*please read in full before booking*
I booked this property on behalf of my son, Toby 34, who visited this property in June 2022 with his girlfriend, Chloe, 28 and her family (Mark 30, Georgina, 31 and Noreen 62). Here is what he has to say about his stay at Raffaela's place:
Firstly, it should be said that the villa is beautiful and exactly as pictured. The villa itself is stunning with traditional Puglian trullos and immaculate gardens. A lot of time has gone into the smaller details and this did not go unnoticed. We loved spending time using the BBQ, eating outside and spending time by the pool. The bedrooms were beautiful and light, and the bathrooms were clean. Everything about the house was great. However..
The host is a complete nightmare!
From the very beginning she was unhelpful. The directions to the house were fine however, there were no real check-in instructions in the message exchange prior to the stay. So when we arrived, we were unsure how to access the property. We looked around for a lockbox but there was nothing. We then messaged Raffaela to check we were in the right place as the gate to what we assumed was the property was closed. This gate remained closed until 3.30. Check-in time states 3 so we waited in the car for 30 minutes for this gate to open.
Upon entry to the property, Raffaela greeted us in a rude and unwelcoming manner (like it was a hassle for her to be there). She then demanded a deposit of 300 Euros and a further hospitality tax of 30 Euros. This wouldn't have been a problem however, there had been no mention of these additional fees prior to check in. We also didn't have that amount of cash so we had to go back into town (20 min drive each way) to go to a cash point. This would have been nice to know and saved everyone time.
After being frog marched around the property and issues with countless do's and don'ts, Rafaela then explained that we could not use the dishwasher or washing machines at certain times in the day because of the cost of energy (that is fine and we were fine with this) however, she also didn't leave any dishwasher tablets (which we believe was because she didn't want us using the dishwasher at all). This meant we had to go back to the supermarket again (20 mins each way) as our intentions were to eat lunch and most dinners at the house - being on holiday we didn't want to wash everything by hand each time we ate.
Wrapping thing up with the tour of the property, Rafaela then told us that she would be over 'everyday at some point' to tend to the vegetable garden. This isn't really a problem but it didn't leave us much privacy and kept everyone a bit on edge throughout the entire stay. This wouldn't have been the case if she'd actually been a bit nicer upon checking in.
At this point I must note to the reader that we kept the property immaculately, we tidied up after ourselves, followed all of the rules and were good polite guests' and despite the issues with the host, we received our deposit back in full.
The real issue then came at check-out. Rafaela arrived at the property at 9.15. This was 45 mins before the stated check-out time. She waited outside one of the kitchen windows in full sight whilst we all ate breakfast. It was strange behaviour and very unnerving. At about 9.50 she came into the property to inspect and make sure everything was in good order in order to give us our deposit back.
Soon after Rafaella's entry into the property, Noreen, 62, realised that she had misplaced the key to the outdoor gym. Rafaela proceeded to follow Noreen around the house until it was found. Just for context this is all happening before the actual check-out time. Noreen was very rattled by this and just asked for a few minutes to look for it alone without being followed. It was quickly found however, Rafellas mood was worsening.
After she finished looking over the property (still before 10am) she demanded that we go and clean one fo the outdoor recycling bins. Over the course of our stay, we had put all of our recycling in this outdoor bin so it contained items such as wine & beer bottles and other glass and plastics. The reason she wanted us to do this was because these items were not inside a bin liner. In the UK we don't put our recyclables in bin liners, they simply go into the larger recycling bin that the refuse people pick up so we had assumed this was the case with this bin as no liners had been put inside the bin.
Frankly, this took me and the others by complete shock. We couldn't believe that the host of the property was telling the guest to clean a bin by hand even though we have paid a cleaning fee to stay at the property. Rafaela (in a foul mood, marching around and shouting) watched as I picked out these recycled items and placed them in a bin liner. I could only laugh.
Rafaela's attitude and overall demeanour were extremely rude and it left a real sour taste in the mouth for all of us