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Review submitted by Carol from Epsom (Submitted: 4 Oct 2011)
Villa Ayra
Firstly a big thanks to Paul for renting the villa to us at very short notice (having been let down elsewhere at the last minute). The customer service from him at this point was great. It was our first time staying in the Long Beach area as our favoured place is Ladies Beach. However, needs must!
Local Area
We arrived late night at the end of August for a 1 week stay and was met by Birol, the very friendly and helpful caretaker, who showed us around the villa and gave us a heads up as to where everything was. We found the complex extremely quiet and very well kept. Great if you just want to chill out and relax as there is not much going on within the locality. A 15 minute walk will take you to Kipa (part of Tesco), a very good supermarket within a small shopping complex, including cinema and fast food places suitable for lunch. The beach is further away and is best reached by dolmus (bus). Otherwise, there really isnt much going on. We did find a lovely spa complex, a 5-10 minute walk away, where you can have a swim and be pampered for the day.
Villa
The estate consists of about 24 villas, each uniformed in appearance. There is a nice communal pool with a separate paddling pool for young kids. The villa itself we found to be spacious and externally pleasing to the eye. How disappointing, therefore, to find it lacking in home comforts with only the bare minimum provided! The villa has ample seating, selec tion of terraces and balconies, air con and a good sea view. It would have got top marks but for the following
1. Lack of dishwasher - surprising in this day and age.
2. Lack of pots and pans - 3 frying pans and 1 small pot, non of which had lids. We had to buy our own.
3. Lack of decent kitchen utensils - all were of very poor quality.
4. There is a lovely bbq area but no grille or utensils to go with it.
5. The one and only terrace umbrella is ripped to bits, so therefore little better than useless. A pity because there is no other shelter from the sun.
6. The Satalite TV did not work. Even Birol could not get it to work. Not a great problem for us because as a family we like to talk and interact with each other rather than sit in front of a square box. Call me old fashioned, but I believe if you advertise something as available then it jolly well should be.
7. Cleaning equipment such as broom, mop, lavatory brushes (where provided!) etc require replacing. It shouldnt be up to the customer to do so. Minor point, there is no vacuum cleaner.
8. The welcome binder needs a lot of working on. Too little info provided and poor presentation.
9. Laundry bins would have been welcomed.
10. Showers - are these supposed to be wet rooms? After each use the rooms became flooded and mopping up operation was needed. Seriously requires proper cubicles as the curtains dont appear to be adequate. Shower heads need cleaning/descaling.
Cheap and cheerful appears to be the order of the day here which is a pity as the holiday itself was good and the villa could have been a great place to stay if it had been better equipped and more attention given to detail. We were left with the impression the owners probably didnt spend much time there. And it showed! Unfortunate.
All in all I would stay there again but it would not be the first place on my list.