Park Nieuwgrapendaal

We had a long weekend with friends, renting two houses, and the countryside grounds were pleasant, with a small vineyard, lawn, playground, and pond. The location wasn’t idyllic, but it was nice enough. The owner was the problem: she was unfriendly and, in my view, dishonest. After checkout we got a bill for extra cleaning that didn’t seem justified. The houses had dust and cobwebs when we arrived, and after a thorough brush and wash, I think we left them cleaner than we found them. We did get one noise complaint during the stay, even though loud cars were racing at a festival nearby all weekend.

The surroundings are beautiful and the place has plenty of potential, but our stay turned stressful and disappointing because of how the woman managing it treated us. She seemed hostile from the start and complained about every little thing. We left a €300 deposit and were told only electricity would be taken from it. After we left, she kept €100, saying she needed four extra hours to clean because we’d left the apartments dirty. That wasn’t true. We cleaned thoroughly, washed and put away the dishes, tidied the outdoor areas, and disposed of the trash properly. The apartments were in better shape than when we arrived, with dust and cobwebs. The charge felt arbitrary. We asked for an itemized bill and never got a response. It felt like a scam. We did make some noise on the first night, but we respected the house rules and the surroundings. Her response felt disproportionate and disrespectful, as if she thought we were uncivilized. It’s hard not to wonder if we were treated differently because we were foreigners in our 30s. Maybe she’s more welcoming to Dutch guests over 60, but we felt unwelcome from beginning to end.

We’d planned a great weekend with friends, but the owner wasn’t very kind and there were extra costs taken after checkout. We asked if we could check the apartment together with her before leaving, just to make sure everything was okay. She refused, even though we were leaving at about 09:30 AM on a Monday, not 04:30 in the middle of a Saturday night. It could have been a great experience. Sad it wasn’t. Watch for additional costs.

The place itself is lovely. We stayed two nights and were already thinking about coming back for more weekends, but changed our minds because of the owner’s treatment of us. She was unfriendly from the beginning, even when we went to buy something at her small market. After checkout, extra cleaning fees were taken from our deposit, despite our having cleaned everything well. We knew we had to pay for gas and electricity, but on our last night we saw that a radiator in one house was running at full power. It was June and over 30°C, so it felt like a way to make the bill higher. A pity, because the place is really nice. Maybe she acts differently with couples or small local groups, but our experience was disappointing.