Rodrigo was in contact with me shortly before my stay but didn't inform me that I'd be meeting with his mother Marivi instead of him. That wasn't so much a problem as it was just odd. Most other hosts that have others the guest hasn't met, let you know. Marivi was nice enough to let us store our luggage and grab the keys two hours before check-in time. We really appreciated that. She took time to explain some details about the apartment and Madrid (like water heater and pickpocketing). She even gave us a suggestion of her favorite local restaurant/bar. All in all, Marivi was great! My real issues are the following:

We didn't realize and weren't told that the linens for the top two beds were outside drying so by the time we figured it out, they had been caught in the rain (although they had a plastic rain blanket on top)

The apartment was noisey... Babies crying and doors slamming. We also saw a couple of bugs during our two day stay. I blame this mainly on the city/urban setting and not on the cleanliness of the apartment.

The water heater didn't work as Marivi explained it. We felt like we had to keep it on much longer than the 20 minutes before she suggested.

The apartment manual/guide was solely in Spanish. No English guide was made available to us. The apartment says there is heat but with no proper guide, we had no idea where it was or how to turn it on.

Rodrigo was overall not very involved but never really made mention that he wouldn't be and that Marivi would be handling everything.