At 9:22pm the night before we were scheduled to arrive we received a note from the host that there was a "hydraulic" issue and that we would not be able to stay in our original apartment. The company offered this unit instead. I was skeptical that there was an actual issue. We got a *really* good deal on the original unit because I booked it during the height of Covid. I suspect that they could get a lot more money by renting it to someone else and sticking up in this other apartment.
To their credit, they refunded some of our money due to the inconvenience. This place was definitely a downgrade to our other unit (both in terms of amenities and location), but I will try to be objective and review this property on its merits and not compared to the other property that we were to have.
The communication from the host was okay (not great, but not terrible either). The most stressful piece was that I still didn't have a door code when I was 15 minutes from arrival. I had to ask a couple of times and finally received it.
This property is located on a quiet street about a 15 minute walk from Santa Maria Novella train station. The unit is on the 2nd floor (that's the 3rd floor for you Americans) with no lift/elevator available. When we arrived, the air conditioning had not been running, so it was quite warm in the unit. There is a thermostat located centrally in the unit, but I don't think it operates the air conditioners. We were only able to find a single AC remote, so we used that to control all of the units. We turned the temperature as low as it would go and only after 2 days did they actually cool off the unit to our satisfaction (note that daytime temperatures were around 35C/95F during our stay)
As stated by another reviewer from several months ago, the upstairs shower is terribly dirty with black mold/mildew. In fact my family refused to use that 2nd shower therefore we effectively had only one shower in the unit. There were other areas that were not clean; for example, the living room sofa had a couple of large stains on them. It was difficult to say whether these were sweat stains or blood stains on the brown couch. Either way, it was quite unpleasant.
There are several other suggestions that I've already provided to the host, but will list here for informational purposes.
- Provide instructions for the washing machine. I was able to use my phone to figure it out, but it was challenging in the beginning.
- Repair the kitchen faucet. It is very loose and feels like it's about to break apart.
- Provide additional hangers for hanging up clothes. I think there are only about 8 in the entire apartment and this is one of the primary mechanisms for drying clothes.
- Provide a list of restaurant suggestions in the area (including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert)
Using this host was bittersweet for me. I feel like the experience of using such a management company (instead of an individual) isn't as good. However, we were fortunate that they had another apartment available (if there truly was an issue).