We spent 3 weeks and Bernard and Sofia house in Ierapetra. 1,5 weeks me, my husband and our daughter aged 2. And for remaining 1,5 weeks my mother replaced me (due to family reasons).
Before the trip I checked the property and neighborhood via Google maps, I studied all of the pictures and I asked many many questions to Sofia about the security of house and its safety for 2 years old baby because for me that is the most important issue. I was assured that the house and garden and all the area near the premises is totally safe.
I also want to mention that we didn’t use any “tricks” and we informed the host in advance about every guest and about the baby, we mentioned exact young age of our daughter and paid for everybody (we paid for 4 ppl however there were only 3 ppl at the same time in the house).
Unfortunately, this house is not kids friendly. And here are some examples we’ve experienced here at Villa Marmelada:
1.	The day we arrived the house was full of different sharp, heavy, fragile and other dangerous objects for the baby (metal sharp statues, vases etc). During the day 1 I was hiding that all and I was securing the place by myself. But some of objects I physically couldn’t remove anywhere. One of them was big floor lamp on a tripod which was quite unstable. Day 2 of our trip the baby touched the leg of lamp and the lamp (ofcourse) felt down and all of the glass was broken – small pieces all over the place. After the shock my husband took my scared and crying baby out (thanks God she was not harmed) and I spent 2 hours in cleaning of the glass (and praying during remaining part of holidays that my baby won’t find a piece of glass). We informed Manos on the spot, however he came only in the evening to inform us that we have to pay 150 EUR for that lamp, which we obviously paid.
2.	During the first day when my husband woke up we realized that his bad is full of ants. They were coming form outside through the whole in the wall and directed to his bad because he was warm 😊)) (This I later read in internet because I had to find out the way how we could kill ants). So, we had to buy traps with a sweet poison for ants who finally after few days disappeared.
3.	There is a constraction in the garden with building instruments all over the place and cables protruding from the ground. For some adults that might be ok but for the baby that is not a garden when one can play (100% not kids friendly). Plus rats traps all over the place and even in the house.
4.	Door handles in some rooms were not fixed (they were just inserted without any screw). Unfortunately, we realized it only when my daughter went into the bathroom and the door closed from inside (door handle remained on the floor). Another shock, another hysterical crying of scared baby, no possibility to enter the bathroom from outside (very small windows, no adult can access). Thanks God my husband managed to fix it quickly and we saved our girl.
5.	There was no WiFi during the whole period of our trip. As we were there 3 weeks, my husband had to work. But it never happened there at Villa Marmelada (the host gave us local mobile card instead of WiFi – but unfortunately it was too slow and too bad internet).
6.	One day the roof at terrace just felt down on the ground, on a table and on our drying clothes (thanks God that it didn’t fell on somebody’s head). So, the door to terrace was closed for few days, there was a reconstruction with lots of dust and dirt. And loud sounds which we were not expecting to hear during our holidays in a countryside house.
7.	And as a cherry on top - on the last day of our trip Electricity in the House collapsed. That’s why we couldn’t cook, we couldn’t wash the dishes, we couldn’t take a shower etc. But the most “pleasant” moment of this story is that we couldn’t even go out to eat somewhere else, because electric fence also collapsed. And even when the electricity renewed we still had to wait several hours while Manos and his employees fixed the fence. But again, thanks God that it happened before we had to departure to airport and finally we left the house on time.
8.	Problems in communication: There is the main host (Sofia) who is located somewhere else and who takes all the decisions regarding the house (however she doesn’t see anything with her own eyes, she is on a distance). And there is local host Manos – he is in contact with guests all the time (and with Sofia), but he is not in charge of anything. Some questions he discusses with Sofia and some he doesn’t. Unfortunately, that brought misunderstanding and unpleasant situations sometime. For example while our check out Manos said that all was fine and ok and later on (when we were home already) Sofia (who didn’t see the house herself) said that it was not fine. So there definitely is a problem in communication, it is better to have a direct host when you rent premises.