I hate to give low ratings, but I have to be honest about my experience so others can benefit from it. Before I share my experience, I will say that this place is gorgeous and the location is awesome, hence the 3 stars, despite our terrible experience. The hosts, however, were the WORST I have ever dealt with through AirBnB.
My family was passing through Mexico City for only one day/night. BEFORE booking this property, I messaged the host asking him if there was an option of an early check-in, and informed him that I would be very willing to pay any additional early-check in fees that he would charge in order to make that happen. The host wrote back and told me that early check-in was available, and that it was "his New Years gift to us", no extra charge (ha,ha). BEFORE booking the property, I wrote back and made SURE that the early check-in he offered us would be included in our stay, and explained to him that we would be arriving very early in the morning from a tropical climate, and my main concern was my 4-year old daughter not standing out in the cold for a long time (she is immuno-compromised). He assured me that the early check-in would be possible, so we happily booked this and thanked the host for his graciousness. The NIGHT BEFORE we were set to arrive, I also messaged the host and reminded him of our early-check in, thanking him again.
Well, we arrived at the apartment (with all of our luggage in tow) at the agreed-upon time and the doorman of the building had no record of us. He spoke only Spanish, and he could not get ahold of the host to confirm our reservation. We stood outside the door, in the bitter cold, for 45 MINUTES. My 4-year old was literally shivering, and we tried everything we could to show the doorman our reservation number/host number, but since he could not get ahold of the host and no one had notified him of our arrival, he had no authority to let us in. We were literally stranded there in the street, with our luggage, no internet/cell phones (since we don't live in Mexico), and no taxis or even people passing by (since it was so early in the morning). The doorman finally took pity on us, seeing my daughter start crying, and he let us in despite having no record of our arrival. We arrived to a dirty apartment. The bedclothes were used (by previous guests) and had obviosuly not been changed, food wrappers and crumbs all over, and towels in a dirty pile on the floor (no clean ones).
The host had somehow forgotten about our early check in, not notified the doorman of our arrival, and thus not scheduled the cleaning of the apartment until much later in the day. Basically, this cut our day completely because we could not nap, shower or even unpack. We waited hours until the host finally answered his phone, and when we told him what happened, he just said briskly that he would call the cleaning lady and hung up on us. There was no apology whatsoever. He wrote us a message via AirBnb stating simply that plans had changed and we weren't "gifted" early check-in as promised. The cleaning took until 3 PM (we arrived at 7 AM) and finally, after we wrote a fuming message via Air BNB, another "host" came to our door to check on us. He was the brother of the original host I had spoken to. We told him about the treatment and the lack of even an apology. We told him we expected some sort of compensation for this treatment. He apologized for his brother, and left. Later that week, we got a $20 compensation. We paid $228 for ONE DAY/NIGHT at this place, with the only requirement being early check-in. We had to wait from 7 AM-3PM at the apartment just for the cleaning to be done and the host to show up. And we got a $20 compensation.
In short, we were extremely frustrated, and felt as if we had been cheated with not so much as a warning or apology. It would have been one thing if they just decided to offer us early check-in as a gift or perk..but for us, as I clearly explained to the host, it was THE REASON we would be booking a place (so that we could have somewhere to go with our little one in the early hours). I was more than willing to pay for this, but the fact that the host offered it as a "gift" and then completely ignored it (even after a day-before reminder), shows a SEVERE lack of respect, quality and communication with these hosts. As beautiful as this place was, I would NEVER return.