Firstly, I want to say that I'm only giving this place a rating of one because this system does not allow you to give zero.

I booked this apartment through Venere for a party of six friends travelling to Venice for a w'end stay.
Venere showed this as a five-bed, two-bathroom apt, with accomodation for 8 persons.

It all seemed to be going fine, until we met a rep who was to take us to the apt [who arrived nearly an hour late - that should have been our first clue!]. He brought us to a TINY two-bed one-bath flat and told us this was the place we booked when I told him that this wasn't the apt we were supposed to be in.

What followed was a two hour argument on the phone with another person [Christine was her name if memory serves] who told us that there was a water leak in a bathroom the La Madoneta apt and we either had to stay in this one or cancel our booking. Of course, we had no where else to stay, and thus very little choice.

We were offered a meagre 10% discount on the cost of our original booking which we refused. They offered 15% and dinner for the group - again we refused - why should we pay a mere 15% off the price of a 5-bed apt, which was still probably more than the total cost of this 2-bed apt, which, by the way, was intened for four people.

They had put two horrid, uncomfortable camp beds - one in each bedroom, in order to be able to squash the six of us in.

What made us suspicious was that we were refused access to be able to see the La Madoneta apt - as we thought that even if one bathroom was out of order, that we could survive on the other. They did not want us to come to their office to discuss it - in fact they would not even tell us where the office was. And despite my asking a number of times to speak to the owner/manager - he never once called me back.

We rang Venere to complain, and the La Madoneta folks told them we would be moved to the original apt the following day. This turned out to be a complete lie as the office did not contact us again for the remainder of our stay, despite saying that they would.

I could go on and on about how horribly we were treated, and how awful this experience was - but I will finish up on this:

When I got home, I checked with my credit card company and was told that the La Madonta had charged over €450 to my credit card THREE DAYS BEFORE we arrived.
despite the contract stating that “Your credit card will not be charged by Venere.com. Payment is to be made directly to the hotel at the end of your stay.“

I never agreed to this payment, I was not informed this payment would be taken from my card, and I was not issued with a receipt for this charge.
Venere had given my Visa details to the apt renters, and given the date of the charge, that would lead me to believe that they knew exactly what they were doing and had planned not to give us this apt all along.

I suggest avoiding these people AT ALL COSTS - both La Madoneta, who also are called "Dimora" AND Venere.
I have made a complaint to Venere, and if they do anything to compensate us I will post here again.