We had a horrible experience at this villa which almost ruined our holiday. The villa looks fine as you arrive -- large and in a quiet road -- but once inside you can see it is very poorly maintained. The furniture is old, with lumpy mattresses, stained and ripped curtains, ripped cushion covers, towels so worn they would better serve as floor cloths, flaking paint on the ceiling, a rotten shower seal, a dirty and bumpy liner in the pool, sun-scorched patio furniture, a sad looking poolside shower… The air conditioning didn't work downstairs at all and only weakly upstairs. The floors, tables and kitchen work tops were only very superficially clean. But the worst thing about this villa is its owner.

We had booked the villa just days before departure, as we wanted to wait for my mother to get the five-year all-clear for cancer to be able to book a celebratory holiday for her. We had already found a villa for the second week of our holiday, but struggled to find one free for the first week. This property was one of just a couple we could find that was still free. It had received one review only, but we decided to take a chance and hoped it would be ok. At first, the owner said she was waiting for payment from someone else. Then, a couple of days later she contacted me to say that that person had let her down and asked us if we had found something. We hadn't, so we booked her villa.

My husband, three-year-old son and I arrived late at night on 17 August and we wanted to go straight to bed. We switched on the air conditioning but it didn't come on downstairs and upstairs it hardly made any difference to the room temperature. My husband and son decided to have a quick dip in the pool, but my husband said the bottom of the pool felt bumpy and slimy. There were also bubbles in the pool, which is an indication it wasn't clean, and/or that there was a leak in its filter.

We checked out the bedrooms. The mattresses were all lumpy and uncomfortable. We found that the least uncomfortable bed was the double bed downstairs, so I slept there with our son. My husband slept in the double bed upstairs. My son and I were bathed in sweat all night and could not get comfortable on the mattress. I didn't open the windows in the bedroom because it was downstairs and I didn't know if it would be safe to. My husband's room upstairs was so hot he had to open the windows all night. When we got up the next day, at the crack of dawn, we saw everything else that was wrong with the property. We knew staying there would ruin our holiday, and we didn't want my parents to have to stay there when they arrived later that week, so we rang round hotels desperately trying to find a room for the first week. The fourth hotel we tried did have a room and we had a fantastic time there. We also had a wonderful time at the villa we had booked for the second week. More about that later…

Before leaving the first villa, we took photos of some of the hostel-like conditions the owner thinks is good enough for someone's holiday. We also tried to call her but the number she provided on the paper giving directions to the villa -- 0044 7717 375744 -- did not work. It must be an old number. When we got to the hotel, we emailed her to tell her we had moved out. She replied later that she would get back in touch. She did, by phone, on the fifth day of our holiday and proceeded to have an argument with me, during which she made the ludicrous accusation that prior to our holiday we must have booked two villas for the first week and then, once in Cyprus, decided which one we preferred and chosen to cancel our booking at hers. I offered to send her a letter from the hotel reservations department, confirming that we had booked the room the morning after seeing her villa, but she wasn't interested. I got this letter in any case and sent it to her. I told the owner that the villa was sub-standard and that we expected a refund. She refused to return a single penny, saying she had only ever had excellent feedback from her guests. We do believe that she truly thinks her villa is of an acceptable standard and so we shudder to think what she and the guests she referred to think is 'bad' accommodation. I know Cyprus very well, having been born and raised there and visited many times. I had never seen bad accommodation in Cyprus until I saw this villa. We also found it totally unprofessional of the owner to use her cleaner as the local contact for guests! Finally, the owner also said she had let us have the villa because I had “sounded like a nice person”. Charming. If, like us, you work hard all year for a two-week break, don't waste your money on her 'villa'.

We have written this review and posted photos of this villa as a warning to anyone lured to this property by the owner's promise of 'value for money'. The second villa cost £160 per week more than this one, but it was immaculately clean, had high spec fittings and décor, excellent orthopaedic matresses, powerful and easy to use air conditioning units, and a fantastic pool and pool area. And the pool was cleaned twice a week; we know, we saw the guy cleaning it! It was also in beachside location and had a management company, whose agent was terrific. The owner was also professional and courteous and actually cared that we had a nice holiday.

I dont usually write reviews, but this villa which we stayed in was fantastic.

So much space, clean and tidy, and an amazing pool area where you can spend the day doing nothing.

When... more