I love staying at Air B&B’s and am so grateful to owners for sharing their homes that I normally ignore the minor nits that come with travel. But this is different, because this apartment was less than advertised and the descriptions that we relied on to make our decision to stay here seemed to me to be deceptive.
The Good: the neighborhood is super-cute. The restaurants and local shops are so fun. The apartment was very clean and well appointed. Great Nespresso machine, comfortable pillows, nice kitchen, washer/dryer, lots of towels and soap and up two easy flights of stairs also served by an elevator. The owners clearly are doing their best with what they have.
The Real: This was advertised as an apartment with air conditioning. While technically there is an air conditioner in the kitchen, the two bedrooms at the far end of the apartment do not have air conditioning. It was early June in Milan with 95 degree temperatures and the bedrooms hardly cooled at all. Opening windows at night was little help as there was often no night breeze and the mosquitoes and flies entered freely.
A second negative is that there is an air conditioning condensate/water bucket on the patio that must be brought into the kitchen and emptied in the sink twice a day. We were told at check-in that if we didn’t empty the bucket the water would overflow the bucket and fall on the neighbor’s patio below and they would be angry. Emptying this heavy water bucket became a stressful, chore that we came to hate over the week we were guests. There are numerous ways for the owners to route this condensate (none of the neighbors had buckets on their patios), but leaving it to the tenants to bring the water in and dump it down the kitchen sink was akin to having an outhouse for a bathroom.
The final big issue is that the second bedroom has a small child’s bed and is not comfortable for an adult. My 20-year-old son ended up sleeping for the week on the living room couch. This apartment is not suitable for two adults not sleeping together. And along the same lines, the bathroom door is a pocket door that does not fully close (there is a six inch gap remaining when closing the door unless you pull it closed hard with both hands and most of your weight). Even if traveling with a close companion you should know that there is little privacy in the bathroom.
Overall, a cute little apartment in a very nice neighborhood, but given these shortcomings, especially at the premium price we paid, this is not someplace we would choose to stay again while in Milan.