We booked Giuseppe's house very last minute and we were very grateful that he was able to accommodate us so quickly. The apartment is attached to Giuseppe's home, however, it was very private and we didn't see him very much at all. It was spacious and big enough for our family of 5 plus our cat. We had a car parking space for our car in the garage, the beds were comfortable and the grounds surrounding the home were beautiful - not the mention the view of Etna was amazing!
There were a few small issues that made me wonder if perhaps Giuseppe was out of practice or perhaps it was because of our short notice, but we didn't have dishwasher tablets (turns out the dishwasher didn't work anyway), enough toilet paper (two rolls - 5 people, 4 days), washing powder (there is a washing machine, maybe we're meant to supply the powder?) garbage bags, paper towel etc. None of that was a big deal, we made do. What was more of an issue was the fact that the hot water didn't work properly. Giuseppe did admit to the boiler being broken but with it being between Xmas and New Years, he couldn't find anyone to fix it, which resulted in us more often than not having no hot water, or it 'going out' after a minute or two. I would then have to send him a message and he would go to the boiler and make it work again. This became frustrating after the 3rd or 4th time standing naked with soap suds all over us and no hot water.
The hot tub also didn't work, which we were really disappointed about because it was one of the reasons we booked the house. However, the most disappointing thing was Giuseppe's response when I asked if he was willing to offer any sort of compensation for the fact that we couldn't really shower comfortably and the hot tub not working. His response was that he couldn't offer any compensation but we were welcome to leave early?? It was 8:30 pm on our last night! He also said that the hot tub was working and if it wasn't now, then he would consider charging us for breaking it!!
It just felt like a very strange response from a superhost. I would have been happy with a sincere apology and an attempt to send us away happy! It's not like Giueseppe's property was cheap, nor was it an old home, or that all 5 of us were trying to shower at once. We couldn't even get one shower in without the water turning cold. If it was summer, I could get over it, but it was the middle of winter, freezing cold and we'd even been to the snow, so hot water would have been nice! Overall, we tried to not let these issues bother us but it did leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths.