Upon arrival at the unit, we noticed an immediate smell of cigarette smoke. When we mentioned it to the host, he apologized and said that they always try to remove any smoke smell (so not denying that it was possible), that his wife cleaned the place, and that he would discuss it with her when she got home. We didn't hear back. We spent the first night and in the morning, noticed that the fridge was not cold. It had been turned up to it's maximum setting which, to me, indicates that someone at some point knew it wasn't working well. Our son is on medication that needs to be kept refrigerated, so I messaged the host and let him know that this had to be taken care of immediately.
The host brought a cooler full of ice 2 hours later and had a new fridge installed that afternoon.
In the mean time, my 5-year-old daughter found a working lighter in between the cushions on the couch and my wife began to notice the general unclean nature of the apartment. The air intake for the furnace, which is right next to the dining table, was caked in dust. One of the dining chairs was missing and we found it with a broken leg in an upstairs closet.
When we mentioned these issues, the host got very defensive and his tone shifted. ("I delivered a brand new fridge... There is zero smoke smell in the unit. Zero. I'm sorry that your daughter reached inside of the couch and found a lighter. We flip the cushions but didn't reach inside of the couch.")
We knew at this point we weren't going to get anywhere with him on the smoke smell, so we reached out to Airbnb for assistance. They contacted the host directly and he again denied any smoke smell, so they generously offered to refund $100 USD to us directly, but would not force the host to give up one night's rate. This was fine, we just wanted out. We spent our second night in Columbus in a hotel.
In retrospect, perhaps we shouldn't have stayed the first night, but we didn't arrive until 7pm, the kids needed to get to sleep, and we were exhausted. We looked back at previous reviews and saw that someone else had mentioned the smoke smell back in August, 2018, so it's obviously something on their radar. It may not have been the previous tenant, but at some point, someone who smoked lived there and the only way to get that smell out will be to shampoo the carpets and wash the walls. The smell was stronger on the second floor, in the bedrooms, where it's carpeted.
I didn't get the impression that this host cares enough to keep up this unit to that extent. He replaced the fridge because he had to. I cannot recommend this apartment if you have a sensitivity to cigarette smoke or expect anything more than the bare minimum effort from your host.