This is a grown up apartment in a fab location. We travelled as 2 couples which made the stay great value. The owner greeted us upon arrival and explained everything we needed to know which was a... more

One of the best apartments we've stayed in in the UK. Fantastic location, lovely views and really well maintained. We loved the interior design. The children loved being so close to the sea.... more

We had a very disappointing stay at this apartment. We travelled as 2 couples and chose it due to the location and 5 star 'Gold' rating. Unfortunately it seemed to us that it should only be worthy of 3, maximum 4 stars.

The first impressions were awful. On entering the communal area there is a terrible smell of damp and mustiness - think dowdy bedsit community. Not at all welcoming and not what we were expecting. The apartment itself looked OK at first but it soon became clear that this was a refurbished flat done on the cheap.

The lounge whilst trying to be minimalist is just empty, and the furniture that is there was the cheapest you can buy. The sofa was extremely uncomfortable with some cushions held together with tape. There was a chair that you just slipped out of unless you were bolt upright. A stained coffee table that you couldn't reach from any seat (meaning that you had to place your cup of tea or wine on the floor) and then a grubby, cheap set of table and 4 director style metal chairs. There is a 32” TV with Sky, and a DVD Player but that's the only entertainment for the entire apartment – nothing in the bedrooms and the smallest and quite possibly the cheapest CD/Radio in the kitchen (think freebie when you fill up with petrol).

The kitchen, whilst being fairly well equipped is old style, with cheap laminate worktops peeling at the edges and an old sink with taps that were so stiff that when you did manage to turn them on, a jet wash of water shot out. The dining table chairs had no padding left in them and whilst we were all about 6 ft in height, we felt like little munchkins at the high table. There was also just a single bar stool - obviously the others shown in the picture had broken long ago.

The main bedroom had a small narrow 'sleigh' style bed. If you're anything like average in height and build, don't even think about sleeping in this. Your feet will peek out of the duvet and have to perch on the bottom of the bed plus you'll be nudging your partner all night long. The bed linen was clean and fresh but the pillows were the feather type (with no alternatives supplied). These not only caused 1 of our group an allergic reaction but after a nights sleep they were next to useless – offering absolutely no support. In fact after 1 night we went to Newport and purchased our own. (Good ones can be had for only £12.99 a pair at Matalan by the way.)

The 2nd bedroom had a much better bed but the room was just grim. It had a very strong smell of damp, and the 2 that slept in this room woke up each morning wheezing and were quite ill for a few days after leaving. Whilst this could never be proved to be caused by sleeping in this room it certainly didn't help. The room was gloomy with only 2 bedside lights with low wattage bulbs but the worst part was the window which was absolutely filthy – and I mean really filthy! So much so that at first we thought it was frosted glass. In fact all the windows in the apartment lacked quality – they were difficult to open – some would not open and some that did open felt that they were about to fall off.

The bathrooms were just about OK. The main bathroom is fairly stylish – however it's clad in black tiles which look like they were shoddily applied by a trainee – e.g. the edges don't quite meet up in most places but I suppose it is an old building. It looked quite clean at first impressions but after you had a shower (which was in fact quite a good shower), the moisture in the air clung to the dust and dirt lurking on the blinds which immediately made it smell foisty. Surely these are basics. We did have to laugh though at the fact that you could sit on the loo and use the sink at the same time so that's a plus.

The en-suite to the main bedroom was adequate but it had a cheapo shower enclosure you had to be careful with for fear of the doors falling off. There was also a strong smell of urine in here when we arrived but it did subside after it had been used and we had sprayed some cleaning fluid around.

Generally the apartment was quite clean with the exception of the internal doors which were just grubby with other peoples finger marks.

The listing also suggests that you can sit on the balcony on its table and chairs – but whilst the balcony is an OK size it was completely empty.

The location is the apartments only selling point – right in the centre of Ventnor with fabulous views straight out to sea but this has a drawback in that there is no parking – you have to take pot luck on the street outside which more often than not is full – so it means either a trip down to the seafront or round to the town centre car park, both charging around £1 an hour and a 10 minute walk.

In summary, you may think this is a picky review but we paid the going rate for a 5 star apartment and expected it to be a 5 star apartment. We have actually stayed in far, far better 4 star apartments so were at a loss as to how the grading could be so high. Sadly we felt conned.