Villa Raffaela

The villa looked attractive and was ready and well presented when we arrived, so we were happy at first. Over the fortnight, though, a mix of small, serious and just plain annoying problems piled up. The owner lives next door, which he never told us. We’re not noisy and had no parties, but his constant presence made us feel watched. I got two very rude texts that reinforced that feeling. One complained that I’d left the lights on, though I hadn’t even realized the outside light was on. It had been switched on by mistake while we were trying to use the key fob to close his gate, which broke during our stay. Another text, after we got back late from dinner in perfect weather, said we hadn’t brought the cushion in and it was now soaked. No one had explained that we were supposed to bring it in or where to put it. I found the message especially rude because I’d just texted to say his outside door wouldn’t close. It was broken, and he came with tools to fix it that day. At 4k a week, I don’t want to be spoken to like a naughty kid over things like this. If they matter, make the instructions clear. There was no mop, so we bought one off Amazon, and the toaster was broken too. Pool cleaning was basically nonexistent. We asked once on day 2 and someone came, but they never returned. For 8k, that was pathetic. The main bedroom’s aircon didn’t work. When we reported it, they said we were wrong and that they didn’t have aircon in their own bedrooms. Instead of just checking, they argued and made sarcastic remarks. The unit was in fact broken: an engineer came 12 days later, the day before we left, and told me the filter needed repair. So for 8k we spent 12 days without bedroom air conditioning, while being made to feel stupid for mentioning it. They did bring a portable unit, but it sounded like a jet engine and drained water into a bucket that had to be emptied every 6 hours. You wouldn’t get that sort of nonsense in a Premier Inn. Once, when he came into the house, he tutted at length over the aircon being set to 18 and a downstairs light being on. There must be about a thousand switches and buttons in the house, and it’s impossible to know what they all do. If the owner reads this, that performance and tutting showed a real lack of understanding of what a customer should be able to expect. The bath plug broke and we had a full bath for a day while they came back to fix it. Their fix was to tie the plug to a piece of string. Is this a joke? He complained about cushions, yet didn’t even put out the pool lounger cushions shown in the photo. Nice work. It’s a shame, because the villa is nice. But the landlord next door was overbearing, constantly around and annoying, and he ruined the stay. A proper curtain twitcher. We’d never return or recommend the place. The worry is that if he isn’t there, no one would be available to fix the many things that broke in just two weeks. A bad experience. If he’d told us he lived next door and watched our every move, we’d have gone somewhere else.