We booked an apartment in Florence for three nights in January 2016 and upon our arrival in May we were told that the unit that we had reserved was unavailable. Our host, Luca Andreotti informed us that he knew in advance that we would not be able to stay in the unit that we had reserved but didn't notify us because he wanted to present us with other options. Those options were staying in three different units over three nights or finding our own other arrangements. Nice. We reluctantly agreed as we had no idea as to whether we could find other accommodations and we were too tired to argue. None of the rentals that we stayed in came close to the description of the unit that we had originally booked. The apartment on the second evening was a small studio with a wonderful view of a scaffold out of our window. The upstairs neighbors partied until seven in the morning. Moving every day was an inconvenience that we didn't need. We were required to leave our units each morning for the next arrivals and were left without a room until the next unit was readied. It was after six in the evening before our last unit was available for us.
This was our first time using AirBnb. We were naive to assume that these rentals were private holdings rented out to people when the owners didn't require the space. Luca runs an AirBnb corporation complete with office and cleaning staff. It's not mom and pop and you are not a guest. You are merely income.
BTW, we thoroughly loved Florence. It is beautiful. We also stayed at the Hotel de Russie in Rome and the Hotel Campiello in Venice. I highly recommend both.