We stayed only 2 days. This is a very good 2 bedroom apartment, well located at Madrid and within walking distance to the most visited touristic attractions in the city. Many restaurants, bars and groceries are also very close. Also walking distance from the Atocha train station, which is a good help when you decide to use public transportation. Apartment is well furnished and was very clean.
It is very unfortunate though, that this was my first and, so far, only bad experience with an AirBnB.
I have to assume that the reason for my bad experience was partially mine. I had an early departure flight at Barajas on March, 28 and for that reason finished cleaning up everything on the apartment and slept early just around 21:00.
I woke up around 5:30 and rushed my kids and wife into finishing packing 4 pieces of luggage while removing garbage and placing what was still disorganized exactly how I have found. I have the habit to take pictures or a video of how I find the apartment to ensure putting everything back into place.
Well, we are ready to go, I leave the set of keys I had on the indoor side of the door, close the door and start our saga to walk to the train station on our way to the airport.
After buying tickets, waiting at the station, we finally board the train.
After around 10 minutes on the train ride, I am finally sitting comfortably and decide to open my phone to look at messages and to thank the apartment host for a good stay at Madrid. This was when I saw a message from the host, sent the previous night when I was already sleeping, saying "leave the keys at the table" with some other messages. So I thank the host, but say, "unfortunately I just saw your message, so I have left the key at the door. Thank you, we had a great stay! Etc..."
The host responds immediately saying that because I left the keys inside, she would not be able to enter the apartment and would need to call a locksmith. I was fair and honest, and told the host I would pay for the locksmith in that case.
The host then called a locksmith who charged her EUR 145.20 just to open the door. Very expensive. I myself have called locksmiths at Madrid just to have an idea and could find locksmiths for EUR 75+taxes. But, I have promised to pay, service was executed, so I did pay the EUR 145,20 as I will mention later on this message.
The saga continues...
After arriving to the US I noticed the host had sent several other messages a couple hours after we discussed the locksmith issue, with several pictures of towels that the host directly accused us of staining with chlorine or similar cleaning products.
I told the host we did not wash any towels within our 2 days of stay. Informed the only products that were in contact with the towels were residuals of our shampoos and hair cream after washing hairs... same products we use at home, and have never had problems with stained towels.
The host started then sending several messages saying we did use products that stained the towel or that the hair cream did.
I felt very bad with the attitude, constant messaging and insistence with accusations and decided to block the host on WhatsApp and reported the behavior on AirBnB, also blocking communications with the host on the platform.
The Host then requested money via AirBnB to cover for the locksmith EUR 145,20, which I paid. The host also requested around USD 61 to cover for 3 shower towels and 1 hand towel, which for the reason of having no responsibility for the damage mentioned by the host, I did not pay for.
I recommend the host places a sticker on the inside of the door saying "Do not leave the keys inside", or change the lock with a code-lock, or as a third option, a lock that would allow you to open with a key from outside even if someone leaves a key on the inside.
Madrid is magic and we had a great time! The experience with the AirBnB apartment though, is hereby fairly and factually evaluated.