Puerto Banus - A. Ryan. Date of travel: May 2007
We booked with Crystal Rentals Spain, an agency that claims to have "high quality villas and apartments available directly from the owners". When we booked they quoted us €699 for the apartment, then we they found out there was 7 of us they said they had to charge us for an extra bed (€80) This wasn't needed when we got to the apartment as there were enough beds in the rooms for 7. When they found out we were arriving late they charged us another €50 for an out of office hours service. So now we were being charged €829! The week before we were due to arrive they rang to say our apartment had been flooded and so we'd have to move to another one. We didn't kick up any fuss as it was in the same area, it wasn't as nice though decor-wise but we thought we were being understanding given what had happened. When we arrived we were just brought into the apt by the owner and given the key and he took the money (which they had insisted on getting in cash) and off he went. He never made any arrangements for check out or showed us how anything worked. The apartment was dirty and smelled bad, especially in the kitchen. The fridge didn't work properly, the TV didn't work and there was rubbish under the cupboards in the kitchen. One of the girls found a sock beside her bed in her room, which showed the apartment obviously hadn't been cleaned properly before us. And there were bulbs missing in the toilet. But we made the best of it, thinking that the standard wasn't great but for €829 it was cheaper than most places in the resort. On the day we were leaving we hadn't been contacted about moving out so we contacted the owner again who told us just to leave the key and he'd check the apartment later on. When we arrived back home I contacted the agency to ask when we'd be getting our €300 damage deposit back and was told that the owner said we'd cracked a tile in one of the rooms and the cost would be deducted from the deposit. We definitely did not break a tile, we would remember it. So when I disputed this with the agency they just told me to deal with the owner. I rang the owner to talk to him about it and he was extremely rude on the phone to me, speaking over me. We're guessing that we wont see a cent of our E300 now, it's probably a scam he runs getting that money for his so called "cracked tile" from every group who stays in his dirty apartment and unfortunately there seems to be nothing we can do. So I'm leaving this review to warn others. The agency were no help either, and when I questioned being charged the €80 for the extra bed which we didn't need nor were provided she told me that although the aparment slept 8 that they charged if there were more than 6. How does that make sense?Especially since the apartment actually slept 7 not 8!