4/10 Poor
Juan A.
1 Aug 2019
Liked: Cleanliness, check-in, location
Disliked: Communication, listing accuracy
Nice villa but we paid for a bigger one and got downgraded without any refund
Initial communication was great so we asked for, booked and paid for a specific villa (owner has 3 villas) four months in advance. After 10 days trying to get confirmation and several communication attempts (I even had to ask a greek friend to call) they confirmed that they had double booked us and offered the "Abelomilos Luxury by the Sea" villa as compensation. We have written proof of this. Unfortunately when we arrived, we discovered that the host had downgraded us to the "Abelomilos Infinity Blue" villa, which we had SPECIFICALLY said we did not want when booking (various reasons: much smaller, no living room, second bedroom with window to the kitchen, etc).
We immediately complained to our host and asked to be moved to the villa that we had agreed. Because she had not prepared the villa that we had booked, we stayed that night in the small villa and asked to be moved the next morning. We then learned the reason she put us in the small villa is because she double booked us (again!) and had people staying in the agreed villa, so we were allowed to spend 2 days there but had move back to the small one for the last day!
After seeing both villas, it was was abundantly clear that we were being considerably downgraded, even though the host tried to convince us that the villas were comparable and almost the same (she also was adamant that they were almost the same price, which is of course not true). The small villa is exactly half the size of the villa she offered as compensation, which combined with her continued attempts to make them sound similar, made the differences even more striking. It is not only the internal size of the villas but also the size of the outdoor dining and pool areas, as well as the views from the bedrooms. They were all considerably better in the other two villas (the one that we paid for and the one offered as compensation).
Reading reviews on the villas both on HomeAway as well as others (do your research online), the host seems to have double booked people in several occasions and change the villas randomly which we find unacceptable, especially when we were very clear about our booking and when we paid the full price four months in advance.
Please let us be clear on something. The host was lovely and helpful when we were there and tried her best to make us feel welcome. She even gave us a bottle of wine for our troubles. Still, none of this compensates for the massive downgrade we were forced to accept.
Juan A.
Stayed 4 nights in May 2019
