The bathroom shower had large areas of mold and mildew and large brown drips of unknown substance. When asked to have it cleaned again, the host had someone put bleach on the kitchen counter and it was never cleaned at all. Smokers constantly used the small shared patio and the smoke continually drifted in the drafty door leaving us to try to sleep in smoke each night. Host said he couldn’t help it even though this is supposed to be a nonsmoking flat. Only 2 towels given ( no face or handtowels). When I asked for additional towels, we receive 2 replacement towels one of which was dirty and unusable. This left us with 1 clean towel to share. Airbnb said towels weren’t in the listing so the host wasn’t responsible to provide any. It was smaller than my dorm room. I am a 5 ft tall woman and had trouble lifting my arms without touching the dirty walls while washing my hair. My husband 5’10” husband had to lean down to wash his hair under the spout. The washer and dryer are shared with the other flats and in the hall. There were towels and sheets left wet and getting moldy (from the supposed cleaners) left in the washer, dryer, and covering the tops of both. Host said he would meet us both in the listing and by text messages. He didn’t. He sent how to check in but failed to send information about the actual key. I finally got him on the phone and worked out how to get in the flat. He would say he would do something but then didn’t. He only offered another property after we had left. He called me mean and rude more than once for saying we we’re leaving and getting a hotel room. It has a great location! It is close to 2 tube stations and pubs. It is in a safe and quiet neighborhood. It is kind of far out but we enjoyed the area very much.After 3 days of trying to live in the filth and smoke we couldn’t take it anymore. We had asked the host to help and get the flat cleaned he did not. This flat is not someone’s home. I gathered from the responses the owners have many of these flats on Airbnb so beware! This is a misleading, dirty room where someone is just trying to make a fast buck from unsuspecting travelers. We ended up booking a hotel for not much more money than this flat. The hotel was spotlessly clean with many pubs, stores and 2 tube stations. It was worth every penny and by switching to a hotel. It saved our trip to London. We are not clean freaks and have successfully used Homeaway and VRBO with only wonderful experiences. I asked Airbnb to refund the 3 nights we did not stay at the flat (so half the price). They didn’t even refund our cleaning fee. I followed all of the guidelines and even with photographic and text evidence Airbnb only will give us a $100 coupon for our next stay. I get it, Airbnb can’t control what happens at a rental but they could stand by their patrons and hold accountable the terrible hosts who don’t fulfill their responsibilities and give their company and other hosts a bad name. We will never use Airbnb again due to their poor customer service. I will advise all others to do the same.