To have expected that the owners of this holiday let would not be living in the building.

[WatchingCometsLand]

^https://www.vrbo.com/en-gb/p1975005a^

We spent 3k on this holiday (our first in years). Turns out that we get the top floor and the owners live below. They enter and exit with their vans via two garage doors immediately below our bedroom windows, through the garden.

Were we unreasonable to have expected this to be stated in the advertisement?

The noise is particularly problematic - we have been woken late at night and then first thing in the morning.

It definitely says ‘entire home’ at the top of the listing!

The advert does clearly say it’s a country house and not a flat so I would complain and leave appropriate reviews

It does say 'entire home' so I would be absolutely fuming. They do have 10/10 reviews though, so I'm hugely surprised that no one else has complained about the misleading advert.

One of the reviews mentions something about the owners being incredibly discreet. I'm a bit paranoid about things like this so may have sent a few questions about the pool and if anyone else uses it. Too late now and I'd feel pissed off if I thought we'd have privacy and then find we hadn't.

You are definitely not being unreasonable, that is an utter piss take.
Good luck with getting anything back from vrbo though, we had an issue last year where we rented a house with six bedrooms and one of them turned out just to be a mezzanine off another, with no privacy or even the headroom to stand up in.
Definitely leave reviews making this point absolutely clear, but imo it is misleading and not as described.

Have you pointed out that there was no indication they would be staying there?

To me, entire home means that you have a space behind a lockable door that contains the bedrooms, bathroom and all common areas. A flat would count as the ‘entire home’ as opposed to renting just a bedroom. I would expect to have private use of the pool, lawn and games area based on the advert and photos.

It’s very typical for gite owners to live on site though, so I wouldn’t necessarily assume that it wouldn’t be attached to their living quarters or that they wouldn’t be present on the grounds. I think I would have clarified when booking because the advert doesn’t indicate one way or the other.

I think you need a refund, or at least half. Did you have use of all the rooms in the picture?

Have you complained about the noise? Complain now so they can't say you never said anything.

Did the owners use the pool?

I think it’s misleading to call it the entire home. It’s clearly not a black of flats, it’s a house that you only have access to half of.

That's awful, I would be upset too. The advert is misleading.

This is what we thought too. We wondered if we'd misinterpreted something that everyone else understood. But given how people are reacting on this thread it seems that our interpretation of the advert was normal, and we're now wondering if something dodgy has happened with the reviews?

It's most odd that so many reviews, in both Dutch and French, and over a span of several years, describe the owners as discreet. I don't think that I've seen that on a review before, ever.

We're aware of how the term gite is used and we deliberately avoided places described as gites for this reason. This place was described as a house.

I’d definitely interpret the ad to mean you got the whole house.

I wouldn't even have interpreted it. It actually says 'entire home' on the advert.

Having lived in Germany, I think it is more typical to have this sort of house set up on the continent than the UK and it would be considered two “houses” rather than apartments if they each have their own entrance. I guess like a terrace but vertical rather than horizontal. So that might explain the lack of bad reviews.

The fact that more than one review mentions discreet owners, would indicate to me that they would be lurking around!

I filtered an airbnb search for 2 bedrooms.
What I got was one lovely bedroom and then a single bed under the eaves in the hallway.
It was clear when you fully read the spec and looked at the photos carefully, but I really think it should not have been a hit when filtering for '2 bedrooms'.

The question is how you understand “home”. Does it mean “building” or “self-contained accommodation”?
But I think if you’re only getting part of what looks like one house, it should have been made much clearer.

When we stayed in Canada last year the owners at both properties were living above our accommodation.
Certainly wasn’t clear in the details and it actually really annoyed me . Felt as if we were being watched.Both with VRBO .

I can't read the translation, it's taking an age to load. However, if the reviews mention the owners being discreet, then I would take that as meaning, that they live on-site, or at least come onto the property grounds regularly. The advent though, should state that guests don't have the entire property, but rather a self-contained section and the owners live in the other.

I would’ve expected there to be no one else. It says that rooms open onto patios so how is this the case if there’s someone below you ?

Are you in the building by the pool, or the 2 storey house? The ad looks as though you'd be staying in the building next to the pool, as that's what is the first picture. But I presume you're actually staying in the 2 storey house on the top floor? If be annoyed to... Not properly advertised. It should say that there is a site with X homes etc.

@WatchingCometsLand ad says 3 bedrooms but actually shows 4 bedrooms. I wouldnt be happy though.

Entire home would be a home if it was separate apartments as an apartment itself is an 'entrie home'