Lloret de mar, Villa Ines

The Villa Ines was ok at first glance and when my husband and I walked around it with the owner it was cleaned immaculately. However the lady who owns the villa lives on the floor below the two we rented, and as we rented a PRIVATE villa it turned out not to be so. She also has 2 dogs and my son is allergic to dogs - therefore spending the whole holiday with a rash. There were a couple of light fittings literally hanging off the celing, and millipedes which got into the house every night because the downstairs back door is slightly rotted there are holes in it. I actually found 2 in my luggage the day we were coming home. Over the course of the 7 days we removed at least 20-25 from various rooms.

The light on the pool was never turned on apart from when the owner herself was having a party on the final evening of our stay - we didnt even know the lights turned on, but its ok because the pool was unclean when we arrived we didnt dare go in. We paid extra for bedding and towels to be provided and so we didnt bring any, to be told that towels were another 50 euros extra.

We also paid a lot extra for cleaners after we left and then found when we got there we had to strip our own beds and clean the fridge before we went. No offence but I do that at home - thats what the cleaners we paid for are meant to do. Personally I think the cleaner was the owner herself and that is another way of reaping more money out of us. All in all I would have stayed well away if id known.

The last issue was the heating. We went early April when it is stil quite chilly in Spain. When I pay the amount of money I did for this villa, the heating should be at my disposal. On the set of rules which we recieved upon walking through the door was a part which says please use the heating sparingly. Fair enough. However it was cold on our first evening (5c). We left the heating on the next day while we went out so it wouldnt be cold when we came back in. To our amazement, the owner entered the villa whilst we were out and turned all the radiators off. Not only is this a breach of privacy in the highest form its a huge security risk as we had 3 families in total with us and numerous monies and passports etc of considerable value. When questioned the following day regarding this issue, we were informed that the heating system is unable to function correctly with a sensible level of heat for the conditions in spring months. We were also informed that we were fortunate to have a heating system at all as most villas in Spain dont have any heating - even northern spain where it's contstantly cold.

Also when we were granted heat in the evening, the owner turned it off, disguised as the heating collapse, about 11pm so if you wanted to stay up later than this - you do so with no heating. The upside of this for the owner is her heating bills are not so high.

Oh and the public roadway to the villa is a disgrace in parts - get the extra insurance on the hire car, and you are not permitted to use the private driveway on the property - yet this is photographed on the advert to entice people to use this villa.