4/10 Poor
Elizabeth B.
15 June 2022
Liked: Location
Disliked: Cleanliness, communication, listing accuracy
Beautiful neighborhood; but do yourself a favor and find somewhere else.
I used to think that long complaining reviews were written by people who would never be happy anywhere. Not anymore! I have pictures and texts to back up everything; I'm not a naive American who expects a Holiday Inn. Our Italian friends were shocked by the management's attitude. I knew it was very hot in Bologna in summer; the listing said there was a "portable air conditioner." When we got there, it wasn't hooked up, but sitting outside in the courtyard, dirty. Portable? You can roll it from outside to inside, but then you have to connect it to a vent. The next day, the manager Mattia came in, looked at it, and told my husband that he -- my husband -- had to go buy some duct tape at the hardware store and attach the hose to the hole in the wall because he himself had to go. No apology. When I asked him why it had not been connected, he said, "We didn't expect it to be so hot in May.' It had been really hot for at least a week already, and it was almost June anyway! You can't open the window in the bedroom. You can crack a window in the 'dining area' and the bathroom. (The bathroom was beautiful and clean.) I called Vrbo to register a complaint of misrepresentation of amenities, and they said that lack of air-conditioning,. even if advertised, was officially "a minor issue." Huh? My husband bought the tape and after a lot of hassle got the hose to stick to the wall. After a day or two, a very nice handyman came over and reinforced what my husband had already done so that if we kept the hose propped up on a chair and didn't move it too much, it wouldn't pull it out of the wall. So there's this thing about three feet high roaring away and taking up half the teeny dining area. The pictures are deceptive, the place is very small and the two brown chairs in the pic comprise the only seating area. The bed is a sofa bed (a comfortable one), so there is no sofa. The kitchen is adequate, but previous guests put pots and pans away dirty so I had to wash them. Placemats were encrusted with food.. I had to ask for proper garbage bags. The rain shorted out an outdoor electrical outlet (fire hazard!) and we lost power. The other manager (who ignored the information about the AC problem) sent a bottle of nice wine by way of apology for that. We accidentally took the second set of keys. We've express mailed them to Italy for $80; we try to be good guests. I've never had such an experience in more than 10 years of holiday rentals. Vrbo, never again.
Elizabeth B.
Stayed 17 nights in May 2022