Magnolia Park

I booked a spontaneous night at Magnolia Park for my grandmother, daughter and me through Booking.com, mainly because of the pool. Before we went, reception told me the room had kitchen facilities, including an oven, so we stopped for groceries. On arrival, we had to call for the gate pin and wait at the front door for the nearby manager to let us in. There weren’t kitchen facilities in the room, but he kindly let us use the main kitchen that evening. He texted the door and gate codes, but the message never arrived because reception was spotty in parts of the house. We were effectively stuck without codes and had to leave the doors open. The pool looked beautiful at first, but the water was so dirty, with layers of things floating in it. I didn’t feel comfortable going underwater, and even threw out an eggshell. The room’s kitchen and bathroom were clean and up to standard. The bedroom looked clean too, but there was lots of dust and several dead flies on the windowsill above the bed. At bedtime, I saw small bugs on and under the pillows, in the sheets and duvet. I killed 20 before deciding it was safe enough to sleep, since reception was closed. I spent the night feeling bugs crawl on me and scratching. I now have rashes from scratching. I called in the morning, explained what happened, and showed the manager the bed. He said he’d seen a couple himself and didn’t need to see my photos. I asked for a refund or a free future night because paying $200 for a getaway where we couldn’t relax didn’t seem fair. They later said their expert identified regular bugs, not bed bugs, so they wouldn’t refund us. I hardly ever get nights away, and the whole thing was very disappointing.