Villa Alba, Lake Como, Italy
Hotel Information
Recent Price: £76
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Villa Alba Reviews
" Not Treated Very Well By The Owner "
Submitted By: ian.punton@hotmail.com
We were very impressed by this accommodation initially. However, by the end of our two week stay our inital impression had changed completely. Firstly, we found the china/porcelain chipped and cracked. There was no kettle and we had to boil water using an unsafe pan which was dangerous to empty. This was something we could live with but things got worse. On the first occasion we used the washing machine we could not open the door.We rang the agent as we did not want to force the door open in case we 'BROKE IT'. She suggested we ask the guests in the downstairs apartment how to open it. We did - they could not phathom it out either. The agent kept saying "turn the machine off and wait for two minutes" which we did but to no avail. We actually waited all day - attempting to open the door on a number of occasions. Eventually, after numerous phone calls the owner arrived and yanked the door open with great force. Guess what? Next time we used the machine the door would not open and the handle came off which was not sursprising considering the force used by the owner previously. To be fair the owner fixed the door in a makeshift manner so we could use the washing machine for the rest of the fortnight and there was no mention of any charge. This was just as well because during the fortnight the accommodation was never cleaned so we had to do this ourselves and when we asked for the bedding to be changed we were told that this would cost another 20 euros per room so we washed and dried the bedding ourselves using the washing machine with the makeshift repair. Conisdering we paid over £2000 for this accommodation we felt that we should have received a better service and the crockery should have been checked and replaced before we arrived. During the second week all the lights fused. We text the agent asking for help. After 4 hours and no reply we had to ring her to get insturctions on what to do as she had not responded. We had a 1 year old child with us and it was now very dark and becoming dangerous to move around. Evenutally, she responded only to tell us this was a frequent occurrence and gave us instruction on where to find the fuse box which was located outside on the road. Because of the language barrier this took ages. There were no instructions of any kind in the apartment in English which would have helped us greatly during our stay. Surely if you are going to rent to the British tourist market this should be covered. To add insult to injury on our departure we were asked to pay another 85 euros for the repair of the washing machine door mechanism. To be honest the washing machine was an old model and not worth 85 euros. Surely there will always be wear and tear on white goods in holiday accommodation so why should the unlucky person who has hired the accommodation at the time of a breakdown be the one who pays for the repair. We would have thought that this would be covered on the owner's insurance and the cost of the accommodation. We had paid a deposit of two hundered euros in case of damage and if we had trashed anything or been irresponsible we would have expected to pay but to charged for something which was not our fault and was general wear and tear helped along by the owner's heavy handedness seems very unfair. We all felt angry at this unjust action and we did not feel we received value for money with this accommodation. We will not be returning. We do not feel the owners or agents are prepared for the British market.
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- Date of Holiday:Aug 2008
- Board Basis:Self Catering
- Tour Operator:Booked Independently
