synthetic leather couches do not start to wear and tear and flake to this degree overnight.
Our overall conclusion was that this is not an apartment that is lovingly taken care of by Katarina, and one in which she hosts AirBnB guests. Rather, it is a hostel-like space that is run by a local apartment company, with Katarina as an AirBnB intermediary (and perhaps the owner, although honestly the question of who owns it is not important).
If you are looking for a comfy place where you will feel "like at home", this is not the place for you. If you are looking for a very pricey hostel-like apartment then it might be.
We ended up finding another AirBnB a 10 minute drive away in another Berlin neighborhood where we felt fully at home and had a wonderful experience. And it cost $100 less per night.