How we rented a villa in Bulgaria. Iridescent ideas about a villa by the sea were dispelled
We rested in a villa in the Journalist area (Golden Sands resort) in September 2016. Three adults and three children (12.10 years old and a small 4 months old). We decided to rent a separate villa so as not to disturb anyone, and so that no one bothers us, since we have a baby with us. There are no complaints about the company. But when we arrived, surprises awaited us.
In general, everything in the villa would be more or less normal, although there are significant shortcomings (I will describe later), if it were not for the scandal that the owners of the villa made for us at the last moment before our departure.
To be honest, this fact almost spoiled all the impressions of the trip. The deposit, which, according to the conditions, is transferred to the owners upon arrival (400 euros) was not returned to us, this is, firstly. Secondly, we have never seen such rudeness towards us.
I'll start over. Upon arrival, to be honest, we were surprised that the owners live in the same villa, only in the basement. They were at home almost all the time, although we were given information that they live in a neighboring house, and not in a villa rented by us. This is the only thing that the managers did not tell us, but most likely they themselves did not know about this fact, the owners, for sure, were silent about it.
They tried not to catch our eye, but nevertheless we often saw them, they even got into some of our photos and videos. Well, even the very feeling that we are not alone here spoiled the whole impression a little. The hosts are a married couple from 50 to 60 years old Raya and Alexander. According to their stories, they are Ukrainians.
As for the villa itself, the house itself is good, spacious, the location of the rooms was convenient for us, the fact that they are on different floors, we did not interfere with each other. True, the balconies are all covered with dense greenery of grapes, there is practically no light and there is no view either, but this may be good so that the rooms do not heat up in the heat. I also liked the area near the house and the pool, everything is neat and clean.
Cons:
1. Location. Without a car at hand, there is nothing to do there. The villa is located on a mountain. To go down to the nearest Kabakum beach, you need to walk along the winding streets, then steeply up, then steeply down for about half an hour. With a small child, this was not an option at all, since sometimes we had to take him out of the stroller in our arms and carry him through the mountains in such heat. Especially walking from the beach was very tiring, because all the time up a steep mountain. The Golden Sands beach is about 40 minutes walk.
So we suffered the first days, then we rented a car. With the car it became easier.
2. Dishes. The villa has poor cooking utensils. To be able to imagine, it looks like old dishes that people take to the country for rare use. It was unrealistic to fry the same potatoes or meat in pans, everything burned and stuck. All products had to be stewed.
Plates, mugs are normal, but pots and pans are bad, I don’t even remember when and where I last saw such specimens. There was only one small saucepan of high quality, but you can’t cook anything in it for 5 people. When placed without food, this is a big minus.
3. Bedding. All bedding is synthetic, if you do not turn on the air conditioner, you can stick to it. Blankets are also not natural. In general, the body does not breathe, it is uncomfortable to sleep.
The pillows are old, they are initially cheap, and apparently they have also been used for a very long time. You lie down on your cheek and realize that you are lying on scraps of foam rubber.
4. Shower cabins. When you take a shower, the water does not drain, full shower water is collected.
On the second floor, apparently, something is clogged, with any inclusion of water, dirty water rose from the drain hole in the floor and filled the entire bathroom. I had to constantly collect water all over the bathroom with a rag and wash the floors. It was a big inconvenience for me with a small child.
5. The absence of a washing machine in the public domain. In order to do laundry, it was necessary to ask the owners to load the car, it is in the basement where they live. This is inconvenient, because when we collected dirty linen for the day in the evening, the owners were already asleep. In the morning we were not up to it, we went to the beach early, in the afternoon the owners were sometimes absent, etc. In general, it's inconvenient. We washed only once in all the time, although we have a small one, we had to wash it by hand.
6. Little things. Old air conditioners. Beautiful sofas in the living room on the ground floor are covered with nondescript cheap bedspreads that cannot be removed. It spoils the overall interior.
There is one socket in the kitchen area, I had to stick in and out all the time the plugs from the kettle, coffee maker, toaster, microwave oven back and forth. Do not turn on at the same time.
The hosts do not provide trash bags. In the toilets there are free small bags from the supermarket, but they are small for buckets.
Toilet paper is limited, you need to buy your own.
Mattresses on sunbeds, swings and armchairs are removed by the owners in the early evening, and you have to ask to put them in the morning. For several days we could not sit and lie down on the street near the pool or early in the morning in the evening. After several requests, they still began to leave them.
All of the shortcomings. These are objectively noticed facts about the house and service. But this would not spoil the rest, if not for what the owners arranged before our flight. Before leaving for the airport, we vacated the house for inspection. They checked for half an hour, after which, like a bolt from the blue, accusations fell in our direction that we destroyed their house, that we are pigs and goats, namely PIGS and GOATS!
That they will not give us a deposit, moreover, we still owe them a lot of money. We did not expect such a turn, even in our wildest fantasies. Before leaving, we cleaned everything, washed everything that depended on us, did not leave any garbage.
We were presented with:
Scratched floor in one place on the second floor. This could have happened when we were moving a crib from the third floor to the second. We were shown a scratch, but it is insignificant, it is visible only if you specifically bend down to the floor and look closely.
Further, the crib at the very bottom, where its contact with the floor peeled off in some places, about a centimeter. This also happened apparently when we moved it from floor to floor.
We agree with these points, we really did it, although we did not notice it ourselves.
But then again, are these items suitable for damage to property? We didn’t break anything, didn’t burn it, all the furniture is intact. This can also mean wear and tear during use during residence. I note that worthy of paid accommodation, we still paid a lot of money in order to live there and use the property. Any property in use has its wear and tear. We did not come to visit for free, and also we did not stand in the corridor near the door all two weeks without touching anything.
Although this is a controversial issue, we were willing to pay money for a scratch, given that there are many quick ways to remove scratches from the floor, and not buy something new. And also pay for a flaky crib a centimeter from the floor, despite the fact that it costs about 80 euros in full. It was suggested that it could be pulled by 30-50 euros maximum.
But then they began to show us some everyday moments regarding cleaning, in our opinion, completely unrelated to damage to property.
We ruined the stove by not cleaning it. Light stripes remained on the stove, which are removed by any means special for such plates. But, sorry, I don’t take such products with me on vacation, as well as products for washing floors, cleaning carpets and furniture. I believe that cleaning the stove with a special tool should be included in the final cleaning. Moreover, these stains appeared when using their low-quality dishes, not intended for such stoves.
Further, in the living room, they lifted up their nondescript veil and showed a stain there. I don’t know if it’s ours or not, we didn’t take the covers off the sofas. But this stain is visible from the fact that one of the children may have sat down in wet shorts after the pool. It is also elementary to clean the sofa, it will take about 20 minutes. Also final cleaning.
Next, a stain on the mattress on the double bed on the second floor. This is where you can argue. Our little one was in diapers all the time in the house. Once, when changing clothes, he wrote on the edge of a thin mattress, which I immediately washed and dried, there was no stain left. And here are the other stains that I saw there. I also drew attention to this, I thought that before us someone lived with a child. Even if this stain is attributed to us, then again - this is the final cleaning. All this is washed and rubbed off easily and for a short time. And does not pull on damage to property! If that's the case, maybe we should pay for dirty floors to have them re-lay?
And the last moment, these people said that we broke their gates, or rather, the facing brick on the fence to which the gates are attached began to peel off and they decided that we were also to blame for this. At first they had a version that my mother recently broke them, she is apparently a strong woman, that she exposes bricks from the fence in one fell swoop. And at the end of the scandal, another version appeared that my husband broke them on the first day.
If we adhere to such a policy, then it turned out that we had to pay for the new lining of their fence, since the old one has been crumbling over the years. It's all, in my opinion, insanity.
In general, with shouts that we destroyed the whole house for them (it was destroyed! Although there were no more claims except for stains, all the property was in place and whole) and with insults we left this house. In pursuit, there were words that we were goats and would not leave the country, and some other nonsense about courts, prison, etc.
And they let the dogs down on us for not turning off the light near the house. There was a moment that the children behind the house fed the cat in the evening and did not turn off the lights on the street. Although I paid for this villa entirely and I can turn on the light around the clock.
I don’t know how we endured it all, apparently we were just in shock, we were also late for the plane, and, out of surprise, we didn’t even know what to do and say. Our children even cried. It was really some kind of nightmare.
First, we lost 400 euros, our trip increased by 30%. For us, this is a significant amount. For example, I have to work for a month to give this amount of euros, since we did not even buy them, but took them for a while in full confidence that we would return them upon arrival.
Secondly, for the first time in my life, I and my family are insulted on vacation, and by the people to whom we paid money. That is insults at your own expense.
We are civilized decent people, we know perfectly well what cleanliness and order are. There are no pigs in our family. We came on vacation not for the first time, we were in many countries of Europe, in Asia, in Africa, but we have not seen such rudeness and arrogance anywhere else. In reality, from the whole trip, only this scandal and insults are vividly remembered now. And the rest somehow blurred after such a shock. As if you were brazenly robbed, and also doused with mud. Very unpleasant.
P. S. For those who are without a car, the owner Alexander offers to take them to the beach or to Varna.
The trip to the beach costs 20 lev (20 minutes walk). To Varna round-trip 70 lev. (20 minutes drive to the city).
For comparison, we rented a car for 15 euros (30 lev) per day.
But here it is up to everyone whether to take the service or not.
Whatever you say, these people spoiled the existence of which in our rented house we did not expect, we have a vacation. It is a pity that the impressions of Bulgaria are now involuntarily connected with this very unpleasant moment.
I myself was surprised how much I wrote, but this is apparently a cry from the heart, this has never happened to us, so it made such a strong impression.
If the owners have such a tactic of behavior with clients at the end of the season, 400 euros is a lot of money, then let the vacationers know who they are going to and be careful. But insulting people, especially for their own money, is definitely too much. And so - God will judge them.
