Mixed Feelings
We stayed here for a week at the end of September. The house is situated in a remote village, not especially pretty but the views are good.
When we arrived we were astonished to find that the outdoor area was a mess. Most notably, there was a pile of tipped junk on the grounds, not restricted to but including an old air conditioning unit and an old fridge or freezer.
The bbq area was a mess and had not been cleaned out with the grills just chucked in the ash.
The grass was over grown and garden furniture scattered about the place. The decking by the pool was rotten with broken boards, splinters and protruding screws. Really dangerous. Some of the floor tiles in the outdoor kitchen area were broken. Various random paraphernalia kicked about the place like an oven tray on the path, an A-board leant up against the garden wall, old dish clothes, an un-emptied bin etc. Outdoor AND indoor seating squabs were filthy. The outdoor fridge was dirty too.
Inside the house was, to be fair, very clean indeed aside from the dirty squabs on the ‘day bed’ in the sitting room.
It’s clear that the cleaner works hard and the ground’s person does not do his job at all.
In the indoor kitchen, the cupboard that housed the fridge freezer was about to collapse. The tap was faulty. There were just the two of us but, if you’re a family of six, you struggle for crockery and cutlery.
The aircon downstairs needed regassing. Upstairs was fine.
We contacted the host straight away to let him know our concerns. He decided to send the cleaner and the groundsman round to speak to us.
We weren’t able to have a conversation with them as such as we don’t have speak Greek but we were able to point out the issues. The cleaner was sympathetic but without blame as the house was itself was very clean. The groundsman on the other hand was obviously on the back foot as he’d been caught out. He was confrontational and cantankerous.
I then received a call from the host who tried to tell me that I was making a mountain out of a molehill…which was bizarre. Straight away we were asked if we were going to leave. Which made us think this wasn’t the first time someone had complained.
While we were out the next day, they sorted through outside…a bit. The fly tipped white goods remained though strangely.
We were without hot water for half of our stay until a plumber eventually rocked up.
A couple of days into our stay, guests staying in the home ‘next door’ arrived. They were really nice people, however it became apparent that the two houses were actually one house with locked doors. We could hear everything from next door, smell cooking smells…and the rest. Not what we were led to believe on AirBnB. It also transpired that the pool, garden sand bbq was shared…which is fine but, again, it wasn’t what we were led to believe.
We have asked for a partial refund as we felt that the description was wildly inaccurate and the whole point of being on holiday is to relax and enjoy your time, not be faced with all the cr*p we had to deal with. We’ve had no response as yet.
The host did visit, whilst we were out on our 4th day and tidied up outside, cleaned the pool and left some wine and pastries.
We’re incredibly disappointed with our choice as this place could be amazing.
The other three places we stayed in Crete were fabulous.
I hope this helps.