Disappointed in Palm Beach Villa
Review Submitted: January 8, 2010
Date of Stay: December 2009
We travelled to Aruba the week following Christmas. Upon arrival, the owner met us at the property and showed us around. The property is just as it appears in the photos. The pool in the backyard is great and the property is very spacious. You do not need a car and we walked to the beach, restaurants and stores (even though they are further away than advertised). We had a great week and enjoyed renting a house, however, there were many areas of disappointment.
The following items (listed on homeaway website) were not available at the house when we arrived:
* 4 lounge/beach chairs - apparently the 2 seater wooden chair by the pool replaced these. There were six people at the house and we were expecting to have lounge chairs available by the pool .
* Grill - this was not delivered until mid-day on Monday, 2 days after our arrival and after a phone call requesting it
* Blender - this was not delivered until mid-day on Monday, 2 days after our arrival and after a phone call requesting it
* There was false representation on the website about the distance to the beach. It is at least a 15 minute walk and significantly longer than 500 meters
The following amenities and housekeeping items are issues . It was reasonable to expect some simple things available to us when renting a house:
* General cleanliness of unit upon arrival - website notes housekeeper, but it did not appear to have been thoroughly cleaned. * Many of the towels were stained or dirty.
* Cockroaches were found in bathrooms and bedrooms
* Toilet paper - each of the three bathrooms came with only a partial roll of toilet paper. At least put a full role in each bathroom for your renters.
* There were grease covered dishes/platters in cabinets and no detergent.
* No hot water for part of the week in two of the three bathrooms (did have minimal luke warm water after contacting owner)
* Showers drains were clogged in the two smaller bathrooms - attempted (unsuccessfully) to use both drain-o and a plunger to unclog
The owner did come by the house to fix two lightbulbs and bring the grill and blender after requesting them. Overall, I would recommend Aruba to anyone and as long as you can look past the housekeeping issues listed above, the rental property was an enjoyable place to stay as an alternative to a resort. Personally, I would not stay there again.
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Helpful votes: 5/8
