We had a terrible experience and the host never helped us with a single problem that we had.
1. our biggest problem was that the exterior sliding glass door did not lock, leaving us vulnerable to intruders. We felt very unsafe and asked for help starting on day one. The host never replied. We were terrified of intruders or robbery and had trouble sleeping.
2. it was incredibly hot (77F/25C) in our apartment the whole time. While we understand that heating/AC were not included amenities, there was a thermostat on the wall that was set to 25C, which we could not change. The host did not help us with the heat when we asked them to turn it down. Many days later they suggested that we try to flip the breaker to turn off the heat, implying that heat was indeed turned on. We could not locate the correct breaker and we had to tolerate the heat. When we left, the host had the audacity to ask us to turn off the heat before leaving!
3. Despite having informed our host of our arrival time the day before, 10 minutes before we arrived they messaged us that they would not be meeting us. We had to go find our keys at a lockbox a few blocks away. We had no instructions about the apartment. When we got inside, the alarm went off continuously and we couldn't turn it off. We called the emergency help number provided by the host to ask for help, and the number was incorrect. The person who answered didn't know why I had their number. I had to speak with the security company twice to inform them that there was no emergency. We had no choice but to take the batteries out of the alarm, leaving ourselves even more vulnerable. In addition, the lights didn't turn on when we flipped the switches when we arrived, so it was completely dark. The lamp was also broken. The host promised to bring a lamp to us, but didn't.
We are so incredibly frustrated and disappointed by this experience. We lost precious time in Barcelona trying to solve these problems. After a few unhelpful replies like "Don't touch the security system," they stopped replying entirely. We had long awaited this trip, and we lost so much time dealing with this. We had lots of additional problems as well, like a broken chair, broken vacuum, broken lamp, kitchen light that never turned on, and a moldy bathroom. We ran out of toilet paper as well.
We would have loved to find a safer place to stay, but there was an event in Barcelona this weekend and the cheapest lodging was $800 per night! Airbnb offered to help us with a $500 coupon but even that couldn't close the gap on the wildly expensive lodging. We had no choice but to stay.
Clearly, we do not recommend this airbnb at all. The location is nice, but that clearly does not outweigh the problems. Additionally, in the case that every problem was to be solved and there was new management who actually replies (unlikely), keep in mind that there are strange doors in all the walls that lead into deep (15ft/5m) service spaces. Not only are these creepy, they would be extremely dangerous if you have a child who could fall down here.