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'd be annoyed with this op. It's definitely not clear at all.

It says "rooms open to patios" but I don’t see how that can be true if you’ve only got the top floor. Complain, and leave a poor review.

The home owner has been very careful with their photos to give the impression it's a whole house whilst hiding the lower floors. I'd be quite pissed off if I'd paid £3k for this to be disturbed by the homeowners comings and goings.

I’d tell them about the noise of the vans. Perhaps they can park them outside for the duration of your visit as there is plenty of land. It looks lovely, apart from that, and it does look as if you have privacy and sole use of the facilities.

I wouldn't be happy. Understanding it is a grey area, it's a pity someone didn't mention the living situation in the reviews.

I seldom think people complaining about holiday stuff are being reasonable, but I think you are! There is only one photo in all those which shows the property as being on two levels - and you'd have to look VERY closely to spot it and realise. Technically you may have sole use of the upper part (which looks like a bungalow from the pictures and I think is deliberately intended to mislead to that effect), and I probably wouldn't be bothered about the slight of hand if it weren't for the noise that you describe. What did they say when you complained about the noise?

When we were kids my parents booked a holiday house in Italy, the owners lived in the garage in summer and rented the house out to make money.
we hated the holiday, they were always popping up!

I wouldn’t like that either, had you known owners lived on-site you would have probably found another let. The ad does not mention the set up. How disappointing.

Technically it is an entire home as you're not sharing, but it is misleading as it looks like you are getting a detached house.
I booked a French Vrbo holiday let last year, it was also selective with the truth, and I was shocked that the owners left a review of me on the site (specifically of my cleaning standards) at the end! Thankfully I had actually made an effort but still only got 4 stars not 5. I didn't realise it was like air bnb in that respect. Not my idea of a relaxing holiday, being rated on my housekeeping skills.

Hmm, we've stayed in a few like this, and it's swings and roundabouts - useful to have the owners around in case of any problems, but feels less private for sure. I'd focus on the noise issue and see if you can get them to park their vans elsewhere for the fortnight you're there.

Any chance they're going away at the weekend! The last place like this we stayed at a couple of weeks ago (in a different part of France) the owner was there when we arrived but then left after a couple of days for the rest of the week which was bliss.

FWIW I think in France gite just = holiday cottage so selecting house rather than gite doesn't necessarily filter out those where the owner lives in another part.

I would definitely complain to VRBO.

Very sneaky photos.

That sounds horrible - I would hate to have anyone judge my cleaning!

I’d be really pissed at this @WatchingCometsLand

I wouldn’t be able to relax properly wondering who was watching out the windows etc.

I would 100% be putting in a complaint and asking for some money back and requesting they update the listing to clearly state the owners live in the property and the price is not for the whole house.

We had this in Jersey. We stayed on the ground floor, and the home owners were upstairs. There was a rule that al the curtains had to be open in morning. A few times, the man that lived there was looking into the accommodation through the windows. My dad closed the curtains, and they knocked and told him to open them again.

We also had to thoroughly clean the accommodation before we could leave.... and they inspected it afterwards whilst we stood there worrying if we would be allowed to leave to get to the airport on time. It was ridiculous. Never again.

We had something similar the other month. We did have the entire house to ourselves but the owners live in a caravan behind the back garden and constantly messaged us to keep the noise down. It was infuriating and felt like it was invading our space. This wasn't mentioned on the advert. So yes I would complain.

Very misleading and I’d be annoyed too.

Yes I think you need to engage them while you are there so you can show you've made reasonable attempts to rectify at the time. If you carry on as is and the first host/VRBO discover is when you leave a bad review it will make it look like you are trying to be a CF. Made sure any communications are done on platform and not on WhatsApp etc. maybe something like 'one of your relatives is make quite a lot of noise late at night, were had expected privacy...' might be a good way to get the ball rolling.

I'd be pretty fucked off if I was you though. 'entire home ', 'house', and 'privacy' are plastered all over the listing.

I can't believe that some people think this is ok. The property is classed in the search filters as a house, described as a house and priced as a house. The photos are taken to make it look like a house.

It's not up to the guests to interpret some cryptic reviews about the hosts being "discrete" and figure out that it's actually an apartment. It's the hosts responsibility - legally and ethically - to provide an honest and transparent advert.

I suspect all those 10/10 reviews are fake. How can nobody else have had a problem with that.

Like you, I would have been fuming!

I have already said this in a post further up but it is impossible to fake reviews on VRBO. You have to have stayed and paid to get a review link. The money goes to VRBO not the owner initially.

I think it is always useful to try and find reviews on other websites if possible.
A friend rented a large house with a pool on vrbo. The owner asked her during the week if her daughter could use the pool. My friend didn’t mind but I would not have let her.
I have often rented accommodation in Scotland where the neighbour lives next door but this doesn’t bother us.

Having translated the reviews to English with google translate, there are enough comments about the owners being friendly and discreet ( and their first names being referred to) which would probably/possibly have made me wonder and ask some questions.

But having said that, I do think there is definitely some less than honest manipulation of photos and what they describe online.

For starters, the main photograph, of the pool and the building behind it, would suggest that the building was the house for rent. But as you have said, it actually isn't. Careful perusal of ALL the photos might have alerted you to the purpose of the building behind the pool - but not sure that it would have done at the time. Different now you know though. There is only ONE photo, showing the actual accommodation exterior and it is from the air and well buried in the numerous other photos.

Secondly, the property is not named, so you can't google reviews of it anywhere other than the ones shown on the booking page. You need a property name to be able to do that. As for the other reviews on the site, 15 in the last few years is hardly going to be representative of anything. I would be entirely suspicious that they were all 10/10. They may be genuine, but possibly cherry picked?

I think all you can do though, is speak to them about the vehicle noise and hope they are reasonable. It's a shame when the expectations of your holiday let have not been met, due to somewhat suspect advertising

Yes - You may be right, but that can still be manipulated in several ways. The fact there are only 15 reviews and just one or two each year - and most of them mention the discreetness of the owners is also suspect.

As long as I have access to all the facilities listed I wouldn't mind the family being there but they should make it clear in the ad. We had an AirBnb like that and it was clear from the listing.

You could ask them to keep the noise down late at night and in the morning though- you have a reasonable expectation of a good night's sleep and not to be woken early.