Every year my family and that of my three sisters rent a large villa in France or Spain for our family holidays. There's a big group of us, and usually this is the high-point of our year. This year it was the low-point.
Upon arrival at the property there were a number of issues: The decking towards the rear of the property was so badly broken up, it wasn’t possible to walk on it, and it represented a hazard to the elderly members of our party (my mum is in her 80s, my Dad in his 90s). Some of the doors inside the property did not open properly, and had been wedged shut. The fridge in one of the kitchens was very dirty, some of the pots and pans and cutlery were also dirty.
We later found that three of the sun umbrellas were broken, so we were unable to dine outside during the day. There were only a handful of sun-loungers by the pool, and not enough for our party. Towards the front of the property were many bags of rubbish that had been left, by the previous occupants. It looks like they had partied hard. Their rubbish remained, rotting away for the full duration of our stay, attracting a stray dog and vermin. In the grass surrounding the property were many pieces of broken glass, which represented a hazard to our children, with one child cutting her foot. We spent hours cleaning those up.
Within a day, the pool pump broke down, and the pool was unusable for the rest of our stay — the water was cloudy from the outset as it was. This was a major part of the property we couldn't use for all but one of our days.
We sent multiple messages to the vendor about these and other issues. He did not respond. We also repeatedly called the number we were given for maintenance, the number they gave us was either inactive or incorrect, we received no answer.
On our last day, we finally saw a contact for the property. He wanted to charge us more than we’d agreed for bedding (we’d not received enough bedding as it was), and for cleaning. We drew this contact's attention to the broken glass, the broken pool pump, the broken umbrellas. He acknowledged that this was all unacceptable, and apologized for the poor state of the property.
Since returning, we have received a message from the owner via the VRBO app who want to charge us 500 euros for the ‘living area’, the three umbrellas (that were broken before we arrived), and for sheets we didn't receive, plus other unspecified charges for 'the living area'.
Do not touch this place with a bargepole.