Back home no one gets beyond the entrance with their shoes. You are expected to remove your outside shoes, place them in the entrance of a home (but inside, not on the staircase) and walk barefooted/sockfooted/slipperfooted inside.
If you try getting inside my mother's home in outside shoes, you'll be kicked out of the house at broom poking...
Offering guests house-shoes I have seen for the first time in Germany. In my home either you come prepared or you walk on socks (or you get poked out of the house with a broom hihihihi)!
But yes, living on the top floor, I do share the predicament of having to smell the "eau-de-pied" cologne

from 6 other apartments, plus the extension of the living room to the staircase in the form of mouldy furniture monstrosities. I've thought about secretly calling the fire department, but I keep reading in EF I should be a good neighbour...