Apartamentos Gemelos - Beninter

Calling this a holiday apartment is a bit misleading. It feels more like a residential place: there are no sun loungers or parasols, the lifts are tiny, and reception is about fifty yards up the road on the right when you face the entrance. That wasn't explained clearly. The apartments are smaller than the photos make them look, and they're quite dated. The maid comes once a week to change the sheets and towels, and that's it. You have to clean the bathroom and toilet and sweep and mop the floors yourself, buying your own cleaning products. For a week it's manageable, but over 2-3 weeks or longer it becomes a chore. The welcome pack says you'll be charged if you don't leave the place as you found it, and with a £200 deposit there's not much you can do about that. So “home from home” really means cooking and cleaning on holiday, which isn't for me. Wendy's place just to the left, though, is great for food and drinks.

What a joke. The advert said “pay £1 deposit” and pay the rest on arrival, but we paid 952 euros. My wife has blood cancer and is having chemotherapy, so we had to cancel. Her oncologist provided a certificate to confirm it. We've been regular customers at gemelos and never had problems before. If we'd known you had a no-refund attitude, we'd never have gone near your site. We're pensioners and this has hit us especially hard, but apparently we're just moany old losers to you. Adios crook!

The apartment itself is lovely, but Beninter are useless. I called the out-of-hours helpline and it just rang and rang before cutting off. We paid for English channels today, and they left us a replacement control that doesn't work. They said we could get a refund, but still haven't sorted out the channels.

We had a very clean, comfortable apartment in a good location, with all the equipment we needed for a nice holiday. The Beninter staff gave correct service. If we can return in 2016, we'd like to stay in the same apartment or the same building, Gemelos 2, and we'll book through Beninter. Thanks and many regards. Salutos cordiales.