We (a couple) stayed here for 2 nights and can sum up our experience in terms of pros and cons. Temperature was around 18deg. We did not meet the host personally but instead was greeted by his coordinator, Stefan.
Pros:
- Room is clean and seems to be recently renovated
- Hot water works fine
- Thoughtful wine bottle gift
- Marco responded quickly via whatsapp when we were outside the building and could not get in due to the coordinator being late
- Near Florence central train station
Cons:
- Room is small. It felt more like a room in an apartment, rather than an actual apartment as stated in the listing title. We could barely open our luggages (1 check-in each) and our cabin bags had to be stored by the door.
- The lift is quite old and requires you to manually close the door yourself. It could not fit all our luggages and 2 of us.
- The building is old. When we returned after dinner, although the streets were brightly lit, the walk up the stairs leading to the apartment on the 2nd floor is completely pitch black. The 1st floor apartment seems to be occupied as there is a pram on the landing. However, I dont think I would be feel safe if it were 2 females returning back. Granted, after you key in the code to enter the apartment, there is a light sensor when you open the door and ir gets very bright. However, I did not like the feeling of standing in complete darkness keying in the access code to enter a shared landing. Because after that, I had to use another access code to get into my room. Basically, 5 rooms share 1 access code to get into the apartment. And each room has its own access code.
- Sink is very small and narrow. Kettle cannot fit underneath the tap to be filled up.
- Blanket was a thin sheet with a thin cover. I would have expected a duvet at least. Given the temperature, this was manageable but I cannot imagine staying here in winter.
Recommendations as a guest:
- Do not call the room an apartment
- Bath towels should be a given
Recommendations to future travellers:
- Before booking, make sure you are ok with sharing a common landing in the same place with 4 other airbnb travellers (check out this host’s other listings)
- Read all terms especially the €7 top up for bath towels
- Be mindful that some of the pictures are of common landings and are not pictures of a “apartment”
Disclaimer:
We do not intend to insult or offend anyone but just wanted to give a factual account of our experience, as we did not see any such comments prior to booking. Hence, our expectations were not managed and we were pretty disappointed.
Thanks for having us anyway!