Mexico City is a lovely place, and the biggest downside of our trip was the various ways we felt misled by this Airbnb.
1. POOL
First of all, we booked this because of the rooftop pool. It was under maintenance for the vast majority of our stay, and we didn't know about it. I had to take time out of our vacation to contact our host, who said it was open and that he would reserve it for us.
It was not reserved, and we had to go back and forth between the roof and the downstairs amenity desk to figure out how to reserve it.
We eventually figured out that the reservations are pretty booked, and only two people can use the pool at one given time. This was a shame, since we booked this Airbnb mostly to hang out at the pool, since pool and hot tub were the key amenities listed. We had four of us in total and didn't know what to do about this sad situation.
2. BUGS
On our final day, we discovered a hole in the wall that was home to cockroaches. We know this because a cockroach literally climbed out of our toothpaste tab bag back into the hole.
We also got over 100+ mosquito bites between the four of us, and there was nothing, not even a fan, to prevent this from happening.
3. HEAT
We expected that this place would not have an air conditioning, but we thought that we would at least not have to suffer extreme heat. It took us 3 days to get ONE fan (for two rooms) from our Airbnb coordinator. When she finally did bring the single fan (one fan for 4 people), it was in a box, unassembled. The assembly required a screwdriver, which we did not get. So we assembled this fan with a butter knife - another wasted hour of our vacation in wonderful CDMX.
4. LIGHT
This is out of our host's control, but you should know: if you turn on one light in the Airbnb, it fills the entire place with light because the tops of the walls are frosted glass and not solid. This made our sleeping situation quite chaotic, and it was in fact more preferable to sleep in the bathroom than in the bedroom (imagine that!).
5. GARBAGE
We like to keep a tidy place when we are staying in an Airbnb because there is no trash service. All the trash cans were tiny. Also, we didn't receive ANY garbage bags, so we had to forage for that ourselves - another unnecessary way to spend our vacation. At least the unassembled fan came wrapped in a plastic bag. What luck!
6. SAFETY
Two main things - first, the balcony door design means that if you are outside and the door is closed, there is no way for you to open it. This Airbnb is on the 19th floor. It's extremely unsafe to have no way to open the door.
Secondly, you can get locked in. The door requires a key to open (even from the inside of the Airbnb) so if you don't have a key, you are locked inside the apartment. Additionally, if there were a fire or other emergency and you had locked the door, you would have to find your key and then fumble with the lock
in order to be able to leave. Very unsafe.
7. KEYS
There were only two keys for four people. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but since we could have been locked into our apartment and there was no way to leave a key at reception, it was concerning.
8. BATHROOMS
One of our bathrooms didn't have hot water in the shower. The other one's drain was clogged and would flood. This meant you had to limit your shower time or else you would flood the entire bathroom. Also, there were cockroaches living in one of the bathrooms.
9. COMMUNICATION
We had to wait about half an hour for our Airbnb coordinator to show up for check-in despite having kept in polite communication with them about what time we would arrive.
Also, when we checked out, she came an hour early with a carpenter. We were still cleaning and packing, and it was odd.
She was supposed to come in the midpoint of our stay to help us take out the trash and check all these other complaints, but since there were only two keys (and she didn't have one for herself?) she never showed up because we were out of the apartment when she had meant to come by.
10. AMENITIES
I already commented on how the pool was closed, but also the TV wasn't working.
11. DOORS
One closet door in one bedroom was broken, and two were broken in the other room. One of the 7 foot tall doors came crashing down on my friend's head as she tried to put her clothes in the closet. Also, one of the bedroom doors didn't close and we had to prop it shut with a backpack.
These are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. I highly recommend saving your money and spending it on a different Airbnb, especially if you're prioritizing a nice vacation.
The location was fun though! Although many of the restaurants closed at 6pm.