Unfortunately, we were unlucky in that the home had a terrible toxic smell during our stay of five nights. We're not experts on scents, but it smelled like an exterminator had just been there. It was very hard to breathe in there so we just avoided being there as much as possible. Host didn't provide real solutions when we brought it up besides sending the cleaning lady who told us to keep leaving the windows open. Cleaning lady let us know that a previous guest burnt something and that she couldn't get rid of the smell, so clearly they knew about it and how strong it was before we even checked in yet gave us no warning. We were so naive and just kept hoping it would go away by airing it out. The smell was so intense that our clothes were permeated with it when we unpacked our luggage back home.
The lack of knowledge of Airbnb policies really hurt us. We didn't know that the company has policies that protect guests from staying in unsanitary apartments. We could have asked to be moved, reached out to customer service or submitted a claim when nothing was done to make the smell go away. We still don't know what the smell was and host later claimed the cleaning lady didn't smell anything.
Although the location of the studio was great and check-in was easy, our stay was unfortunately pretty awful for us due to the smell. We regret not knowing our options and not being assertive, but hoping others will learn from our experience.