Villa Rodea

We enjoyed the week, but the villa looks worn and needs repairs and maintenance. The views, outdoor space and general amenities are good, and for a place this size you mostly have what you need. Still, one toaster and one dishwasher feels limiting for a villa that sleeps ten. One kettle also kept tripping the electricity, something a previous review had mentioned. A bathroom door was broken, and I got locked inside for around forty minutes with no way out. It seems an easy thing to replace, so it was disappointing given the price and expectations. The bathrooms in the other bedrooms felt odd, more like public facilities, with a half-wall and a gap at the top for privacy. It came across as a cheap way to squeeze in more rooms. The pool is a decent size, but didn’t seem heated. Its cover was broken, as another review had also noted, and there was little or no rubber around the steps, making them dangerous. The worn surface around the pool gets extremely slippery. Housekeeping and maintenance came once, but compared with a hotel it wasn’t really noticeable: we didn’t get fresh towels or toilet roll during the week. The area is nice, though it’s a fair walk from the front of Playa Blanca, something to keep in mind when booking. The stay was enjoyable, but if I came back I’d look elsewhere. The villa needs money spent on it, and long-standing problems still seem to be there. That put a bit of a downer on the week.

The cleaners were still at the villa at 6 p.m., even though we were supposed to be able to move in at 4 p.m. on our first day. The views are stunning, but I wouldn’t call it “veryvillaplus” now. Maybe it deserved that when it was first built, which I suspect was about 15 years ago, but the place needs renovating. There’s a lingering smell and the beds are like concrete slabs. The power trips regularly, and despite a router called bedrooms, there’s no Wi-Fi in the bedrooms. I saw the pool heater working, but it didn’t make much difference because the pool cover doesn’t work, something I’ve seen mentioned in several reviews. The warmth just escapes overnight.

We loved every moment in this stunning, well-equipped villa. It’s in a really quiet area, and we’ve already booked to come back next year.

The views are lovely, and the bedrooms are nicely equipped with their own bathrooms. But a number of things need urgent attention: the pool heater is broken, the cover is completely broken, and the oven wasn’t working. There are repairs to be done throughout. The dining table only seats six, even though the villa sleeps ten, so I’m not sure how we’ll all eat together. If you don’t mind freezing water, eating separately and not using the oven, you’ll at least have the views. Edit: I did eventually get the oven going, but the markings have worn off the dials. It was very difficult to work out how to switch it on, what temperature it was set to, or which oven mode I’d chosen.