Sofiane's place is beautiful and much more spacious than the pictures portrayed—this was a very pleasant surprise! It had plenty of room for 4 people / 2 couples to stay for a week. It is located in the heart of Kreuzberg, where there are so many good restaurants, cafes, bars and shops to walk to, as well as multiple parks. It is also super close to the Ubahn, making it easy to get anywhere in Berlin. Overall this is a great unit to get a true local Berlin experience.
On the downside, the check in process was very painful. I was not given check in information until the day of check in—3 days prior to checking in is typical on Airbnb. This left me scrambling on our day of arrival to coordinate how to get the keys and the communication and back up plans were not prepared and a bit hectic to navigate. This was an extra challenge as I was in transit the entire day without strong internet connection. For context, we arrived just after 18:00, so it's not as though we arrived randomly in the middle of the night.
On top of this, we only received 1 set of keys for 4 guests. Upon bringing this to the host's attention, I was given an option to make a copy of the keys, which was not possible to do until the following day. I was also told "We typically give two sets of keys, but the check in process prevented us from doing it for you", as well as "You should have told us you needed two sets of keys". I was baffled by this contradiction—if the standard is to have 2 sets of keys, the guest should not be expected to have to state this as a special request. When I raised the concerns to our hosts, the host took no accountability for the situation, despite it being the their responsibility to ensure proper access to the unit. I was blamed for not making copies quick enough. Throughout the check in process, I was in communication with 4 different people—Sofiane, her friend, her cleaner, and her boyfriend/partner. This added further confusion and stress to the situation.
That said, I would still recommend this unit to stay in, as the space and location are brilliant. I would encourage future guests to be proactive on their end regarding the check in procedure, and make sure you communicate how many sets of keys you will need to avoid a similar situation to ours.
Also, it is worth mentioning that it is on the 3rd floor and requires 4 set of stairs to reach it. This was no issue for us (and frankly not uncommon in Berlin), but I wanted to note it to avoid any surprises for folks who are looking for more convenient access.