You know when you meet a very beautiful person and you're pleased to talk to them, and then you realize they are incredibly stupid and you just want to get away from them? That's this apartment. It IS a lovely space and it DOES have a wonderful view and it IS sparkling clean. ALL TRUE.
However, the hosts (a property management firm) gave us three different addresses, causing us to drag our bags up and down the streets of Venice trying to find the home (we were sent an address, as well as a Google earth image, as well as a written description of the home, those things didn't match).
We did not ask for an early check-in, but were delighted when the host told us to come straight from our 09:00 train to the apartment and someone would be waiting (that would be about 9:30). Our train arrived early and we notified the hosts, not expecting anyone to arrive earlier, but they had asked us to notify them when we arrived in Venice. The response was that check in was in the afternoon and they were doing us a favor and couldn't be there until 10:30. Again, 10:30 would have been great, but we were told 9:30. No one arrived until 10:45 and just found us in the alley sitting against the wall because we weren't sure which address was correct.
We were taken to the 5th floor apartment, which is beautiful, and he shows us around. Shows us the internet (it doesn't ever work), and remembers that the hot water isn't working. He "fixes" the hot water and leaves.
Something had been broken on the veranda and there were sharp pieces of glass/ceramic on the ground, I immediately cut my foot, then spend several minutes cleaning up the broken glass. There was no broom available to sweep.
We left for the day and returned at 19:00 to only ice cold water. We text him, as he instructed us to do. He said he could be reached anytime between 08:30-20:30 each day. He didn't respond. We had to heat up water on the stove and take a sponge bath. The next morning we sent another text as well as email and were told someone would come fix it. We were gone for the day and returned, to still no warm water. We texted/ emailed again and were told it was fixed. But there was no warm water. The response was, "I don't know why."
That was our last night in Venice before a 20 hour travel home, and we hadn't showered in 3 days (having taken an overnight train to Venice). We finally just left and went to a hotel so we could shower and sleep before flying out. A total waste of time and money. Marco, the man we were texting, told us he'd talk to his office about a partial refund. We never heard from anyone again.
Also there are NO lights in the stairwell of a 5th floor walk up. At night it is pitch black in the stairwell- which feels incredibly unsafe. We used our phone flashlights to navigate the stairs. I was traveling with my 6'3" giant husband so I felt ok, had I been alone it would have been very scary to enter that black space.
Also... they charged us 4 Euro per person per night for Venice tax and was required to be paid in cash. When we went to the hotel we were told it is 3 Euro per person per night and it could just be paid with our reservation. I'm not sure what was going on there... but given how sketchy the whole thing was I do wonder if that's appropriate or not.
All of my interactions with them were via text and email so all of this is well documented.