The apartment was very accommodating, clean and spacious. We really enjoyed our stay once we got settled in.
However the check in instructions, especially for international guests like us, should have been sent earlier so we have time to plan our travel (first check in message was sent at 840pm the night before our arrival to Venice). As an Airbnb host myself, this caused me some concern since we were traveling through Europe by train to an unfamiliar place. We didn’t always have reception and didn’t know what to expect when we arrive in Venice. We had only the address the night before. The host asked when we were arriving and whether by air, train or var (not sure what “var” is)? I quickly responded by train and arriving at 1800 hours the next day. I didn’t get a response again that night.
Next day we were on the train for much of the day. I sent messages to the host through Airbnb to get more details but never got a response until we were practically in Venice. We then got a response for us to call. We traveled with only data services from our cellular carrier and weren’t expecting to make local/ international calls. I again sent messages to the host that we can’t make calls but said we were at the location and for over 30 minutes there were no response. I finally had to get my cellular company to provide me the international calls but with extra fees.
The agent that checked us in asked us to pay €72 in extra city tax but only by Euros, not with credit card. This caught us off guard since I thought that all the fees were paid through Airbnb, including local taxes. I wished this information was communicated to us as part of their welcome message. This was also our last stop where we can use Euros and luckily we had about €100 left to pay.
Hopefully other international travelers will have better luck getting the needed information and checking in than we did. Otherwise the location and apartment was fantastic.