Unfortunately we had some negative experiences at this Airbnb that I feel I need to share. I have stayed in Airbnbs before and have lived and traveled all over the world, but this was my husband's first experience in an Airbnb, so it's too bad that we had some negative experiences, because I had assured him that an Airbnb would be fine. I had two primary concerns, which I will elaborate on below: 1. Security of room/safety of check-in, and 2. Cleanliness.
1. Security of room/safety of check-in
Leading up to our stay, I messaged Malek a few times, and he was always very helpful and prompt to respond. I let him know what we would not be arriving until late at night (after 10 p.m.), and he said that would be fine. We arrived at about 11:10 p.m. We punched in the code for the building and entered, no problem. We punched in the code and entered our floor, no problem. We punched in the code for the bedroom, and it opened, and I gasped and jumped back because there were two men sleeping in our room! The man in the bed closest to the door was asleep and we woke him up and he was groggy, but thankfully he didn't throw anything or didn't seem very afraid, which would have been his right when strangers enter what he thought was a locked door in the middle of the night. A woman who helps Malek with the Airbnb came flying out of the other room, apologizing, and then said she would put us in an empty room on the third floor. Using Malek's Airbnb account, she messaged us the door code for the third floor room, and said we could stay there for the night. As it sunk in what had happened, I got more and more concerned about the security of the building and how it was being run. It's not just that Malek got two codes mixed up or something--between the 11:00 a.m. check out time and my 11:00 p.m. arrival, NO ONE CHECKED THAT THE ROOM WE BOOKED WAS EMPTY. They should have been in that room turning it over for us, and should have changed the room code so that the previous guest couldn't get in our room, and so that it was ready for us. But in that 12-hour period, no one prepared for my arrival or informed the previous guess that he needed to leave. By the time I got settled in our new room upstairs, it was past 11:30 p.m. At midnight Malek was messaging me, saying that the previous guest was supposed to check out of the room we found him in and then check into a new room, and the previous guest messed up and didn't check out. However, it is the host's responsibility to make sure that rooms are ready for guests, not previous guests. This was a serious breach of security, and created an unsafe situation for the two guests who were in that room, and for me and my husband. Around 12:30 a.m. I was still messaging with Malek, and he said we would need to move back downstairs the next day, because the room that they temporarily put us in on the third floor would be occupied by other guests that night. This was a further stressor for us to have to move again, because this was a work trip for us. I was in town to speak at a university and I needed to be on campus the next day, and my husband was working from home and had online meetings all afternoon. Malek said he would move our things himself, but given our experience so far, I really didn't want him entering our room and moving our things, so I said my husband would do it, but it was a pain for my husband to have to pack up and move again the next day while trying to work, because when we booked I assured my husband he'd be able to stay in our room and work that day with an uninterrupted schedule. Because of all the mayhem the first night, I did not sleep well, so that made my week at the university have a difficult start. Another security concern was that on the second to last night there, there was a guy with a backpack sleeping on the couch in the common area. When I got up to use the bathroom, and then my husband was out to use the bathroom not long after, I think that we woke him up, and then he was gone. I think it was a guest who had already checked out and didn't want to pay for an extra night, so he just stayed in the building on the couch.
In addition to my other suggestions, I think that a chain link and/or bolt lock should be put inside each bedroom so that guests can physically lock themselves in at night in case the incorrect code is given out.
I will add that Malek took $100 off our bill for the week because of the mistake that happened on the first night.
2. Cleanliness concerns
When I booked this place, I knew there was a shared bathroom, so I was prepared for things to not be pristine all the time. However, because there were 4 rooms sharing one bathroom, with up to two people per room, and people coming and going all week, I had assumed that the bathroom would be cleaned by the host each day--that just seemed common sense to me. However, this was not the case. We stayed for five nights, and the bathroom got progressively more dirty as we were there. There was some wadded-up wet cotton on the windowsill of the window in the bath tub that was there for who knows how long, and was there the entire time we were there. I picked up my hair from the shower