A difficult commentary to write, even with a few day's distance. The appartment is absolutely beautiful and well-kept. It is spacious and the location sensational, right where you want to be in Berlin Mitte, in a picturesque backyard. And even the price is high but worth it. Five stars.
On the other hand, the behaviour of the landlord's rental agency "Greatstay" with a highly aggressive Ukrainian representative was very intrusive, highly impertinent and partially illegal. The representative clearly did not know, or did not care, about her statutory rights as a landlord's representative in a situation where a standard rental contract had been signed.
To explain: The day before the arrival, this lady called to inform us that only half the appartment would be ready for us because other guests would stay longer. On my (obvious) question why the other guests could not leave earlier, she immediately threatened to cancel the contract altogehter (on what grounds??) and wishes us fun finding a different place in Berlin. Four days later, the calls me about 10x (I was in a meeting) to complain that we had had a barbeque on the terrace (a full BBQ set had been standing there at the time of our arrival) and that we had put "expensive designer chairs" on the terrace, which we had done but they were in fact plastic stools, and there was no rain in sight.
It gets worse, much worse: The day later, she rings the doorbell, pushes one of or interns aside, enters the appartment and starts taking pictures of what she describes as "chaos", essentially dishes not done, beds untidy and a few empty glasses and a wine bottle from the evening before. She also takes a picture, and attempts to take with her, a small plastic bag with a mixture of cannabis and tobacco, 3 grams max where the legal Berlin maximum is 10 grams. Now to be clear, I do not approve the use of drugs, but the right of a tenant inside their rented appartment is definitely a higher legal good.
After a half hour of inspection and dozens of picture taken, against the expressed will of one of the tenants, she leaves, calls me again min 10x, yells and swears at me, threatens to call the police and have the appartment evacuated (on what grounds??). Sends me at least 10 pictures that make me, father of three grown-up boys, smile. I even agreed to rent, and pay for, a cleaning service twice a week, which she refused - stating that I seem to be one of these Germans who think they can buy anything with money. So I got one anyhow, in an effort to reduce her stress level.
Overall, I clearly cannot recommend renting this appartment to anyone whose intention is to use it in a normal way and not as a representative office. at least not as long as this Greatstay agency is involved. I had actually hoped that I could clarify the matter with the landlord directly (and tried to do that three times) but was pushed back. Today is the last day on which I can write a formal AirBnB review, hence I do.
2.5 stars overall in an average of 5 for the appartment and ZERO for the worst hospitality service on the planet.