Summary: OK as a crash pad for a family of 4 for a short stay. Good transport links for city centre and smooth check-in. However, apartment is poorly equipped and we were pressured to leave before agreed check out time.
Full review below.
Good:
• Smooth booking and check-in: Great communication through the Airbnb app and WhatsApp. Easy to find thanks to clear instructions.
• Convenient location: A short walk from M3 metro (Machiachini stop) and trams that take you to central spots. Supermarkets within a few minutes’ walk.
• Lots of extra blankets and towels, which was useful for us as a family of 4 staying in October as the weather was getting chillier
• Shutters on the windows make the bedroom nice and dark, great for light sleepers
Bad:
• The apartment was equipped with seemingly random stuff and some basic things were missing. For example:
1) the bathroom had no hand soap and no hand towel set out - the first thing people tend to do when arriving after a long journey is freshen up, so not great to find you can’t wash your hands and have to go out and buy soap.
2) The kitchen also had no dish soap so we could only wash up dishes with hot water (I wasn’t going to buy a bottle of dish soap for just a few days of cereal bowls and glasses).
3) Kitchen only had a few plates and one large serving bowl, but no bowls so we had to eat cereal out of shallow dishes (as tourists, breakfast was the only meal we ate at home). Only 4 small tumblers for water/juice, everything else was mugs, espresso cups or small liqueur glasses
4) Lots of pots and pans but no utensils (wooden spoon, spatula…) so cooking even simple meals would be difficult
•The bed in the main room is actually 2 twin mattresses on a double frame, which was a bit awkward and not very comfortable. The bed was also quite hard, although the pillows were comfortable memory foam.
• We were pressured to leave before check out time, though unclear if this was unique to our visit. Check out was listed as 11:00am and I had also confirmed with the host (or whoever was managing our stay via WhatsApp) that we would be gone by 11:00am. However at 10:53am there was already somebody trying to open the front door which was a bit disconcerting and stressful while we were getting the kids’ coats on and gathering our bags. I opened the door and the people in the apartment next door were talking to me in Italian, one of whom was on the phone. I had no idea if there was some emergency in the building or what was happening. At the same time the host texted me that “Angela” was arriving. I had no idea who that is (perhaps the neighbour is the owner?) so I had to make it understood to both host and neighbour that we were literally just leaving and would be out in 2 minutes. It was quite aggressive and meant we were rushed in doing our final check for all our things before leaving. If they had absolutely needed the apartment at 11:00, it would be better to have check out at 10.30…
Other things to know - not necessarily bad things but might be confusing for some people:
• The shower temperature control is the opposite of how it’s labelled (hot is marked as to the right but it’s actually to the left) and you also need to let it run for a bit to heat up. Quite confusing to figure out so I thought there was no hot water at first. The control is also very sensitive so don’t turn it too far to the left or it can be quite scalding.
• To flush the toilet you need to turn the lever on the wall to the left and back again (like a faucet). This seems to be a common flushing mechanism in Milan but may not be obvious to people visiting for the first time.
Overall it was fine for a short stay as a family of 4 spending most of the day and evening out in the city. However it wasn’t particularly comfortable, and dealing with multiple hosts and communication channels was confusing (I presume the owner had someone who speaks English to help with the hosting, so if you prefer staying in a real home or dealing directly with the actual host, this might not be suitable). I probably wouldn’t stay here again.