Kerang Bingin Beach Villa

Dodgy! We booked and paid for the whole villa months ahead, planning to spend time together with family and friends before a wedding. After a long trip, we arrived on the day and were told they'd rented the rooms separately to other people, leaving us stranded. To make it worse, they told Booking.com we were a no-show, which made getting a refund difficult.

DO NOT BOOK! We arrived on our booking date to find out the manager had rented out the six rooms we'd booked, with only one room left. We were told we couldn't stay, so we had to find other accommodation. Then they claimed to Booking.com that we were a no-show and charged us 100%. The location was good, but you're better off booking somewhere else.

The villa's in a great spot with amazing views, but staff immediately started haggling us for money. My credit card took about 10 attempts to go through, even though I'd entered the details when booking. At checkout they said we'd used 1.2 mil worth of drinks from the fridge, which there's no way we did, and demanded cash on the spot. They also charged me twice for porters. Several outlets didn't work, and one light started smoking. The staff were friendly, and with less pressure for money and a bit of upkeep, this place could be 5 stars.

The main area's view is gorgeous, and it's a large, comfortable shared space with a small kitchen. Getting there is difficult, though: 132 uneven steps down from the nearest car drop-off, then several more flights from the villa to the beach. That's rough with 30kg of backpacks each, plus surfboards. There are better options around. We were asked for payment five different times within 12 hours of arriving, even though we'd agreed with staff that we'd pay cash the following afternoon. The shared area also gets smoky when other guests smoke, and it's hard to avoid the smell. Our room felt stuffy, was smaller than it looked online, and smelled strongly of mothballs. We found a bunch of them in the cupboards. The ocean view wasn't as shown online either, with about half the pictured view blocked by a dirty roof. Though the room had been cleaned, the corners were still dirty and the towels were stained. The common room is directly above the bedrooms, and footsteps carry very loudly into the rooms. The water filter was broken and only dispensed very warm water. We asked every day for someone to fix it, but nothing was done.