|
|
1. All family members agreed that the mattresses on all the beds were very hard and uncomfortable, some sloping to the middle. All the mattresses in the entire villa need to be replaced. There was only one queen-sized bed and all the rest were doubles.
2. The acoustics in all areas of the villa are terrible. One can hear everything that is being said in any room of the house, whether the speaker is in the master bedroom in the back of the house or upstairs. It was impossible to sleep at any time during the day after anyone was awake, as the sound of preparing food in the kitchen, pulling out a chair to sit in, or even anyone speaking, echo and is maginified throughout the house and upstairs. None of the bedroom doors are solid-they are all louvered, which just makes the sound travel even more.
3. The light switch for the track lighting above the dining room table shocked two family members on two different occasions. One night when it was on, we all started to smell a strong odor of burning electrical parts coming from the track light--the only light in the living room. We quickly turned it off and luckily the villa didn't burn down during the night.
4. The upstairs bedroom had no door for privacy, which would not have been an issue if sound didn't magnify so loudly throughout the rest of the house to the upstairs. If the children were awake or the television on in the living room, it was impossible to go to bed upstairs. There were no blinds or draperies on the upstairs windows, which made sleeping impossible after it started getting light in the morning, about 6 a.m.
5. There were no towel racks in any of the bathrooms--just a couple of hooks on the walls that kept falling down.
6. The rust in the water ruined a load of light-colored laundry we washed. We are still trying various rust-remover treatments on the stained clothing, but so far nothing is working and it looks as if these items of clothing are all ruined permanently. Obviously, there is not water filtering or conditioning equipment, or it does not work properly.
7. The upstairs refrigerator never did get sufficiently cold, even after we had been there a couple days and were gone from the villa all day, nobody opening the refrigerator door. We had to dispose of a lot of expensive meat and dairy products a few days after we stocked up the refrigerator.
8. The gas range top in the upstairs kitchen would not heat hot enough to boil water for pasta. We had to use multiple pots and pans for everything we cooked so they would get hot enough to cook food. Not at all an adequate appliance for a villa that holds twelve people.
9. Nobody ever came to clean the pool. We fished the leaves and bugs out of it ourselves every day. The bottom of the pool was covered in sand during our entire stay.
10. Half way through our stay, we called the maintenance man to come pick up the trash because the can outside was full and we were stacking bags of trash on the ground. There are a lot of wild animals in the area and we didn't want to attract them. Someone came to pick up the trash a couple days after our call, but only took half of it. Bags of trash were still stacked on the ground outside the large trash can when we left.
11. The road to the villa became worse and worse as we climbed the hill until finally it was down to one lane so full of potholes and disintegrated asphalt that we could only drive about 10 MPH the last quarter mile. The brush growing into the roads was a bad sight-distance problem, also.
12. The biggest disappointment of all about this villa was the separate, downstairs apartment. Again, there were no blinds or draperies on the two large, corner floor-to-ceiling living room windows that had a deck surrpounding them. The persons sleeping on the sofas in the living room had no privacy from the outside or room-darkening capability, making it difficult to sleep after 6 a.m. when the sun came up. The downstairs kitchen was unusable. It was not equipped with cooking utensils, or pot and pans. The range hood was at least 40 years old. The inside of the refrigerator was so nasty, we were afraid to put food or drinks in it. The downstairs wash machine was very old and completely rusted through on the top and on the inside. It should have been disposed of many years ago. The downstairs dryer barely worked. It took four cycles to get one load of clothes partially dry. Any time we tried to use one of these major appliances, the circuit breaker would blow and we would have to find it and reset it. We finally gave up trying to use the downstairs laundry facilities, which we really needed for our group. The downstairs television was approximately 15" and very ancient. It was not connected to cable or a dish and only got one channel some of the time. At one point it quit altogether for a couple days.
Luxury Retreats advertised this villa with separate living quarters and we feel it was badly misrepresented. All the downstairs apartment was good for was the use of two small bedrooms with bad beds and a sadly run down bathroom. We had planned for a family of five to have their own quarters and privacy, but it did not work out that way. The "downstairs family" had to cook, eat and wash clothes upstairs with all the rest of us, crowding everyone. There was no blanket for the rollaway bed and no spare blankets in the entire villa.
Before renting this villa, I called Luxury Retreats and asked if there was anything wrong with this villa and why it hadn't rented yet. I was assured that nothing was wrong with it and the rep I was speaking with called out to another rep working next to her, inquiring about Rhapsody in Blue. He assured us that nothing was wrong with this villa and they "used to list it", but that nobody had been out to inspect it recently. Obviously, it never was inspected.
The most frustrating part of this rental was not being able to get in touch with Luxury Retreats during our stay. I called them many times beginning the day after our arrival on December 28. I kept getting the message "we are all with other customers", but continued to try to get in touch with a live person for the next week. I finally began to leave messages on Kelly Pearson's extension 277 on January 3, 4 and 6 and calls were not returned to me until January 7, the day before our departure. I was assured by Emma Porteous that "she would send me an e-mail immediately, would look into all the issues we had with the rental and rectify the situation. Not to fear--she would take care of everything to my satisfaction. After I got home I e-mailed her all the above complaints, most of which she chose to ignore. She did offer me a 10% discount on a future rental with Luxury Retreats, but that is an insult to me, considering all the money I spent renting this villa and all the headaches and disappointment we had with it.
I personally called Luxury Retreats more than once inquiring about the layout, accommodations and condition of the villa before I rented it, so I feel I did my part in researching the villa. I was assured that they wouldn't have it in their inventory if it wasn't up to luxury standards. I feel that "Rhapsody in Blue" villa is misrepresented on the website and Luxury Retreats is negligent in not inspecting this property before renting it.
Date Added: Feb 19, 2009
|
