After falling in love with the apartment photos and congenial pre-stay banter with Marcelo, this is not the review that I had hoped to write. I'll cut to the chase and be as clear as possible:
This apartment is in a good location, a short walk or ride away from shops and restaurants, and across the street from the Bosque de Chapultepec (though the actual entrance to Chapultepec is some distance away). Marcelo provided detailed check-in instructions, but they turned out to not be necessary, as the cleaning lady was there to let us in and show us around.
At first glance, I realized that the apartment wasn't quite as clean as I expected: dirty dishes and sticky pots in the cabinets and crumbs on the counter. A random cardboard box in the living room. Towels strewn about the bedroom cabinet instead of neatly stacked the way that one usually does when expecting guests (especially paying guests). "Easily remedied." I thought.
I started to wheeze slightly (asthma) upon spending a few minutes in the apartment. There was also a slight odor in the apartment and neither my friend nor I could figure out where it was coming from... until she took a shower. I'm not sure what's going on with the plumbing system, but the stench that came out of the drain was AWFUL and did not go away. The smell was even intense with the door closed, so not only did we not want to go into the bathroom, but I didn't want to sleep in the adjacent bedroom, as my asthma got even worse as time went on. After a couple of hours, we both knew that we couldn't live like that for seven more nights. I booked a hotel, without even knowing whether or not I'd get a refund of what I had paid for this Airbnb, but I knew that I COULD NOT stay there. I didn't even sleep that night.*
I informed Airbnb and Marcelo. Airbnb was great in their handling of the situation and offered me a full refund because I had contacted them in far less than 24 hours. Marcelo told me to keep the bathroom door closed and to buy some air freshener. If he knew this was a problem, he should have handled it before renting the place out, or written it in the description.
He also told me that asthma is a big problem in Mexico City, but once I moved to a nice hotel, I didn't have to use my asthma inhaler once. Go figure.
*FYI - the reason why hotels and most other lodging accommodations use white sheets and towels is so that patrons know that they are clean. The bedspread in the bedroom didn't look clean, and both the bed and the futon had burgundy and blue sheets, respectively. The cleanliness of everything was suspect.