We have to say that our stay in Katie's place was an unpleasant Airbnb experience.
We booked a two-night stay(1 Jan- 2 Jan)in Katie's place. Because we didn't find an accommodation on New Year's Eve , we asked Katie if we could put our luggage one day before check in. Katie responded quickly and accepted our request. She even offered to let us stay in their sons' room that night without mentioning any charge. We were so moved by the host and gratefully accepted her offer. However, after we sent a thankful message to her and told her just to leave the room as usual since we only need a bed to sleep, she replied us, "Is 100 dollar ok?" What an art of business! Although charging money is understandable, we thought it would be much more acceptable if she has stated the charge along with the kind offer.
Let alone our relatively personal experience, the accommodation itself was not satisfying as well. When we opened the door of the house, a disgusting smell like something rotten left us the first impression. The carpet of the stairs and even in the room were really dirty. Because we arrived one day before, we just 'fortunately' witnessed that it took no more than ten minutes for the couple to clean the room. It seemed like they only change the bedding. The bathroom was so tiny that you can hardly turn round in it. And the host put so many personal stuff in the cabinet that we can only put our cosmetics outside the bathroom. The proximity to the train station may be a benefit for travelers if you are a deep sleeper.
Here comes the experience that we felt offensive in Katie's place. In the mornings when we woke up, we realized the door was open. On the first day, we thought it was just an accident, maybe because of wind. Yet, on the second day, we witnessed it was their lovely kids trying to break into the room without knocking the door. They did it twice in just a few minutes. We were seriously offended as they didn't show respect to privacy. What if we are changing clothes? We are more than happy to chat with them if they are more polite. When we left the room, we could hear Katie was talking to her kids. We suspect it might be her idea to ask the kids to kindly remind us it's time to check out, even it wasn't the checkout time yet.
If you are going to Sydney, this is not a place to be.