The apartment is in a great location. Kristain's friend gave us keys and kindly, if hurriedly, showed us maps, gave suggestions and said Kristain would likely be in the following day. After reading all the great reviews about how helpful he was, I'm sorry I never met Kristain.
The bottom floor of the building is occupied by a hostel. The wooden stairs leading up to the apartment in this run-down building are dusty. There is a rickety elevator that stops at every other floor. We went to the 4th floor and walked down a half flight of stairs to the apartment. The apartment itself is functional, with early Ikea type 1960's decor. It is roomy but dark even with blinds open, contrary to the bright cosmopolitan apartment depicted in the photos (or was that wishful thinking on my part?). The windows look out onto an elevator shaft or small space between buildings where laundry hangs. The bedroom windows do not lock. This is a problem if some of the building inhabitants decide to swing from pipes into your room - unlikely but it made my friend nervous. As to cleanliness, the apartment was clean for the most part but there was black mold in the corners of the bathroom shower. The broken shower door swings out contrary to the intended design and has rust on the bottom. Corners in the kitchen and the electrical outlets in the kitchen were not clean. There was a desk in the kitchen; we ate on the futon couch in the living room. There was no king size bed, unless the couch/futon in the living room was a king, although it didn’t appear to be.
I mentioned the hostel earlier because people came into the building, perhaps hostellers, at all hours and sometimes quite loudly.
But we were here for Madrid, and because of the great location, you will not need to spend much time in an apartment.