Villa in Blanes With Pool and Beach Views

We had a beautiful view, a good-sized pool, and a garage with room for several cars, though the steep entrance made many vehicles scrape underneath. Those were the bright spots in an otherwise disappointing 13-day stay for our group of 13, including seven children. We can't recommend the house, especially to families. Cleanliness, safety, communication, and basic amenities all caused problems. The pool was never cleaned, despite the property manager saying it should be done weekly. At the house, the showers, toilet, and floors were dirty, the kitchen drawers had crumbs and hair, dishes were unclean, and one bathroom contained used boxer shorts. The pillows were yellowed. The house wasn't cleaned until two days after we complained by email. We had power cuts every day. On the first evening, at 9:30 pm, we couldn't reach anyone and called the police. They showed us how to operate the awkward fuse box, instructions we should have received in advance. Some windows wouldn't close, and the agency's suggestion to lower the blinds didn't feel safe with children around. The living room table wasn't suitable for the 12 people it was meant to seat. It was small, wobbly, unstable, and very hard to unfold, so we had to move the terrace table inside to eat together. The older Spanish couple who seemed to be the caretakers came in repeatedly without warning. They spoke only Spanish, kept bringing up our complaints, and said Germans were too fussy. We had to use Google Translate and didn't feel taken seriously.

The view was the one real plus. The rest of our stay in this holiday house fell well short of what we expected, and I wouldn't recommend it. We arrived with many children to find the place apparently not cleaned at all. There were used boxer shorts from previous guests, and the power went out as soon as we entered on the first evening, after dark. We had to settle the children, tried several times to restore electricity, then called the police around 10 pm because nobody had told us what to do. The outages kept happening. Once we reached the agency the next day, they said not to run too many appliances at once, even though we had only turned on the lights that first day. They already knew about the regular outages. Outrageous. The caretakers also kept arriving without notice, which seriously affected our privacy. We felt abandoned and misunderstood. Our concerns seemed to be ignored or mocked. The poor cleanliness and repeated power problems made us very dissatisfied.