From May 2 to May 5, 2014, a friend and I stayed in Siracusa. We were in a small house found on AirB&B, listed as "Cute confortable house in Ortigia": https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/718143. We really wanted to be in Ortigia, the island that is the oldest part of the city. But demand outstrips supply in that area, so hotels there are expensive. This place was the perfect answer. The price was excellent; we paid $270 for 3 nights. It was a very small house, with a twin bed bedroom on the ground floor along with a kitchen and bathroom, and a double bed room upstairs. The bathroom even has a washing machine, and the kitchen is fully stocked with all kinds of items. It's run by a father (Sebastiano) and son (Luca), and Luca explained that when there is no tenant, he himself sometimes stays there. That explained why it was in such good shape, and why there were such good stocks of everything - from extra blankets to glass cleaner to a DVD player to regular and decaf teabags to almost any cooking implement you could think of, if you need it, it's here. The location was as central and convenient as promised. And Sebastiano runs a gift shop just outside the door, and lives across from the gift shop, so he's really a hands-on "landlord." He was very concerned that we have a good stay, and really went the extra mile (for example, helping greatly with the car).
The only negative is erratic Internet. Sebastiano is aware of the problem and trying to work on a solution (it's proving to be complicated so it may take a while). The Internet was often slow, and it's so unpredictable that Sebastiano doesn't even advertise the house as having Internet availability (so, finding any at all was a pleasant surprise).
I'd certainly stay here again.