I stayed with Birgit & Hasan for one month as part of an internship.
The location was quite central, Kreuzberg is a lively and busy district with lots of cool bars and delicious restaurants. Within 5 minutes of walking distance, one has access to the Metro-Station Kottbusser Tor (U1/3/8) as well as a few bus stops. The location itself, despite being kind of infamous for its criminality and drug dealers and all that, wasn't that bad in my opinion. Noise was also not that big of a deal for me (despite the occasional Metro and police sirens).
The room itself was spacious; equipped with Wifi, a desk, a TV, lots of storage room and a nice view.
The appartment overall was quite tidy, the toilet was in the bathroom, which also featured a bathtub/shower as well as a washing machine, which could be used.
However, my big problem was with the kitchen/"living area". The kitchen is rather small, but decently enough equipped with pots and pans and other kitchen utensils for cooking. The table had Birgit's (?) PC on it, as well as some other stuff to the sides, so realistically about 3 people would fit on it at most.
Now, I am still a student and went to Berlin for an unpaid internship for one month. Naturally, I'd cook as often as possible, so I wouldnt have to eat out all the time and save some money.
However, I was told on multiple occasions that I was taking too long cooking and being selfish with the kitchen (as no other people would be able to use the kitchen while I was cooking) or that the smell was too strong and the entire flat smelled like food or that I was cooking too late or some combination of these three complaints.
I didn't even cook "properly" that often, but let me adress these complaints anyways:
1. the longest I took from starting to cook to eating was about 1 hour (as the kitchen was new for me, kitchen utensils often did not have their fixed place so I almost always spent some time looking for the things to use, etc.); those few times where I cooked and ate for ~1 hour, I started at around 6/6:30 pm, in my opinion not an unreasonable time to cook, so it wasn't even late at night or something similar.
2. the complaints about the smell were absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. keep in mind that I wasn't cooking anything outlandish, but simply pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce or rice with vegetables. AT ALL TIMES (even when no one was using the kitchen), 3 windows were open (two of those were roof windows/skylight, so the smoke would naturally rise up and out of the kitchen). Also, most if not all of the time, a scented candle was burning. The fume hood over the stove was not working, so I could not possibly have done anything else. It got even more ridiculous, however, when I was told that the smell was too intense after I heated up a FROZEN PIZZA or PESTO WITH PREMADE PESTO. I can not, for the life of me, understand, how any of those two foods would give off a strong smell, let alone one to be smelled in "the entire flat" (as I was told). At this point, it should absolutely not be my problem to find a solution to an exaggerated problem. If the hosts are this neurotic about food and guests using their kitchen, they should either provide sufficient measures to limit the smell or straight up state in their ad that cooking was not allowed.
3. I was told that I was being selfish if I used the kitchen for too long (apparently 1 hour from cooking to eating is too long as said above) and that I should be mindful of the other people living in the appartment. First of all, I never said I wanted the kitchen to myself. Secondly, I only ever used up one third of the space at the table at most (and I would have moved as well if somebody had asked me to), so in reality there was absolutely enough space to use the kitchen/"living area". Keep in mind that Birgit and Hasan rented out two bedrooms to guests, the third being their one. So I was essentially sharing the kitchen (and to a lesser extent the bathroom) with 3 people. I get that this might cause problems for people who value their peace and quiet. But for goodness sake, if you feel "cornered in your flat" because I am using your kitchen for cooking, then perhaps DON'T rent out 2 of your available bedrooms and maybe use one for your private living area.
All in all, this whole "kitchen-ordeal" made me feel quite unwelcome. Also, bang for your buck was not really good, considering I payed 900€ for one month in an appartment where I actually were not supposed to use the kitchen.
If you are staying for only a few days, I suppose it's fine. Anything longer, especially if you are planning to cook sometimes, I would absolutely not reccomend!.