We thank all travellers who take time to place a review with valid and honest criticism and like to respond honestly and directly to any review with issues so all of our readers can know how conscientious we are :-)
We're sorry this guest didn't like some aspects of our rental especially when they sent me an email after they left, saying how much they’d enjoyed their stay.
This is going to appear petty (not my style at all), but in view of this guests comments, I will answer one by one.
I think most people use the GPS / Maps in their smartphone to find us. The directions I systematically send out are very precise and people who use them mostly congratulate me on their precision. I'm against the proliferation of signs on the roads in the country. We have a sign with our name on it on the wall as you arrive… I don’t know why this guest didn’t see it... perhaps it’s too small.
There is a doorbell just under the house number next to the gate… again this is the first time a guest has not seen either the sign or the doorbell
My French husband (who speaks good English but with a strong accent!) gave this guest their “welcome tour” - this is not an unusual event. He offered to speak in English, but the guest said they were more than happy with French, but I realise that they must have missed much of what he said, otherwise they would have understood his profuse apologies for lack of wifi as well as info about the pool cover.
This guest sent me ONE email asking for the wifi code which I replied to, again apologising profusely….I am fully aware of how annoying it can be not to have an internet connexion and again it’s certainly not my style to make the kind of comments they said I made this is their interpretation only.
I’m not sure what this guest means about “poorly supplied… soap et etc”, compared to most places, we offer a unique balance of location, amenities, etc. Everybody loves a 5 star resort more than a 3 star, but that doesn't make us over rated in our category, location and price range. so we stand by happy to serve the guests who do the homework and decide we will be the right choice for them (this guest paid 210 euros for 5 people for 3 nights - that makes just 15 euros/pers/night :-)
The next door apartments were rented to a group of 6 people with 2 dogs. Again in the email the guest sent me after their stay, they said how delightful this group of people were and that they’d been invited to a barbecue in the garden by them. Yes, I’m afraid the dogs did bark as they were left in the apartment on their own on one occasion. We asked the owners not to leave the dogs on their own again which they complied to straight away.
If you llok at our ads, you’ll see we do not advertise ourselves as handicap/elderly friendly, For our readers, there are 8 steps leading up to the gites which are on the first floor as the building is built on a slope (no steps once inside). As a previous guest once mentioned «I'm 70 years old and anyone who finds the steps too much for them should be checking into a hospital”…
The “instruction binder” contains not only “advice” about the best way to make the most of your stay, but also the opening times of the local shop, the nearest supermarket and a list of the nearby restaurants with phone numbers (and a note at the end saying we’ll book restaurant tables for you if required) although this guest had already sent me an email the week before arrival, asking me to phone 4 restaurants to confirm bookings and recommend another…. which I did and which the guest thanked me for!
We only give details of public transport to guests who don’t come by car (about 1%) There is no point in putting this information in the “instruction binder” as it has to be updated regularly and very few people actually need it.
Again, my very humble apologies for any misunderstandings which I think were due to a lack of communication. We DO listen to any of our guests’ issues and try to act accordingly.
During welcome tours we ALWAYS say that if guests have an issue during their stay, we’ll do our best to resolve it there and then, ‘just ask for Jenny or Daniel’.
Happy travelling.