I have stayed in a variety of different air bnbs but this one sticks out with respect to all of them. Visually and location wise this is a very nice apartment. Centrally located and very nice furnishings. I have had a few experiences since I started my stay here that have stuck out and made me write this review. I am usually not one to leave reviews: both positive or negative but I felt the need to leave one for this experience.
When I selected my 1 pm check in time, the owner said they were not available for check in until 3 pm and that I would have to wait. Take note from their page that check in after a certain time results in extra fees. After explaining to the owner that we had arrived and been waiting in the heat, he came to the apartment at 2:30 for an earlier check in which was nice.
The apartment was on the “4th floor” of a very tall building that doesn’t have an elevator. My family does not travel lightly so that was quite a bit of a hike up to the room. When we arrived, the cleaning lady was still present cleaning up from previous guests. From my understanding, she was supposed to have the apartment ready for our original 3 pm check in time; however, she lingered on her phone until 4 pm rolled around.
There was a pile of swept up dirt from one of the bedrooms that we had to ask her to finish cleaning up because she had forgotten and decided to go on her phone instead. When we asked her Nicely to finish up, she said that she had been waiting all that time for us to leave the bedroom. Mind you, she had never said that we were in her way and she knew that we spoke Italian so there was no confusion with language barriers or anything.
She finally left the apartment by 4. This apartment doesn’t have AC so keep this in mind when booking. I also had to pay a 3.50 euro “tax” per person per night for staying here separate from the Airbnb cost. I have stayed in many places and never encountered such a fee.
We just returned it the place after a day out in town and noticed there is absolutely no hot water. Previous reviews have been complaining about hot water problems for quite some time (June 2018) and it doesn’t seem to have been fixed from the earliest review I see noting issues with hot water. That is very frustrating. We all want to shower after a days worth of travel but cannot comfortably because there is no hot water and there is no shower curtain in the tub. If you shower, you need to squat to about spraying water all over the bathroom. I reached out to the owner to explain the issue and he said that I should try resetting the water heater. I spent 15 minutes following the instructions and had no success. I also don’t feel as if it is safe to ask someone to mess with gas water heaters, especially someone that doesn’t know what they are doing. We still have no hot water.
While the whole water fiasco was going down, we noticed that the exhaust tube leading out of the water heater has a family of jolly pig goons living inside of it. When you hit the tube you hear walking in it and even hear them coming and going out of their cozy little home. I told the owner about the juice they make going in and out and he proceeded to tell me they were outside and not living inside. I am quite positive they were living inside and even got video of it for my records.
All in all, I’m a little torn about this one. The price is great and the location and furnishings are very nice. I guess you have to factor in the upsides and downsides when deciding whether you want to stay here. I personally will not be returning the next time I am in Rome. I just can’t justify paying for a place that has no AC in the summer, no hot water, and pests living in a centrally located appliance.
I do have to say I appreciate the 82 steps it takes to get from the ground to the apartment after all the pizza, pasta, and gelato I have eaten. It sure did pay off with respect to keeping me slim in this calorie motherland.