Spacious, Comfortable 5-pers House on the Ground Floor

We arrived as five people hoping for a cozy Christmas and New Year’s break, but there was condensation on the walls and floors in every room from the start. Everything felt damp, there was a musty smell, and mold in the corners. The owner, an older woman living next door with her daughter, wouldn’t believe us. She said this had never happened before and blamed a burst pipe, promising to handle it, report the damage, and arrange a price reduction. Yet she refused to come and see the problem herself. Given how advanced the mold was, it seemed unlikely it had appeared overnight, and hard to believe they didn’t know about it. After two or three days, following Christmas, we asked again. We were told the incident had already been reported and Belvilla would contact us. Two or three days later, we called Belvilla ourselves and learned it hadn’t been reported at all. Things became quite clear after that. There was no alternative accommodation available, so we couldn’t leave and move somewhere else right away. A credit for only the unused nights wouldn’t have felt fair either, since the conditions had been unacceptable from the beginning. We were offered just two choices: leave and get a refund for the remaining days, or take a €250 discount. That was completely out of proportion to what we were dealing with. We didn’t want to lose our vacation days altogether, so we stayed, hoping another place might be found for us in the meantime. The account repeated that decision, saying again that we stayed in hope of finding other accommodation. At one point, the owner suddenly came into the property we were renting and opened the conservatory’s sliding doors to air it out. We were told to keep ventilating every room and to run electric fans at our own expense, as the owners instructed. There were small dehumidifiers under the beds. We were also expected to pay to dispose of the rubbish ourselves because we supposedly produced an abnormal amount. We were five guests, while the owners, two of them, also shared the small bin. The fifth person slept on an inflatable bed in the living room, which leaked and had to be reinflated constantly. Condensation and mold in the bedrooms continued until the end. We’d signed a contract and kept our obligations, but the landlord didn’t. Since then, we’ve looked more carefully online and found that reviews, especially from winter, consistently describe the accommodation negatively. We now assume the landlord deliberately misled us. The damp and mold on the walls seemed to have been known for a long time, yet the landlord still let us stay and continues renting the property without intending to repair the damage. Our vacation was completely ruined. We can’t accept this, so we’ve sent the matter, including photos and documentation, to our lawyer through our legal expenses insurance.