Have you booked a holiday to Costa Del Sol this year PLEASE READ !

[welshcakes6]

Have you booked a holiday to the Costa del Sol this year in either private rental appartments or airb&b or booking.com etc ? There is a huge water shortage here and pools will not be opened in residential complexes only in hotels and designated holiday apartments. I have noticed that many of the agents or owners are not giving this information out to people. Families are arriving expecting to be able to use the pool and are not able to. On top of this the beach showers and toilets are also out of use making that not a great option either.
I would suggest you check with who you are renting from to see if this is the case. They are using the excuse that the decision has not yet been made. I have just spoken to a very upset family who have arrived with the intention of using the pool most days.
There are also water restrictions and the water is turned off in some residential properties overnight meaning people are filling buckets to flush the toilets.
Please if you have spent a significant amount of money check that you will have access to the pool !

I think a lot of owners and agents are clutching at straws so that people don't cancel. I know I wouldn't want to go on holiday somewhere really hot (it was over 40 last august most days) and find I didn't have a pool it's a lot of money to spend

This doesn't sound very promising for the summer then! We were going to monitor the situation.. the one we have booked is currently closed. But I don't hold out much hope! Please keep us updated if you hear anything.

🤔 I know. Not sure why you think I’m suggesting otherwise.

@2Orangesandlemons I know we desperately need to hope for rain 🥲 I have to admit that SOME holiday makers are super annoying so I won't miss them if they don't come 😂.
However those little kiddies today looked so sad I could have cried for their mum 😭. She paid €800 for the week too ! It's getting up to 27/28 degrees on Tuesday so I'm sure they will miss the pool. Luckily the beaches are quite quite atm but that's a nightmare too when you have little ones especially with no showers 🙈 and it's quite a long walk from here !

Thanks for this - we often travel to this area and rent private accommodation through vrbo - not going again until December though and probably unlikely to be wanting to swim then.

I have a feeling we may have seen something about this when we were there in February as we commented around them cleaning the streets each day. This was in Torremolinos). We thought it was particularly dry this year - although I think there's been rain in March.

Yes sadly I think you're right there, it is too profitable to turn away from, and the economy is reliant on it. And yet it's the most destructive thing to carry on doing and using the water for. And people love it, it's hard to give up things you love doing. I think it will become more necessary from here on out though, time to diversify what we enjoy into things that need less natural resources.

I hope for rain for you @welshcakes6

@ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea
No problem 🥰 yes we had torrential downpours over Easter but sadly it just isn't enough 🥲 the pools have actually been closed since the end of august last year due to the situation but we expect them to open this year. Apparently we need a month of rain between now and the end of June to get them to a good level I just can't see it happening. What is annoying me (and why I posted) is the owners and agents aren't making customers aware and prices are so high in the school holidays people are struggling anyway and it's just an extra kick in the teeth to turn up on a well earned holiday to no pool 🥲

@Cnidarian Thank you 🥰 my plants hate me at the mo 🙈

Poor kids and the mum that's such a shame 😥 and I find the beach too hot with kids in the height of summer anyway! 🤞 for some rain!

We've booked an AirB&B and the owner is saying that it's not decided yet etc. we are able to cancel for full refund a month before and we're not due to go until end of July.

We are going with family and the kids will need a pool - it's basically the main feature of our holiday. So no pool would be devastating.

So are hotels able to have pool open still?

Oh no, we’ve paid a lot of money and with children we need the pool.

Would you suggest emailing the host again about this? We aren’t going until August.

Yes hotel pools are allowed to open so I don't know if it's possible for people to cancel and then book hotels instead so you are guaranteed a pool (that would probably be my choice)
I don't know the cost implications of that but I would expect you should get a full refund on anything you have booked that isn't as described 🤔.
It will all come down to the rainfall and the long range weather does not look like there is going to be any significant change.
I expect the beaches will be even more packed than usual this year too so that wouldn't make a relaxing holiday.

What a nightmare. Our daughter has ASD and doesn’t do well in hotels, so we would have to go somewhere else that isn’t the Costa del Sol.

This is the problem isn't it the kids ! You can't go on holiday when you have been telling them there is a pool and then get there and say to them oh sorry no pool ! The little ones don't understand 🥲
Adults would probably be majorly annoyed but you could get by and find other things to do but for kids the holiday is the pool morning til night.
I don't know what to suggest really if it was me I would try get a hotel or go somewhere else 🤔 just because I couldn't chance it.
During covid the government did so many u turns and they may miraculously find water once they realise the financial impact but for me it would just be too risky.
I can update here though if I do hear any updates 🥰

@Nurse1980 oh no I really feel for you I can imagine it must be hard for her with all the people too noisy etc 🥲. I know how much people look forward to their holiday too 😭

Thank you. I’ll email Air bnb.

Just because you said the pool was full now , but it won’t be by August.

Cancel and book a proper hotel

You could but they won’t be able to advise now what the situation will be in August.

Another suggestion as well is that maybe join the local ex Pat Facebook pages and ask on there. Some areas do have desalination plants and if you are in that area you may not have a problem. The Costa del Sol is obviously a huge place and different areas will have different restrictions

Ah ok. I didn’t mention August just commenting on the current situation. I just said hers is full currently so is able to use it now whereas a lot of her neighbours emptied to reduce maintenance over the winter. They are unlikely to be there over the summer as tend to come home for all of the international school breaks so probably won’t pose as much as an issue for them.

The Air BnB villa we staying in has long term tenants that are leaving in July. So luckily it wasn’t emptied over winter.

It’s a chlorine pool though, so I imagine it will need to be topped up.

@Nurse1980 Yes as far as I know (I don't know a lot about pools tbh) when the pool is in use it needs to be topped up because if it goes below the filters they will break. Especially in august the water evaporates because of the heat and also splashing around etc you are bound to loose some water too. Fingers crossed for you that as it hasn't been emptied this is a good sign 🥰