This apartment has cockroaches, big and small, live and dead. Our stay was characterized by sleeping with the lights on and placing all luggage and belongings zipped up and placed up high, as well as not eating in the apartment (all cabinet drawers had cockroaches present). This apparently has been an ongoing issue for this property: when the host, Martin, was notified of the issue, he responded with "we did a pest control 3 weeks ago. I was sure there were no more problems". He also promised, in the same message, "a small refund for our troubles"...this refund has not materialized, now 11 days after the stay was terminated. Airbnb has been notified but details were scant on actions to be taken. We have both pictures and videos of the cockroaches in the apartment.
Beyond the rather big issue of vermin, travelers should know that this is studio apartment in the basement of an apartment building. It is therefore dark and dank and the "courtyard" is a dirty slab of concrete onto which the basement apartments enter/exit. It is "bare-bones" in terms of amenities. This is not the type of property we would ordinarily choose but given a long holiday weekend in Spain that weekend, inventory was virtually non-existent. The apartment complex itself was pretty quiet, though interrupted through the night a few times by a rather large-sounding dog barking. While the hot water heater size implied plentiful hot water, the shower drain was partially clogged during our stay and the water quickly built up in the shower pan, limiting showers to a minute or two.
On the positive side, we found the location of the apartment to both Atocha railway station (an easy ~10-15 minute walk) and to yellow (#3) metro stop to be convenient, and there are nearby bus stops for buses that travel into the museum district. In addition, Martin's communications were prompt; he seems to operate multiple properties. Access to the building and apartment via a phone app/bluetooth was very convenient.