I *never* leave negative reviews on this website, but I would be remiss if I don't for other visitors so I want to give a genuine review for this apartment. While it may appear perfect when you walk in, and it certainly had many advantages like being very spacious and in an excellent location in the center of Venice, a number of issues occurred during my stay (3 nights)
1) The address listed led me in 5 different directions, and the Maps application was unable to guide me to it. The host said that “this was an issue with all of Venice,” and I must disagree — I used Maps during the entire stay in other areas of Venice with no absolutely issues except in locating the apartment. The address listed was simply confusing. The host was out of Venice, and she did not have anyone who could help in her absence.
2) Since Maps could
not lead me to the location, I called the host via a video call, and she essentially acted like it was my problem and not hers. I even show her where I was after trying to find it for over an hour, and she said I was “very close” but made absolutely no attempt to tell me which way to go to get to it. I even asked someone who worked nearby if he can tell me where to go, and he told me that the address wasn’t real, and that I had been scammed. If you read other reviews, you will see that a number of people said it was difficult to find — this is because the address is written in a confusing way. It lists the name of the neighborhood itself, which misleads Maps. I did eventually make it by looking for the square that she lists in the photos, but the address as it's listed was useless.
3) The apartment lacked some basic necessities. The kitchen had no way of cleaning dishes unless you go buy dishwasher detergent. There was also barely any toilet paper left from the previous visitors, and while the bidet was nice to have given the lack of toilet paper, please see point #4 below.
4) The hot/warm water did not work the last day before I left so I could not shower at all before departing after a long day of walking the day before, and since the warm water was out, I had to use freezing water to clean up while I was sick with a cold.
5) The internet did not work one of the days. Later, I figured out that it was because the plug of the internet is linked to one of the lights — so if you turn off the light, the internet modem turned off as well. This was not made clear to me in advance, and when I told the host it wasn’t working, she had no suggestions to fix it. She did offer to call the provider to come out, but I did not want a stranger coming to the unit while I was trying to enjoy Venice and while I was gone with all of my belongings left behind.
6) The host never once checked in to see if I had everything I needed. In fact, the only thing she checked in about was to ensure that she collected her Venice Tourist fee at the end of my stay with her. After all of the issues (the lack of help in finding the apartment, the lack of warm water on the last day, the lack of toilet paper, the lack of help with the internet modem turning off, etc), to see that all she cared about was to get the rest of the money was irritating. And yes — of course, I did pay her the tourist tax as requested.
9) I was suffering from a cold while I was in Venice and tried to turn the heat on because I was cold at night. Apparently this was not allowed because a setting was set to prevent me from turning the heat on. It got really cold at night and in the early mornings.
8) Overall I’d rate the apartment a 3.5/5 and the experience with the host a 1/5. The location was good, the apartment was spacious, but the lack of hospitality and help by the host in the issues I experienced, the lack of basic necessities and proper warm water/cleaning supplies made this a negative experience for me, and I would never stay here again.
I do not expect perfection from any Airbnb experience, and I never leave bad reviews to be honest, but this host should really do better and be more compassionate toward her guests in the future. She made me feel like I was an incompetent nuisance to her. I travel all over the world by myself, I navigate many difficult circumstances on my own, and her lack of willingness to help really left a bad taste in my mouth.
If you scroll through, you will also notice how defensive the host gets at any even remotely negative feedback from guests and even responds to them in a condescending manner basically calling them stupid. This host needs to do better and treat people like human beings. I stayed in another apartment in Venice after this, and my next host was way kinder and willing to help.