Pros:
- Amazing location. Center of everything and middle of historical center.
- Historical building, charming character, and feeling of being a local
- Fair price for what the listing is (more below)
- Host herself is very responsive over AirBnB app
- Very quiet location at night
Cons (mostly with the way AirBnB do their listing and not the host. This part is also more for visitors from the US who may not be familiar with the cultural norms):
- Some of my complaints below were because of a higher expectation from this listing being a AirBnB Plus. Designation now seems to be more of a token for hosts who paid extra to AirBnB for professional photos (that made the unit look bigger than it is) than actual verification (like Amazon sponsored listen in search results).
- We didn’t realize from the listing the Host didn’t speak English and a lot of communication online was through what seems to be Google Translate which led to a lot of friction. The person who checked us in did speak English, was very nice, but wasn’t the host, and wasn’t familiar with the unit. We mentioned many of items below during check in but nothing was initially addressed. We had thought we were being ignored. The host did provide more clarification and items (more below).
- 76 step which was was disclosed in a Health and Safety section I never checked with prior AirBnB stays because I assumed it had to do with Covid enhanced cleaning. Now I know after having a 6 mo pregnant wife complain daily about it. It should be more clear under the more logical Accessibility section and not hidden away at the bottom.
- What we and our Italian friends thought was only an in unit washer, which the Host clarified later was a combined washer/dryer in one unit (but would be nice if we were told during check in as these doesn't exist in the United States)
- There seem to be different cultural expectations as we felt the unit was extremely cozy for 4 adults for a week (aka small). A requirement by AirBnB to list sq footage may help in the future. Although this was very charming and historical unit, we would have paid more for another competing listing that included pictures of a bigger floor plan. We had assumed they were the same size based on pictures. Lesson learned, nothing comes for free (or cheap).
- This may be another cultural difference, as AirBnB in the United States I’ve stayed at generally have plenty of towels and toiletries stocked in the unit itself, and didn’t require the Host to make a trip to provide more. We were only given one face towel and one body towel per person for the whole week. The Host did provide us one more set of towels and one more roll of toilet paper after she was notified.
- There was a misunderstanding of self check in. In the US this means a keypad door lock with a code to enter the unit. Here it was someone meeting us with only one set of keys. This is problematic as there’s two couples with two very different schedules, add in the 76 stairs and result was Stair Masters. We discovered on the last day there is a buzzer in the apartment that allows us to open the main gate downstairs remotely vs having to walk 76 steps downstairs. Again, something that would have been solved if we didn’t have the language barrier.