We stayed at Paolo’a place in Venice, and it was a great base to explore Venice. We were within a 20 minute walk from everything besides the train station, which was 30 minutes.
Check-in was great as Gabi showed us around the unit and explained that they own the building, so you don’t have to worry about strangers. I would caution you about meeting at Planet Restaurant because the servers seemed angry and were super rude when we bought water in exchange for WiFi to contact Gabi to meet us... plus they charged us a ridiculous 3euro for a small still water. I’d suggest meeting elsewhere - possibly Dal Moro’s right next door.
Bring cash to pay the $4/ person/ night Venice city tax, and don’t worry if your GPS starts going awry when you first map to the Airbnb/ meeting point as the buildings interfere with the signal.