Detailed review by trivago traveller
Just returned from these privately owned apartments. I booked through holidaylets. no. PA9028
The owner demands a £250 breakage deposit 8 weeks prior to your booking and this is cashed immediately, very unusual, as in all my past experience with private rental bookings these cheques are only cashed on your return if there are any breakages etc.. It means your £250 is in their bank account for approx 3 months.or more
The complex itself is lovely along with the hotel on the same site, however I cannot recommend apartment 105. It's advertised for 6 people, 1 twin bedroom, 1 room with bunk beds and a bed settee. The bunk beds are wholly unsuitable for children as they're situated not in a bedroom but a cupboard with no windows ! They're almost touching the ceiling as they're so high and there is NO guard rail, therefore a potential 8ft 10ft drop to the tiled floor !
The soft furnishings have all seen better days and are very dirty, along with the entire apartment really. We made a list of 16 faulty items, these included in a very unsafe handrail at the top of the stairs which is hanging off the wall. Main socket in kitchen hanging out of the wall with bare live wires. And there were 9 bulbs missing throughout the apt, despite advising the owner they did nothing so we had to buy 6 packs to replace them all just to be able to see. Advert states SKY TV; it’s a regular portable with no Sky. The downstairs shower room was riddled with mould and stank of damp, very dirty with hairs everywhere.
We booked the aircon for our weeks stay & paid an extra £30 for it. On the first evening we switched it on for approx 10 mins and water started pouring into the apartment from the unit and down the wall. It ran into an electrical socket which had iPod speaker and an iPod plugged in....they blew up in a puff of smoke along with a mini fire in the socket , so we turned the aircon off and soaked all the water up with towels. We asked the owner by text to get the "cleaner" to remove the remote so as they knew we wouldn't risk using it again. As no cleaner arrived during our entire stay, the owner now advises the aircon unit is perfect and wont refund the £30 let alone discuss the cost of replacing the iPod items (£200+) we never asked for that we just wanted the £30 for non use of a dangerous item. I’ve since found out from an air conditioning engineer that this occurs when the system hasn’t been cleaned for some time and flies & bugs get into the system in the winter and block the outlet pipe, speaks volumes on the lack of maintenance on this filthy apartment.
Despite the ad stating a cleaner would visit twice/3 times a week to clean the apartment and change towels & bedding this never happened at all during our 7 day stay and we stripped the beds & washed the towels & everything else ourselves mid week.
I informed the owner of all the faults during and immediately after our stay by way of an email, letter and texts and then find myself £250 (breakage deposit) out of pocket as the owner has withheld that amount to carry out the reported repairs !! I have no recourse with the HolidayLets as they stated the agreement was between me and the owner & they wash their hands of the affair as they’re just an advertising site. I don't know where to go from here ?....Small Claims court I suspect. A dreadful end to a lovely holiday. Can’t recommend the complex enough but give the above apartment & its despicable owner Gandham a very wide berth indeed.
Quinta Pedra Dos Bicos1
