Unfortunately my friend and I had a less than optimal experience at Maria’s place. We were told that we could drop our bags a few hours before check-in time, whilst the cleaning lady was busy prepping the apartment. We waited for 40 minutes at the designated time in front of the apartment’s door with no cleaning lady in sight and no way to enter the apartment and drop our bags. Had we known this in advance we could have opted for a different solution around our luggage, instead of wasting valuable time that could have been spend exploring Berlin. Maria in the mean time, was unreachable.
After checking in, and finally hearing back from Maria, she did not acknowledge in any way this inconvenience - rather uncharacteristic of a super-host.
Throughout our stay, we were quite surprised to encounter the following:
* Despite the exorbitant cleaning fees we were charged, the plates, bowls and cutlery were filthy (we also had to take out our trash and locate the bins outside - no problem normally, but the height of the fees would make one think the host would take care of this)
* Although I had clearly told upfront it was me and a friend traveling, only one of the two beds had been prepped. I don’t mind bunking up but the bed was tiny, seemingly smaller than queen-size, and it would probably have been cramped even for people who are romantically involved
* There were no condiments such as salt, pepper and oil. Not a problem had the apartment been reasonable priced, but given the steep premium price of this listing this was a bit of a shocker
* The wifi worked about 60% of the time and was not fast enough to stream YouTube videos. We ended up using our phone data
* No tips, tricks or any local insights regarding Berlin, no checking in throughout our stay from our host on how we were doing re the issues we reported
The place definitely has potential. It is a beautiful loft and the location is convenient. But this whole Airbnb experience reeked like a soulless cash grab with a host who had 0 concern or care for her guests. Hopefully this review will help in creating a better experience for the next guest(s).