Calonge holiday villa: Calonge

Owner's Response: We were glad that Pauline and family enjoyed their stay in our house and area. We comment on the points she made :
We do list the problem with the little black sugar ants in the summer in the Manual left in the house. As all owners find this perennial problem causes some distress to foreign renters we can only advise any rubbish bins to be emptied on a daily basis and all crumbs or even dead insects in form of flies or moths be removed as they are a magnet for the ants once they get a scent. It can be very difficult to stop them entirely, there is no known way to keep them out other than obsessively cleaning up all the time and or spraying or putting down powder - we leave a suitable insect spray in the house at the start of the season. They tend to be more of nuisance factor with their persistence. Sadly lizards or in this case a Ghecko cannot be kept out, they normally live out on the walls but we usually welcome them as they eat both ants and flies and other insects.
There is only one restuarant on the Urbanization at the bottom of the hill, the population during the off season would not warrant another.
We have no pool as indicated on the web page and of course the villa is priced accordingly. Due to the ongoing maintenance costs we are unlikely to add a pool in the future.

Owner's Response: I am very sorry about problems outlined by Ms W despite our best efforts to provide some heating, Ms W did not re-contact my agent when she felt the underfloor heating had still not come on. It was only at the end of the rental that she mentioned this to my agent, We have found that tentants do not like to be disturbed during a rental and my agent had assumed all was well after her initial intervention.
As indicated I did contact Ms W. to let her know that our web page clearly indicates during winter lets heating is charged at cost. Outside winter months, November to March, there is no heating provided. However I assured her that I would not be charging for arranging for some heating because I had not thought to make this clear in my booking confirmation and my agent had confirmed to me that the weather had turned unseasonably cool this year. I providing both electric fan and oil radiators as well as turning on the underfloor heating for the living dining room and hall where it is connected. The notice on the bedroom thermostat is due to the damage done to a previous thermostat by tenants, and we could not leave a hole with wires sticking out of the wall.

I did explain to Ms W that the underfloor heating was water and not electric and therefore would take sometime to take effect, and I explained that the electric fan heater in the lounge would affect the ability of the lounge thermostat to operate correctly. I also indicated that it was not like turning on thermostats controlling radiators which would provide relatively quick heating, the temperature level would be a slow increase in the ambient room temperature. Ms W assured me that she knew about all about underfloor heating. I understand from my agent that the controls on the boiler were all correct, the thermostat was set correctly and the boiler fired when she first set the thermostat, and as we had been in the house some 3 weeks previously with no problems with the heating I have no reason to think that the heating was not working, I can only assume that fan heating in the lounge being kept on must have interfered with the thermostat function.

I note that Ms W reports that she seeks out properties with central heating, but did not actually mention this fact to me at time of booking.
It is always a pity when tenants do not mention these things at the time, so they can be rectified rather than wait to the end of the tenancy when there is little that can be done.

Owner's Response: We are pleased to find the facilities and views were enjoyed, we are aware of the bed shortcomings and intend to have the beds raised shortly. In fact some Tenants have found the other beds too firm and the 2nd bedroom was intended for children but due to the demand from 2 couples we will make changes there. Ants are a perennial problem in the area, apart from their tendency to come in for the smallest particles of food or sweet things which might get left out, sometimes they seem to come into the house if rain is in the offing. We do mention some solutions in our handbook left in the house.