A very nice place...if you're lucky.
Sadly for us, a accumulation of issues I will detail next made it a really bad stay and the management, while convinced they did us an offer, failed on their judgement of the situation and have then refused to compensate us.
First, the unit next to ours was in heavy works. This was clearly not a surprise for Aria as the site was overflowing with waste and tools right next to our entrance at checkin, accompanied by Aria staff. We noticed that they were also working, hammers, slang and so on. At that point, we let Aria know and asked if these works would carry on the next morning.. A Sunday.
Secondly, there was a huge mosquito problem like we had nowhere else. Another thing Aria clearly knew as they include pyrox plug in diffuser in the bedrooms and well... There were already a dozen of them lying half-dead on the floor in the living room and bedroom. On top of that, the wind seemed to concentrate the mosquitos on the door and windows and these were not very good at holding them : door a bit misaligned, holes and detached parts in the mosquitos shields...
Before I move on to the third nuisance..a celebration lasting through a good part of the night... Nice music though ;)..
So we messaged (airbnb chat) our contact to inquire about the works at 17h07. We got an answer at 20h47 while we were in town with a proposal to move to another location. I read this reply around 21h as I do prefer written communication and check them often. Very upset at the late reply,I had at that point lost trust. Moreover, in the reply they confirmed works would carry on and that a celebration would take place on the beach. So according to Aria, we were to go down, pack and move again uphill to checkin at 23h or so.. To what kind of other bug pit...? On paper it looks like a commercial gesture but it's ill-proposed. They knew of availability of another room beforehand, knew about the mosquitos and knew about the works. The celebrations, I will agree, they had no control over.
I have asked for a refund both locally and through airbnb app and as a reply I got strange returns : that I should have called instead of chatted (I believe means of communication should be at customer's discretion). But strangely, they had my number too and didn't call me to propose an option in a timely manner upon reading my message.
The right thing to do was probably to propose another option proactively before our check-in ?
So the experience was :
-Noise preventing to enjoy the very nice terrace and view. A major reason to pick this place.
-millions of mosquitoes (killed 37,not joking), finding their way in all through the night
-music till 2 am
-workers starting again at 8h15 next day. A sunday.
-a very late and dubious proposal
I don't think they fully realised how simply they could have fixed it and for full disclosure I proposed them a settlement before posting this review but they stood on their position that we should have accepted their "offer".
I'd like to mention that they did show some strange good will : they offered us another night in case we would not be able to leave the island due to strong winds. They would do that but would not refund? Very strange...and I am left assuming a difference of approaches between local staff and aria hq management... All the same to me : money spent on a terrible experience and stubborn approach at customer compensation.
Kimolos, yes, Aria, no.