Lungomare Apartament Sea View

⚠️A warning for anyone planning a holiday in Vlora.⚠️ I had a terrible experience at the "Lungomare Apartament Sea View" apartment. At first it all seemed normal: the location was convenient, and the owner, Taulant, appeared helpful. Here’s how things unfolded. [August 9] We arrived in Vlora and checked in at 5:30 pm. Mr. Taulant was waiting for us, showed us the apartment, and asked for €950. We paid him. He also asked us to cancel our Booking.com reservation, saying there was a problem and it would fall through. I only understood later why he wanted that. After unpacking and showering, we noticed a light dusting under the bed but didn’t think much of it. [August 10-16] We mostly spent those days at the beach and walking around Vlora. Sometime between August 13 and 16, my wife and I both saw black stains on the sheets. We initially thought they might be from my marker or her makeup, and didn’t realize how serious it could be. On the evening of August 16, I met up with a colleague. While we were talking, he suggested the bites might be from fleas, meaning bed bugs. I didn’t take it seriously, especially as they were joking about something else, and assumed he was joking too. [August 17] We’d booked a boat trip the day before and woke up late, so we left straight away that morning without paying attention to the state of the bed. I’d noticed bites on my hand, but thought I’d scratched myself somewhere. After a full day on the boat and an evening with Steve Aoki, we got back around 2 a.m. We were exhausted, took a quick shower, and went to bed. That’s when we were shocked to find the mattress and sheets covered in black marks, along with a few bloodstains. There was blood between the headboard cracks and in the mattress corners. We first thought the bugs were cockroaches, but looked them up and found they were bed bugs. Disgusted and worried, we packed immediately and spent the night in the car. That evening we showed Taulant evidence of the infestation and told him what had happened. [August 18] Taulant arrived at 6 a.m., as agreed. I showed him the evidence again. He got defensive and tried to play down the problem, blaming us for bringing the bugs in. Even after we moved the bed and saw three or four large, dried-up bedbugs, he had little to say beyond that he’d change the sheets, which clearly wasn’t enough. He proposed splitting the cost, saying, "Since it's neither my fault nor yours, let's split the cost," and handed me €100. Only when I watched him drive away did I realize he meant to reimburse me for just part of the unused days. His wife was the only one who seemed genuinely sorry. Finding the infestation caused us real distress, and the bites left me itchy and uncomfortable for several days. [After August 18] I tried contacting Taulant again to ask for adequate compensation, at least for the three days we didn’t use, but got no reply. My wife and I used cortisol cream for several days to try to prevent all those bumps. Albania is beautiful. It’s a shame that some people can ruin a holiday.