We pointed out to the owner early in our stay that the drain cover on the floor of the swimming pool was completely detached exposing the outlet piping (just about the right size for a kids foot) together with a rusty bolt protruding from the pool floor. Despite our repeated requests, this had not been rectified by the time we left and the owner referred to these as minor issues.
There was an electrical fire that burned out not only part of the fuse board, but also the television, two air conditioning units and multiple sockets. It was really unnerving to have to stay in this property after that with the acrid smell.
Initially the owner was adamant it had been caused by a power surge and the fault of the electricity supplier, who actually attended when we were there. All conversations were in English, concluding no surge and that the problem had been caused by a poor standard of maintenance. The owner then advised us the problem had in fact been caused by his own electrical contractor who had conducted a safety check only the previous week, but had failed to reconnect the electrics properly.
The remainder of our holiday was blighted by a combination of unease, a night with no air conditioning in one of the bedrooms, pretty poor mobile aircon units where emptying the condensation buckets became a nightly chore and putting up with lights turning on and off at night, unprompted, which did not help with sleeping. We also had to unplug the fridge freezer to use the washing machine (another socket burned out), which would lead to water leaking from the melting freezer (37c will do that).
The fly screens had large tears which allowed cats (and flies of course) to come into the house via the damaged screens at multiple doors and windows.
We advised the owner that, given our holiday experience had been materially affected by the fire, the multiple interruptions as they attended to it, together with having to bin all food in the fridge freezer, plus some of our electrics which were also irreparably damaged, we expected a partial refund. The owner proceeded to change his mind (again) on the cause of the fire, reverting to his original story that it had been caused by a surge from the electrical supply and as this was outside his control, he was not liable for our loss or spoiled holiday. Whether he was right on the cause of the fire the first time, the second time or the third time we regret staying here and could not recommend it.
