Our hearts sank as we approached the apartment building - the path to the front door was litter strewn and full of weeds. Having gone through the main door we were very shocked. The communal hallway is dark (broken light), stank and was absolutely filthy. I felt like I was walking into a drug den. The apartment itself is a good size but we had many issues. There was no evidence of even a superficial clean, let alone a covid clean, as advertised in the listing. It was difficult to see out of the windows as extremely dirty; we chose not to use the oven as too dirty, so ate out. The bed was propped up with books underneath it, which I feel is totally unacceptable as the host clearly knew the bed was broken, as mentioned by other recent reviewers. There was no mattress cover or pillow protectors and the mattress was stained. The apartment is in dire need of complete redecoration. To describe the apartment as 5*, newly renovated and with all the comforts of a boutique hotel is completely inaccurate. I imagine the photos were taken straight after its renovation, which is clearly some time ago.
However, the worst part was that the host did not respond to any messages. I contacted her within an hour of our arrival expressing our concerns, but she did not respond. I sent another message the day after, but no response (I received a couple of auto messages saying she hoped we were enjoying our stay and giving instructions on what we needed to do on checking out). I then requested a partial refund of half the amount we paid, which Airbnb gives hosts 72 hours to respond to. I sent 28 photos to her showing the problems. Again, no response, so I involved Airbnb, who could see my messages to her and the photos. I had a long phone conversation with the advisor (whilst we still staying there) who assured me she would do her best to secure the partial refund. They have updated me to say they are still trying to work something out with her, so I guess she has refused that. Be warned - based on our experience I would say it's highly unlikely this host will attempt to resolve any issues you may have. It's not OK to treat paying guests in this way - not providing a clean, safe place to stay, not responding to messages and not taking responsibility for problems in the apartment. By far the worst Airbnb we have stayed in, including other countries as well as the UK. We stayed for 5 days in August.