Verified
8/10 Good
Rick S.
28 August 2022
Liked: Cleanliness, check-in, communication, location, listing accuracy
Charentes Villa or Chambre d'hote
The house and location did not disappoint but perhaps because of early days renting, there was a lack of feeling of exclusivity and privacy which you normally get when renting a villa.
This is perhaps the difference between running a Chambre d'hote and renting out your own Charentes House/family home. It felt like we were living in “their” house (complete with family photos) where they can pop in to put things in the freezer, albeit they asked in advance. It is the first time we have encountered this in the 20 years of renting villas.
We have never sat by a private pool where the owners have been in the close vicinity so often. For example, on one occasion we were at the pool and woken by the sound of drilling/hammering coming from the next-door barn. On another occasion our son was woken by them opening the front door to announce they were working in the garden. The thought they could appear at anytime put us on edge.
At least one of the owners was clearly on site more days than we expected/were lead to believe they would be.
We were only warned post booking that they may be resident in one of the barns on site, which they were renovating. This did not seem fair as we had already said that it was important for us to have complete privacy and the reasons why. The owners are a lovely couple so this came as a surprise, but we did not want to create an atmosphere by restating our need for privacy.
We understood that the house is next to a farm with the associated farm noises which would not be a problem for us. However, it was on arrival that we found out that, along with the usual farm noises, there was the loud noise of a pack of hunting dogs kept on the farm. Unfortunately, the barking was not confined to feeding times but on several occasions the howling continued during the night which woke us up. This is outside of the control of the owners who explained that it was outside the hunting seasons so the dogs were confined at that time, but it could be upsetting for some people.
Despite the high standard of accommodation, had we known the above, we would not have booked and indeed we feel irritated that there was a lack of complete transparency. There was a hint prior to booking of the noises and “Andy being around”. Our feeling was that irrespective of us being there, they continued with the jobs they had to do. We were away for a half day each day and would have expected the jobs to be done when we were away and not when we were not there.
Rick S.
Stayed 13 nights in Aug 2022