This was our first AirB&B experience... and as a result of it, we cancelled our next AirB&B booking to avoid any bad surprise! Sadly!
Our arrival...
We arrived to Mestre, a nice neighborhood but certainly not “convenient” to visit Venice! The bus is crowded and the bus ride long! So the location was not ideal at all!
Upon arrival to the apartment, we were greeted by the cleaning lady - not agreeable and could not communicate with us easily due to language barrier. As we walked in the “loft” (I guess we all have different definitions of what a loft is), we were shocked by the outrageous smell of cigarette and cold and old tobacco of the place. We clearly could not stay there for health reasons! The cleaning lady showed us a couple of other places in the same building; we picked one, by default rather than by real choice. We needed two more pillows as the ones (one for each person) were way too flat; the host was reluctant. I had to threaten to leave before she agreed to bring us two extra pillows. The cleaning lady remitted us the keys and left, without any explanation as to how to open and close doors etc...
Our stay
The place was clean and there was the bare minimum one could need for a four-night stay: the TV with Italian channels only so completely useless for international travelers)... The AC was working, but not efficiently. It started leaking on the first evening... I needed to empty a bucket on the balcony everyday to avoid that the AC leaks and floods the apartment.
The bathroom was clean, but the shower was extremely small and its plastic walls could be cleaner... or maybe, they were clean just not neat. The doors of the shower were not closing properly and we could not avoid splashing the floor. The bedsheets were old and have started tearing apart!
Finally, opening the building door and the apartment door was quite a challenge everyday!
A great thing, however, was the washer; it was very helpful to be able to wash our clothes after two weeks on the road!
One of the hosts wanted to meet with us, but only when she could... so we never met.
Our departure
We made sure that we removed the bedsheets, which we left folded on the bed with the towels. We were instructed to leave the trash in the kitchen (which we collected and left there). We also left the keys on the table as instructed. None of the hosts contacted us to tell us what to do.... We did contact them to clarify instructions. In honestly, the hosts were rather ghosts; responsive but absent! It felt that “hosting” was done to squeeze every single penny out of the venture, without heart and passion. Completely hated the feeling and the experience.
In conclusion, our stay in Venice was completely stained by “our” choice of accommodation. Excellent gelato and surrounding beauty helped a bit to light us up. It was, however, a great lesson to choose better our next accommodation.