This would have been a great rental - if it had actually been readied for rental. As it was, the Airbnb Customer Service person I spoke with looked at my photos and deemed it "uninhabitable".
short version:
Kitchen sink plumbing was disconnected when I arrived, floors were filthy, a/c was not working, front porch light was out, and roaches were swarming the kitchen all night. This was even after I got a message from them offering early check-in for an additional fee of up to $100?
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I am not sure what fell through the cracks here, but when I checked in there were cleaning supplies strewn all over the floor in the kitchen and the trash can was in the middle of the room, unemptied. The kitchen faucet was not working. Turns out the things on the floor were from the cabinet under the sink, and the faucet was not working because the entire pipe system under the sink had been disconnected and the water had been shut off.
Then I noticed how sticky the floor was. I wet a paper towerl ( in the bathroom sink) and wiped it across an 18" area of floor and it came up dark gray.
Given that we are in a pandemic and units are supposed to be not just cleaned but sanitized, and given that covid is known to spread via shoes, a floor this dirty was not just inconvenient, but unsafe. And with the floor this dirty, I had to assume the rest of the surfaces had also not been cleaned. So I swept the whole place with a tiny hand broom and "mopped" the floors with paper towels and dish soap.
I turned the A/C on when I entered as it was very stuffy. It worked for a few min then ran an error message. I found the manual for the A/C on the counter in the kitchen (no other manuals for any other appliances were seen anywhere), so someone had clearly seen that it was not working.
The host was, to her credit, very friendly and prompt in responding to my messages, but there were some basic considerations that fell through the cracks in strange ways. She was not able to get the cleaning crew to return that evening, but offered to have them come at 9am the next day, even after I told her that, for safety reasons, I would have to go ahead and clean the unit myself in order to be able to sleep there safely that night. Meaning there was no point to the cleaners coming the next day. Also, no need to have more people in contact with the small space when we are trying to socially distance. There did not seem to be understanding or acknowledgment of that. (Which is extra annoying since they are very adamant about not having extra people in the unit and will charge you extra $ if you have visitors.) Also, when I asked if I could expect to receive some sort of refund of my rental fees, given that I arrived to a dissassembled sink and a filthy floor, I was told that this would be considered after they examined the state of the unit after I checked out. (The Airbnb staff person I spoke to indicated that this is not how hosts are supposed to handle these situations). The host also said that the previous tenant might have left the sink plumbing disassembled? Which also doesn't make sense because clearly the cleaning crew were there and saw it taken apart? Anyway.
She did have someone come and reconnect the kitchen sink the next day. He was also going to replace the lightbulb by the front door (otherwise too dark to see the keypad for entry at night, as I had discovered the previous evening), but didn't have the right bulbs on him at the time. She told me she was working on finding someone to service the a/c. I checked in on a Friday, so likely would not have gotten the a/c fixed until Monday at the earliest (and, this would have meant more strangers coming in and out of the space and contaminating it, and more floor mopping with paper towels and dish soap).
I discovered the roaches at 3am when I went to get a glass of water. 3 ran across the counter and stove in the time it took me to get and fill a glass. I know enough about roaches to know that if there are that many running about when the light is on, there are lots lots more. Didn't sleep terribly well after that. Again, she calmly offered to tell the maintenance person and have him spray. But I know cockroach problems don't go away overnight and I didn't want to be waitig on dying roaches AND dealing with toxic roach spray in my space? This was ultimately the deal breaker for me. (I was recently in Mexico, where roaches pretty much swarm the streets at night. And I only saw 2 roaches inside my open-air apartment during the 5.5 weeks I spent there.)
I ended up moving to a different place in town. Bit of a bummer because as I said, if the unit had actually been cleaned and assembled and pest-free, the space itself was great and I really would have enjoyed staying there. Layout was great. At least sheets and towels seemed to be clean and the bed was super comfy. Couch was also great. Also nice was accessibility of a 4 outlet usb charging station by the bed. The TV is enormous. There were lots of extra blankets and pillows and a stroller and a cot and even a printer?