Apartamentos Gandía Grau y Playa 3000

We complained but got nowhere. The apartment was dirty and in terrible shape, but my family and I had nowhere else to go, so we stayed. The shock came after checkout: we returned the keys to the office and sent them a video of the place as we left it. A few hours later, they said they wouldn't give back our €150 deposit because we'd supposedly broken the shower screen. They even sent a photo, though we'd left the apartment in better condition than we found it, and it hadn't been hard to do. They're crooks and thieves. It's a shame people like this are around.

The location might look appealing, but I wouldn't book here. The management kept brushing problems off as coincidences or acting surprised, always with an excuse to avoid responsibility. The lack of hygiene, poor upkeep, unpleasant atmosphere, and sense of insecurity made this a completely inadvisable place to stay. The pool area smelled awful because the drains were clogged. On arrival, one staff member was treating guests badly in front of everyone, while cleaning and maintenance staff spoke rudely to each other. We never saw the entrance hall cleaned during our two weeks there. The gate never locked, even though we were given a key. There were exposed cables, and they only covered them after we insisted several times. At first, they said it didn't matter because the cables were for internet. One apartment even had a swastika painted on its terrace, which is unacceptable in tourist accommodation. There were maintenance problems everywhere: the dining room cabinet leaned, the TV remote didn't work, a drawer handle was missing, the bidet leaked, and the gutter overflowed without a drain. The sink fell over after we pointed out that it was tilted. They said it was nothing serious and that they'd come check it, but it was too late. Cooking was a gamble because the stove knobs were worn off and the extractor fan only worked now and then. The terrace was neglected, overgrown with weeds, with trash in the flowerpots. Hygiene was even worse. The towels had blood stains, and they said they came that way from the laundry. The sofa had brown stains they called wear and tear, but after we insisted, they cleaned it, and it turned out to be accumulated dirt. Cockroaches appeared several times. When we mentioned them, they said they were surprised, though other Google reviews confirm the same thing. My eldest daughter even got locked in the bathroom one night because the latches didn't work properly.

One star only because I can't give zero. A SCAM. The power went out for several hours every day, even though they know they've only contracted the bare minimum and have done nothing to fix it. You can't call anyone, so you're just stuck in the blackout. They charge for everything, including air conditioning you can't use when the power goes out. The pool is more like a puddle, too small for more than one family at a time, and on some days it was so disgusting that swimming was impossible. There wasn't any shade. The patio and pool area were filthy and covered in cigarette butts, as if they never clean them. They advertise apartments with terraces, but out of all the available ones, you could end up in one without a terrace, and they don't seem to care. Look somewhere else. At that exorbitant price, this place is rubbish and you'll only suffer.

Last summer I stayed there with friends, and it was a disaster. The pool was dirty, and the air conditioning didn't work properly. The bathroom light was out for a whole week, and nobody ever came to fix it. The staff were rude, unpleasant, and ill-mannered, especially one Latino man who I think was one of the people in charge. They even took our deposit because of another group they caught swimming in the pool.