We were very dismayed when we arrived, an hour late due to a delay at Gatwick, to have a very hurried hand over with Lourdes and her friend who was translating. It was obvious she wanted to get away quickly which left not much time for us to ask questions.
After she left we started to unpack and then realised that the apartment had not been cleaned to a very good standard at all.
The bed sheets on the double bed were dirty and had long blonde hairs on them and other marks! We doubt clean bedding had been put on at all. The duvet smelt awful! The towels in the drawer also smelt damp – there were some towels still being washed in the washing machine when we arrived so we had to wait until these were dry before we could shower.
The plates, glasses and cups along with the cutlery had not been washed up properly – most still had remnants of food on them. There was a small white bowl with used olive oil or cooking fat in it that had been poured from a pan probably to cool – this was left on the worktop. The counter tops felt sticky and two saucepans were also not cleaned properly.
Some old food had been left in the fridge – we don’t know how long it had been there for and there was also some dirty washing in the laundry basket along with the previous people’s old bottles of sun cream and toiletries (with such tiny amounts left in them they really should have been thrown away).
There was some rubbish left in the metal bin in the front room.
The Air BnB listing said WIFI throughout – this is not the case and there is no WIFI at all in the apartment. In fact neither of us could get any WIFI in the back garden – only sat by the swimming pool.
The sofa is in a terrible state. We had intended one of us to sleep on it as we often sleep separately due to snoring! It is not possible to sleep on that sofa bed – it has a great big hole in the side of it, and a tear on the back. It is terribly stained and the springs have gone so when you attempt to even sit down it feels as if you will end up on the floor!
The dishwasher was absolutely disgusting – and so was the oven! We could not contemplate using either.
The patio door to the rear garden does not lock and the weeds growing through the patio itself look horrendous! There was an ashtray in the back garden which had not been emptied.
One of the glass dividing doors between the bedrooms and living area is cracked in two halves – really dangerous and if we had brought small children we definitely would not have stayed.
The hairdryer was missing – we only found this out when we asked the day before we left the UK – a good job we did or else we would not have brought our own.
There are numerous other small things in the listing but are actually not present - like beach umbrella and scuba gear. You really cannot say these things are available when they are not – it is misleading.
We believe that the apartment is only being cleaned by whoever is using it – rather than being cleaned by a “proper” cleaner. This simply is not good enough when people are paying to stay.
We came very close to checking out on the first night as my partner was in tears and did not want to stay. However, we had saved all year on a limited budget for this holiday and simply did not have the funds to check into a hotel.
So instead we went to the supermarket and bought cleaning products and then spent the first day of our holiday washing and drying bedding and towels and mopping floors and cleaning the kitchen utensils.
We are more than happy to keep the place clean during our stay but we certainly did not expect to clean up after someone else.