I am a regular user of AirBnB and I am not in the habit of complaining. I am writing this only because I felt duped into booking by the host's description of the place. I also foolishly overlooked several less than positive reviews. That was a mistake. The description given by the host does not correspond to reality: it is neither 'spacious' nor 'very nicely decorated' nor 'freshly refurbished'. If anything, the place is in dire need of refurbishment and thorough cleaning. It is decorated very much on the cheap with uncomfortable mismatched furniture (only two fold-out chairs, tiny rickety sofa, enormous unwieldy table, armchair with filthy torn-up upholstery). The carpeting, windows and blinds are very dirty; lots of stuff (blinds, stand-up lights, kitchen cupboard doors, loo flush) are broken or on their last leg. The host claims in her description that the kitchen has everything you may need to cook a meal - I found only a pack of stale coffee (there is no coffee machine) and a plastic bottle of cheap sunflower oil (both I suspect left over from previous tenants) - no salt, no pepper, no sugar, no tea, no water, crockery on the open shelves covered with dust. In the bedroom, the pillows are lumpy polyester, the bedding - old and flimsy. The bathroom has seen better days and is very uncomfortable: nowhere to hang a towel or place your bathroom supplies, no rubbish bin, black mold around the bathtub, paint peeling off, mold stains on the ceiling. The loo flushed unprompted twice in the middle of the night and I struggled to stop it running. Outside, the people who checked me in left a trash bin with rubbish from the previous occupant, which stayed there for three days getting scattered around so I had to step over it to get to the door.
The host responds promptly and sends lots of polite messages, alas most of them seemed to be the standard ones sent out automatically to all her tenants as some of them did not corresponded to my previous messages nor my situation. More spontaneous correspondence as well as check-in were much more matter-of-fact and rather thin on hospitality. I had an impression that this property is run as a money-making machine, pur et dur. I was also baffled by the host's request not to tell neighbors about AirBnB and to leave a positive review in exchange for a positive review about me.