I stayed in this apartment for 28 nights May 6th - June 3rd. I was working my remote job so I spent a lot of time at home and working (Wifi worked perfectly the whole time). I was a solo female traveler and I felt safe during my whole stay, especially because there's a gate to enter the building at night. This stay is not hosted by a single person or owner, but rather a company where you communicate with different people through WhatsApp or Airbnb messages, and it was never consistent and would sometimes take days to get a response from anyone. This part felt insincere, and I personally won't stay in an Airbnb run by a company anymore.
When I first got there, I noticed the hinge latch on the door (from the inside, like in a hotel) was hanging off and only held on by one screw, and when I asked the host to fix it they told me no because the door still locked from the outside. I was concerned because I didn't know who else had a key to this apartment, but that request was ignored and I moved in.
When I first checked in the apartment seemed fine, but after a few days I realized that it was not cleaned well. The shower was not draining, and when a maintenance guy came to fix it he pulled out an enormous chunk of hair and gunk from the previous guest. The maintenance guy told me that this should have been cleaned and that he would let management know. When he saw the broken hinge lock on the door, he offered to fix it for me which I was very happy about at least.
A few days after that, I pulled out the downstairs couch bed and found the bedding unchanged and full of stains, dirt, hair, and a card from a museum from the previous guests. The comforter provided on the bed upstairs was also clearly uncleaned and smelled dirty and dusty, and it was only wrapped in a sheet that I guess was supposed to be the comforter cover.
I communicated all of these issues with the Airbnb company, and the responses would take days and things wouldn't be solved. I asked multiple times for the shower drain to be fixed, and was at first told that drains in Florence are just slower. However, it was actually flooding. When I persisted, the maintenance person was sent out.
When I asked for a drying rack, it took almost a week to receive it and instructions weren't clear on how I was supposed to receive the drying rack (it was a delivery). I came home one day to someone entering my apartment to drop it off, but didn't know someone was going to be coming into my apartment. The Airbnb host told me that it was an honest mistake and they thought I knew someone would come in. That was fine, but it did prove my point that I was reasonable in asking for the hinge lock to be fixed because I didn't know who had keys to enter my apartment.
After these cleanliness issues, I asked if someone could come clean the apartment again because it wasn't thoroughly cleaned when I got there. I told them about the shower and bedding issues, and when I came back after the cleaning the dirty couch bed sheets were still unchanged and I was charged 40 Euros for the cleaning job. Also, the washing machine leaks when it's run.
There were a lot of things that made this place not equipped for a long term stay. I did appreciate how there was some toilet paper, paper towels, a few trash bags, dish soap, and laundry soap that lasted a few days before I had to get to the store. However, there were a lot of things that I needed to buy. Hand soap, a bathroom trash can, wooden spoons, glasses that were bigger than a few ounces, a small frying pan, and a fan because the windows don't open and the apartment got very stuffy. Not that you'd want to open the windows anyway because there are so many mosquitos in the summer. Everything I bought I did leave, though, so I guess I furnished the place a little better for the next guest.
There is a charge to check in to this apartment early which I didn't realize until I asked if I could check in early, and when I asked about the charge they told me they would waive it and that they hoped I considered that when leaving a review at the end of my stay. Unfortunately, that didn't make a difference to change my review.
If you want to be close to the Santa Maria Novella train station for trips out of Florence, the location is great. If you want a more authentic Florence experience, I would recommend staying on the other side of the river. Having a Conad directly across the street was super great, and there was a pastry/coffee place right downstairs that I went to every day and loved.
Overall, I definitely wouldn't stay here again because of the quality of the apartment and communication with the host. It was also very expensive and not worth the price I paid for a month. However, if you just want to be close to the station and want a good sized space, this spot might be good for you.