Advice please, villa isn't a villa

opinions4u

A judge is unlikely to look favourably on any complaint where you didn't give the service provider the opportunity to rectify the situation.

I'd suggest a letter of complaint to the booking agent highlighting what you thought was misleading, why, and suggesting more helpful wording for future adverts.

You may get an apology and £50 towards the next booking. You may just get the apology.

photome

OP thanks for returning.

I think the advert you booked from is misleading, but the info is there on tripadvisor (at least it is now), and the description to me doesnt describe a property of that size

I do think you should have spoken to the owner on arrival and at the very least before you left to give them a chance to explain.

It is a shame you cant leave a review as it does now leave others open to the same thing.

If it was me i would still be getting in touch with the owner and telling them that I think the ad is misleading and ask why they put the info on other ads but not on owners direct

budgetflyer

Dunroamin wrote: »

"Private" refers to having sole use of the pool, not whether it's overlooked or not.

You really don't need to look at other sites to realise that the house shown must contain more than 3 beds, living room and kitchen - sometimes you just have to use a bit of common sense.

You can dress it up how you like,pat your self on the back for being so clever and reading between the lines but the advert on Owners Direct is deliberately misleading.
Most people booking, I suspect ,would think they were getting exclusive use.

Unfortunately because Coosh didn't complain, they are unlikely to be able to pursue this further, other than complaining to owners direct to get the advert amended.
Maybe it might be worth pursuing through the small claims court, I don't know. I don't think any reasonable judge would disagree the advert is misleading.

peachyprice

ferf1223 wrote: »

the fact that the owner does reference the that it is one floor only and they are on site in other listings elsewhere makes it seem even odder that in this case - at Owners Direct - they don't...they must think it's relevant to include it anywhere, why not here? Strange.

Could be a simple case of the owners not updating that particular advert. I would have thought if there were being deliberately misleading they wouldn't have mentioned them being on site in any of their ads.

There are a lot of Brits in Spain who have fallen upon hard times, it's not the utopia they thought it would be. I wonder if, when they first built it, they rented the whole thing out and lived elsewhere, now they can't afford to so have moved into the villa but have missed updating that particular ad.

But as OP didn't bring it up with the owner when they were there I guess we'll never know.

peachyprice

Coosh wrote: »

I only asked for some advice on how to proceed. I expect a property to be honestly described and I dont believe that this was. I now understand that it will have to be via small claims court which I have never done before and not sure it would be a worthwhile thing to do.

In all honesty, it's too late now. You should have said something when you were there and given the owners the opportunity to make amends by either moving out or giving you a discount.

Taking a person, living is Spain, to small claims, is not a realistic proposition. Even if you were to win you have no way of enforcing judgement and you'll have wasted that money too.

At this stage in the game, the best you can do it write to them expressing your displeasure, write a factual review on Trip Advisor and chalk it up to experience.

peachyprice

opinions4u wrote: »

I'd suggest a letter of complaint to the booking agent highlighting what you thought was misleading, why, and suggesting more helpful wording for future adverts.

You may get an apology and £50 towards the next booking. You may just get the apology.

Owners Direct aren't a booking agent, only an advertising portal and don't form part of the contract between the owner and renter.

Bennifred

I've never rented a villa in Spain. We have rented many holiday properties in the US and the Caribbean, however, and if I saw the Owners Direct description in this case I would think it was the whole villa included - some large properties have a small number of large rooms as opposed to a large number of smaller rooms. The description in this case very misleading, in my opinion.

On the other hand, I always search as many sites for descriptions and reviews of the favoured property as possible because privacy and sole occupancy is very important to me.

I hope you enjoyed your holiday anyway, OP.

totallybored

peachyprice wrote: »

Taking a person, living is Spain, to small claims, is not a realistic proposition. Even if you were to win you have no way of enforcing judgement and you'll have wasted that money too.

She lives in SE London for 2 weeks out of every 6 where she rents her spare room of a 2 bed flat she owns (if its the same person that I found on google).

Voyager2002

totallybored wrote: »

She lives in SE London for 2 weeks out of every 6 where she rents her spare room of a 2 bed flat she owns (if its the same person that I found on google).

In any case, it is now too late. A judge would take the view that you should have given the owner the opportunity to put things right as soon as you realised there was a problem.

peachyprice

totallybored wrote: »

She lives in SE London for 2 weeks out of every 6 where she rents her spare room of a 2 bed flat she owns (if its the same person that I found on google).

Seems strange that she doesn't just move out when the villa is let then.