We spent 9 nights in this house and left pretty disappointed with the experience. The place may work well for a weekend stay, but when you decide to stay for a longer time, there are several things that need to be considered.
The Pros
- Fantastic outdoor living with a great private pool.
- Spacious Villa that offers plenty of space for a large family
- Well equipped kitchen
- House finishes are nice with stone around the pool area and beautiful herringbone wooden floors upstairs
-Great view from the master bedroom
- The house is clean
The Cons
- While the house finishes are really nice, the interior is packed with cheap and uncomfortable IKEA furniture, including plenty of my personal most hated decoration: plastic IKEA plants.
- Terrible stone-like cheap IKEA mattresses and pillows made it hard to get a decent night sleep
- Flaky Wi-Fi that once in a while needs to be topped-up from the office. You are watching a Netflix movie or you are on a Zoom call and you need to text them to top the data up. This can take several hours. Wifi does not work upstairs.
- You must have a car to go anywhere. The place is located in a residential area so a car is needed to reach any place of interest.
- The neighbours all seem to have dogs that incessantly bark day and night.
- Absence of any kind of staples (oil, salt etc). We stayed for nine nights so bought our own, but if you stay for a shorter period this could be annoying. There is enough toilet paper for two days. One dishwashing tablet and one washing machine detergent capsule.
- No mention of an additional charge of 2.5 euros per night per person as a tourist tax during booking process. We were advised 16 hours prior to arrival we still owed them over 100 euros.
- Garden is pretty run down with dead plants surrounding the patio and outdoor shower falling apart.
- Only four outdoor lounges for a house that should be catering to 8 people. No pool towels provided.
- Despite clear communication from our side (our plane was delayed), host made us wait over an hour to check in, blaming us for being "very late" while other guests were waiting.
- Limited (or absent) storage space especially for guests staying for longer stays in one of the rooms upstairs. Instead of a wardrobe you find an IKEA SKLUM.
- The same room does not have a bed but a sofa-bed with an IKEA camping mattress.
The list could go on, but I have better things to do. I sent a private message to the owners to further explain our disappointment, including concerns over our privacy (there is clearly a security camera in the living room).
All in all, I am sorry to say this was a disappointing experience. The only reason I am not giving it a one star it's because of the pool, but you can't expect a nice pool only to create the conditions to justify charging more than 500 euros per night and getting away with it. For the price you charge you also need to meet other basic guests' expectations, such as a courteous and prompt welcome and a decent bed to sleep on, not a 49 euros foam mattress from IKEA.
I was very excited to be able to gift my family a great experience in a luxury Villa, which unfortunately turned out to be an IKEA furnished hostel-grade accommodation with a magnificent pool.