Pros:
- Great location next to Retiro, Prado, Botanical gardens, train station
- Lovely apartment with nice, new furnishings
- Spotlessly clean
- Quiet, despite being right on Paseo del Prado
Cons:
- Very difficult check-in process: The email with check-in instructions was never sent to us. (It was supposed to arrive two days before our arrival). So this caused us to be very stressed out when we arrived with elderly visitors and no information on how to enter the building and apartment. The host did respond quickly via email and was able to let us in remotely, but we were already stressed out by that point.
- Building was being fully re-painted inside: The interior of the building was being painted, so there were construction materials, hanging lights and fumes throughout the stairs and hallways. It was a mess and made a bad first impression. When I asked the host about it, she didn't know anything about the construction -- she told us she's not the owner and wasn't in Madrid.
- No basic amenities were provided: no hand soap, no paper towels, no napkins, no salt/pepper, no sugar, no coffee, etc. In my opinion, these items should always be provided. And when you're paying as much as we were paying, a welcome basket or welcome note is nice, too.
- Host wasn't available -- on our third night at the apartment, we had an urgent situation. We called the phone number that the host had provided in the check-in email for several hours with no answer. Eventually we had to reach out to Airbnb support to resolve the situation.
I've never had a bad experience with Airbnb or VRBO (and I've used services like these dozens of times). I feel bad pointing out these challenges, but we were very disappointed with the hosting.