When you arrive, there is a heavy iron gate with a padlock covering the apartment door. It gave the impression the building is unsafe. When you go in, you must padlock yourself in because there is no lock on the apartment door. There is an open floor plan that the host refers to as a kitchen and TV lounge. The kitchen is broken cupboards with a tiny kettle that the 3 rooms share. There is a gross old pot and pan, 6 plates, 4 coffee mugs, and a bowl humidity-logged sugar. None of the pictured cooking supplies exist. The mugs are not enough for the number of roommates that could be up to 10 people. There is no TV, no, sofa, or anything else from the pictures. There's a camera that rotates and pans for the host to watch everyone.
There are three bedrooms. The listing said no kids, but half the days I stayed, the roommates were families with as many as 3 , kids each. You share a bathroom. One of the bedrooms has a private bath, but the roommates in that room always sent their kids to the shared bathroom and even used the shared one for their bowel movements. Not one of the roommates during my entire stay knew how to use a shower door, so after each shower, the entire bathroom- walls, toilet, and floor was soaked. The bathroom remained a swamp for hours. If you are sharing a bathroom with 7 people, it's very difficult.
The housekeeper comes every day, but you'll never catch her with a rag or cleaning chemicals. There's mildew everywhere. The walls are covered in ick. Often roommates would spend 30 minutes spreading their lungs and spitting or blowing snot rockets on the walls. The public hair and DNA stays part of the bathroom walls.
The bedrooms aren't much better. The bedding is changed, the floor is kind of swept, but nothing else. There's DNA on the curtains in white splotches. There are stray hairs all over the floor. The mattresses are the worst I've ever experienced. I stayed in two different rooms. Both mattresses have huge imprints of past guests and springs and supports stabbing you.
In one room, the windows look into the non-existent TV lounge. I had multiple guests and their kids trying to look into my bedroom. 90% of the roommates tried my door latch every time they walked past, especially the kids. It makes you feel very unsafe even more when you remember you're all padlocked in together. You need to take your key when you go to the toilet, to prevent someone being in your room when you return.
The other rooms are listed as 'lakeview.' There is no lake. There is a dilipated fountain covered in mildew with another building behin. The housekeeper told me to keep the curtains closed to prevent people from seeing in. The door latches are sticky and unclean.
They do have a washing machine. No dryer. No detergent. But you're sharing the machine with all the roommates, the housekeeper doing her personal laundry, and the housekeeper washing the bedding and towels.
The water in the apartment runs yellow, so I wouldn't drink it. You need to buy your own water. They know the water is nasty because they put a filter on the washing machine but maybe they don't realize filters need to be changed.
There are towels on the floor acting as rugs. They were not cleaned the entire time I was there. One night, a roommate spilled food all over the kitchen floor and left it. The housekeeper just turned over the towel. There is a towel on the kitchen counter as well. It will also never be washed.
My overall impression was that it reminded me of demolition compensation property in mainland China, where people who had never owned a proper home before are gifted apartments with no education on how to care for and maintain them.
