Villa LesRizieres

The villa itself is awesome, but Pierre needs to hand over the management. He’s unreasonable, treats you badly, and tries to add extra costs. He even tried to intimidate me by saying he knew people in immigration. I hate seeing owners post fake reviews. A lot of the five-star reviews appeared at the same time, and those reviewers hadn’t reviewed any other places besides Villa Les Rizieres. This property used to be on trip advisor with accurate reviews, then it suddenly disappeared. Look at the early reviews and see the truth.

We booked eight of the twelve rooms for three nights over New Year’s, with the option of using the other four if more people came. The day before we arrived, Pierre called to say he’d booked those rooms to another party. He assured me we wouldn’t cross paths because there was plenty of space. But when we got there, he’d closed off the main villa for the other guests, and we couldn’t use any of it. Apparently our $4000 booking wasn’t enough. We were pushed into the teak house, which would have been fine for four people, but not for sixteen trying to gather around a four-seat table. I asked why he couldn’t move the other guests to the small villa, but he wouldn’t negotiate. He was very hard to talk to and it wasn’t worth the hassle. The villa is also a good 30-minute scooter ride from anywhere. Pierre had worried we’d cancel because of the eruptions, and I assured him we wouldn’t. What a letdown.

The grounds and villa are amazing, and it could be great for a large group. But the owner, Pierre, is aggressive, arrogant, and threatening. He kept changing the conditions, trying to get more money, and turning up during our stay. He ruined the holiday memories for us. Do yourself a favor and stay elsewhere.

We had a wonderful yoga retreat, and I had no problems with the owner. He was really helpful and nice. Before booking at villa les RIZIERES, I’d read one or two bad, aggressive reviews. I asked the owner about them when I got in touch, and he explained that they were from previous Airbnb guests. According to him, those guests paid for one person at $100 per guest per day, then arrived with more than ten people, sometimes checking in at 1 am to avoid the guest count being checked. He said they were trying to pay $100 instead of $1000 for ten guests, and that Rui Pinto and Marc Thomson had done this. He said Rui called it a misunderstanding, while the owner considered it cheating and dishonest. The guests weren’t allowed in and left a bad review, which the owner said was illegal. He also said that big groups booking through Airbnb often understate the number of guests to get a cheaper rate. He told me Airbnb was really bad. That was his explanation for the reviews I’d asked about.