Sadly this was one of our worst experiences, not only because of the defects with the place (lack of proper heating and some cleanliness issues), which were easily preventable, but mainly because of the host’s attitudes.
The description about the house having ‘central heating or heater’ is not altogether true. After the person who checked us in told us that central heating works and even explained how to turn it on and use, we followed her instructions and waited for it to work for a few hours whilst freezing ( this was February ). We tried contacting (emailing and calling) the owner to attend to this, but it was not after what seemed like a very long time that the owner came over and told us that ‘the heating system doesn’t work in the whole building and there’s nothing I can do about it’. He pointed to a small heater in the corner of the room and suggested that we use it. The heater was small and absolutely inadequate for the size of the premises. It did not heat more than 0.5 meter in front of it. As we later found out, it was also overheating and turning off every half an hour for long periods of time. We asked the owner for another (additional) heater, to which he said he would see what he can do. He then stormed out from the apartment, slamming the door behind him. We didn’t see or hear from him ever since and didn’t see the requested heater or any attempt to solve the issue or at least to apologize.
This attitude was completely unexpected, unwarranted and frankly surprising, as in our experience airbnb hosts are ordinarily much more accommodating and way more polite. This left a bad taste in our mouths, which affected the rest of our stay and overall experience in Dublin.