Coastal Family Escape w/ Pool, Balcony & Bay Views

A lovely property spoilt by poor maintenance, poor assessment of guest needs, and an unhelpful host. It became clear the Positive: It appears this is the first review this property has received on Booking.com. Has it only just been listed? Good position,views, kitchen, bedrooms. The house itself was clean. The carpet in the living room was new, in the bedrooms it was old, worn and badly stained. The bedrooms all have air conditioners. Negative: The host is described as ‘Private’ but she manages 345 properties. Communication is via no reply email or text. You have to use the Booking.com App or phone. She answers the phone but her rapid accented English is often difficult to understand. Replies to queries are platitudinous and have no content. I saw no evidence she would put herself out to help. The booking process was hard as we were sent an intrusive questionnaire that had to be completed on an overseas phone in a car. She required among other things, a selfie, phone numbers of 3 guests, the number of guests and the exact number of visitors. The house was limited to 7 people in total at one time. We were not allowed to invite 5 children and their parents to play with my grandchild. It took 5 goes for her to receive our credit card details even though I used the exact same process each time. On arrival we were given a link to the house rules, better described as the 10 commandments of unforgiveable sins and their draconian penalties. The WiFi access code given in 3 places, was incorrect in one, inverted with the network name in one and correct once. The living room has one comfortable chair and a sofa for 3 that is not comfortable. Not enough for 7 guests in front of the large TV. There is no air conditioner in the living room. Guests have to rely on ceiling fans. Both bathrooms have a 25mm hard lip up at the door. Perfect for stubbing toes. The showers are over the bath. In the en suite the bath and tiles are slippery when wet. There is a step up to the bath. It is difficult to safely get into the shower/bath as there are no hand holds. One of the tap handles comes off. The letter box stands at a drunken angle, perhaps indicative of what is to come. The garden is too steep to enjoy other than look at. The grass needs mowing and the hedges trimming, they cover 50% of the path to the Pool The swimming pool was a disgrace, green with algae and clearly unsuitable for swimming.

We had a great stay with family. The host was very responsive and gave clear instructions, however some were only as we arrived and we didn't always have internet connection to access them. We managed. Amenities were “showing some sign of age” but more run down than what we expected with limited seating for all seven. No seating outside either to enjoy the outdoor and pool areas.

The house is a real challenge. It is much more run down than the pictures suggest. There are numerous spiders, and there is a cockroach infestation on the ceiling. The smell is barely covered up by the many incense sticks. There is also an ant problem in the kitchen. We recommend calling an exterminator as soon as possible before renting it to other customers. The balcony has a beautiful view, but it is covered in magpie droppings. We cleaned the chairs so we could sit down, but the balcony needs a thorough cleaning. It is one of the property's best features, but it is quite disgusting at the moment. We rented the house because of the pool. It is clearly not cleaned regularly and is unusable in its current state. We have rented many houses around the world through this platform, and this is the worst one we have seen so far. We arrived late at night and sadly had no alternative. Otherwise, we would have left immediately. After filing a complaint, for which we were asked to provide numerous photos and answer several questions, we received a very small symbolic compensation.