I highly recommend any traveler say away from this property, but I particularly discourage women and children for their your safety and health.
The building entry for this unit is down one of Edinburghs many "close" or allies. While most in the city are safe, this one seemed a popular hangout with people high on drugs and other crime. My two small children had to squeeze past strung out people laying and twitching in corners while avoiding vomit, human feces, and urine. We'd leave for dinner and return 2 hours later to freshly graffitied anarchist symbols. It was unsafe and unsanitary despite being right off High Street.
Once you enter the building, things don't improve much. A smelly staircase leads you to a basement apartment which was -- frankly -- grim. It was dark, dank, and damp. When you first open the door, you're bombarded with the small of air freshener (there are many bottles available in the bathroom), but you soon realize it's used to cover up the small of sewage coming up from the drains in the bathroom and kitchen of this basement unit. The unit was also not clean or maintained. The sheets were visibly soiled (wish I could post pictures...gross), dust collected in the corners, the walls were scuffed and dirty, some of the furniture was tattered, and the pillows were lumpy and old. It was so bad that I -- for the first time ever on AirBnB -- requested the owner re-send a cleaner. To their credit, they were quick to respond, apologetic, kind, and did what they could by sending someone the next morning to change the sheets and re-clean (but, yes...we had to sleep one night in dirty sheets...). The re-cleaning did improve things, but as the owners themselves said, much of the other things (like the smell of sewage) was "outside of their control". (Though a coat of paint and reinvestment in furniture and bedding would go a long way...and IS within their control.)
I could imagine this unit only being appropriate for a large group of frat boys needing a place to crash after a night of partying.
Frankly, I've stayed at many AirBnBs. This is the first time the state of the unit so drastically differed from the positive reviews. I honestly don't understand it, and it makes me wonder if AirBnB is starting to have problems with fake reviews. So...if my review does get posted and remains live, please do yourself a favor, and do not stay in this unit for your safety and health -- especially if you're a woman or are traveling with children.