The reviews for this stay left out a lot of important information. I think the host is great but it is really important to note that this stay may not be suitable for things like honeymoons or very indulgent stays.
My husband and I came into Rome for our honeymoon and thought this would be a suitable choice based on the amazing reviews but we felt like it was probably better suited for students, those traveling for work, or long term stays rather than luxury stays.
Mario contacted me several weeks before to set up a check-in time which I am not accustomed to scheduling as you can self check-in at most airbnbs I typically stay at. We ended up arriving early (but after the allowed check-in time) and we’re hoping we may be able to still check in, however, we were not able to as someone had to physically drive from another area to let us in. Mario was nice about this and spoke to his contact to see if she could help us earlier but mostly just recommended we go for lunch, which was fine but we had to carry our bags for the additional hour.
The location is good and there are several markets and restaurants, it’s a fun location.
There are a lot of amenities in the apartment but the room is the ONLY place that has an air conditioner. To keep the room cold, we had to keep the air conditioner in the bedroom with the door closed which meant the rest of the house was actually hotter than the outside temperature even with the shutters closed. Also, the unit drains a large amount of water—at 17C we had to empty the small tank every ~6 hours which we felt like was a lot given that we were out and about trying to explore Rome for several hours at a time. Again, fine, but for a luxury vacation I would avoid booking. Every moment spent in the kitchen and bathroom was extremely hot. I have heard that this is customary for most people so that should be understood, but for the occasion I wish we had just went ahead and gone to a fully air conditioned Hilton. We actually ended up leaving early and stayed at a Hilton for the remainder of the trip and did not experience any other issues with the heat. It made me really sad that the owner mostly just told us that he has never received that complaint, was sorry about our problems with the weather, and maybe we shouldn’t be visiting Rome this time of year. I used to live in Arizona and I am very fine with the heat and we are both pretty low maintenance, but from the reviews I definitely expected more and think there should be an additional air conditioning unit. For a honeymoon in the summer, I would not recommend—this felt a bit more like “living like a local” than luxury travel.
We had a great time in Rome and would still recommend visiting the city in the summer but would avoid this Airbnb for the summer months if you’re a traveler that is accustomed to any sort of air conditioning in BOTH common areas and bedroom. When we moved locations, we had much more fun.