Here’s what you need to know,
Pros:
The building is incredibly beautiful.
The apartment is a 3 floor loft with antique-style decor and furniture. It’s not what I consider cozy, but it’s very nice.
The fixtures are updated and modern
The natural light is impeccable.
The area is relatively quiet and I had no safety concerns.
The A/C worked really well for our stay.
Cons:
There are no shades on the huge glass window so that felt unusual.
There aren’t many stores or restaurants or transportation within a 15 minute walk.
At night we could hear cars passing by, and it’s a highly used street so if noise is an issue for you, then consider this.
The floors of the apartment are pretty creaky, and the apartment is really open so it echoes.
For these reasons I want to give the place a 4-star. We were personally okay with the mentioned cons and I think this is a great place for a couple or a family.
HOWEVER
We had a situation with not having hot water for showering which revealed to us the discourtesy, rudeness, and lack of hospitality on the side of the owner.
Our situation, in summary, was that we were instructed to only use 1 bathroom (even though the airbnb was listed as having 2 bathrooms, we don’t appreciate having to deal with subtexts or hidden rules when it comes to living conditions on a vacation) and it didnt have hot water for about an hour of fiddling with the controls, because the gas switch was left turned off. Before figuring out on our own the cause of not having hot water, we decided to use the 2nd bathroom which appeared to have hot water and we’re not fans of cold water showers, but the owner finally came to resolve the issue and saw that we used the 2nd bathroom.
1) She came after we had JUST found out why the water was cold (which should never have been an issue) and didn’t see why there was an issue, she was upset, yelled in our faces (in italian) and made accusations that were really quite silly like, why are we touching things we shouldnt have (aka the switch that turned the water warm) and inconveniencing her for no reason at night. Not to mention that the hot water heater has some issue to begin with because even after turning the switch on and figuring it out there were times the water wouldn't be warm and we would have to turn on and off the shower multiple times before the heater would turn on (you can hear it turn on)
2) She decided to charge us a ridiculous fee for using the 2nd bathroom one time, a fee that Airbnb so generously decided to cover for us.
Ultimately, it was the most unpleasant experience with a host I have ever had, and the owner, along with her customer service helpers, are objectively rude, inconsiderate people.
The takeaway is this, if you don’t need to interact with the owner beyond basic introduction and check-in, then you’ll really love this place!! We did, and we thought it was really unfortunate that there was such a messy interaction with the host because it ruined part of our trip. I suspect most of the people who stay here will not have the same utility mishaps that we did, so that’s good!
And to the owner, you should really try to consider giving people the benefit of the doubt before blaming them for things they didn't do and yelling at them in a foreign language and then charging absurd cleaning fees for wanting to take a hot shower. Your welcome for discovering where your gas switch is and how to turn it on. Enjoy the money you insisted we pay, we left the place very clean as we always do so you’ll not have to clean very much at all.