The place was very clean. We didn't realize that the washrooms and kitchen were a shared facility, but that was no problem as we rarely ever saw any of the other guests. Washroom is very clean. My only issue was that the bedsheets and pillows didn't seem clean to me (my pillow had what appeared to be a tiny blood stain on it). Otherwise, the place was fine. We didn't interact with our host much, we were given a tour of the room when we arrived and told he was around the building if we needed anything. The neighbourhood was nice, many cafes and restaurants nearby. It's about a 15 minute taxi to mitte and many of the historical attractions of Berlin. We walked to many places (usually an hour walk) but it was very easy to do and you experienced many different local sites and sounds.