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.

I think this is a grey area. You do have an "entire home" in that you have your own front door and it is separate from the owners, albeit in the same building.

We stayed somewhere similar in France - we were upstairs, the owners downstairs but we had our own entrance. I would focus complaints on the noise rather than the fact you thought it would be separate. There are clues in the reviews - one of the Dutch ones translates as "very discreet, friendly and hospitable owners" and another one says "the owners truly give you complete privacy" (also Dutch).

That's really annoying. Looking at the pics are you not getting to use the rooms then on the bottom that go out into the patio/garden area ?

I really would have to say something, sure you couldn't relax with strangers hanging about, it looks so private and secluded but then you have a family under you.

The Dutch reviews indicate it is not the whole house but an apartment. I suppose you can make the argument it is misleading but realistically, the noise is the only true complaint you can make.

When the reviews mention discretion I assumed this referred to the owners popping round to e.g. maintain the pool, as we've experienced elsewhere.

To answer other questions.

• No, the building by the pool is just a shelter not accommodation. We have the top floor of the main house and the owners live below. There are separate entrances but I think it is used as one building at other times. There is a locked internal door separating the floors.
• There are three bedrooms, the yellow room is photographed twice with different bedding for some reason
• We do have a patio/deck. It leads from the dining room. The house is on a slope which makes this possible despite the lower floor
• Part of the garden at the back and side is fenced off for the owners. We assumed we'd have access to the whole garden, wrapping round the property.

Very misleading. The house looks like a bungalow to me. Where are the upstairs windows? And strange that they only have excellent reviews.

Hmmm.

'Entire home' can mean 'self contained apartment behind its own lockable door' rather than, say, a room in a hotel or B&B or rooms in the hosts house.

But it says 'house' not 'apartment' .

I would definitely approach the owners and ask them not to make noise with vans, garage doors, gates from late evening or in the morning. Tell them it is disturbing your sleep.

A few of the reviews have actually’liked’ the ‘listing accuracy’. Makes me wonder if this is a recent change. Either way, glad you posted as personally I’ve noted this and in future will directly question hosts whether it’s partial or the entire property that’s being let.

You can see their vans out of one of the bedroom windows.

I am guessing that the top floor can access the pool side of the house directly and their bit is underneath, accessed from the back at the bottom of the slope?

As a pp said, it is common in France for gite owners to live on site so there might be a bit of different understanding, and unless it says exclusive access to the entire plot, I think it reasonable that you have the garden for the holiday let and exclusive access to the pool.

Just talk to them about the noise so that no more nights of your hol are disturbed.

I cant open the link, but your description does sound like a self contained property. Similar to the owner living next door really.

@WatchingCometsLandare you there now? It’s the most beautiful area to explore.

The arial view of the property is showing the other side from the pool and is two stories. I can see exactly how this is arranged, so that your floor opens onto the pool and they are below with no direct access to the amenities. It's not so bad really.

Entire home in this context means a self contained space with your own door. Which is what you have

In France it's so common to have the owners on site that clearly the French guests have not batted an eyelid. But I agree it shoukd state they live on site.

It's impossible to fake reviews on VRBO ( or Air bnb or booking dot com) as you have to have paid through the website to get a review link So unless the owners paid 15 friends the full price in order that they could review it means the reviews are genuine.

That's very annoying - though I can see it might be argued by advertisers/owners that as you have your own entrance it is an 'entire home'. So sadly you might not get very far. I'd definitely leave a clear (though not offensive) review though.

We have not had great experiences with vrbo either i have to say. Slightly dirty home with a leaking roof and linen that Im not sure was clean - and where whoever the caretaker was did not respond for hours to messages (including "we have arrived and can't get in!") . He also thought we were booked for less time than we were and was very surprised to find us stilll there when he came along a few days later :/

So, you have private, self contained use of all the rooms that you expected to have and that were described on the listing? You also have private sole access to the facilities listed in the advert, such as pool, outdoor dining area etc?

In which case, I think it's OK. They've provided what they said they would. It's just that it's a conversion apartment rather than a house, which admittedly isn't clear from the pictures. It's an entire home, a self contained apartment, within a Country House. They could make the description a bit clearer to show that.

That said, I think if the noise from the people living in the other apartment is disturbing you, then I think it's reasonable for you to raise this with them. I would also leave a review in line with my experience.

To add, I have stayed in a couple of other places arranges like yours is with owners on site and they were actually more help than hindrance, and a great opportunity to practice the language/get a heads up about planned road closures on the way back to the ferry (thank you Madame) etc... But I absolutely get that you want to know in advance.

We had something very similar in an Airbnb, where the owners could actually access the part of the house we were in through a locked door. So creepy. Airbnb just believed them that they weren’t in there, but there were lights on at weird times (not the way you’d set a timer and also internal rooms you wouldn’t bother putting lights on timers as nobody outside would see them). They asked that we kept the driveway clear for access to the garage, but hadn’t said this until the day we checked in. I won’t use Airbnb again because of it!

What a cheek - I would look into 'false and misleading advertising'. Very annoying, the noise and lack of privacy is not on.

We’ve had experiences like this. The weirdest was owners living in the garage at the bottom of the garden! I do find it intrusive and I am sorry it’s worked out like this. I’d raise the noise issues with vrbo and really focus on any lack of accuracy in the description. I’d also ask the owners not to drive their vehicles through at late/early hours. They may well be amenable to this. I won’t use vrbo or Airbnb because of such experiences. I hope you can enjoy your holiday despite this.

I agree its misleading but tbh I'd put it behind you, buy a crate of rose, get stuck in and enjoy. The owners might be nice!

This. I read it as you have entire house and I wouldn’t want them waking me up!!

I guess technically they haven’t lied but it is misleading. Screen shot everything before they have chance to change listing. Complain and leave clear feedback on the review.

I’d be unhappy about it and ad is disingenuous, but as PPs say ‘entire home’ can mean just part of a property, so it’s unlikely you can get any money back.

i even wonder if the previous guests’ reviews have been amended after disagreements.

Stating facts in your review might avoid this and help others: ‘The owners live on site, in part of the property down the stairs, and were present during our stay and regularly driving vehicles in and out’

This is a bugbear of DH’s and he often scrutinises photos and emails owners and gets cross when they respond that yes, they live there 😆

Most of the reviews mention the kind and discrete owners, so i would have assumed from that that were closeby.

We rented a place with a similar arrangement last year and have rented another this year. The description says entire home, because they are, but it is made clear from the description and reviews that the “entire home” is attached to the owner’s home. Last year, this was on top. This year they are underneath.

For the people saying that this is an apartment and that's ok, Vrbo allows you to search and filter by property type - house, cottage, apartment etc. We filtered by house. The property is classed by the owners as a house and not an apartment or gite. It is also described as a house in the title. It wasn't left ambiguous.

We are seasoned french travellers, have been renting holiday homes for decades now. We're used to many of the things that are unexpected for Brits - no linen, towels etc. And in fact we've stayed places where the owners are on site. But this has always been mentioned (and also reflected in the price).