For anyone who?s planning a self-catering holiday in Puerto Pollensa, Mallorca this year.
Last year I booked a ?Bergantin Apartment? for our August holiday through a lettings agent I?ll refer to as BH Properties (based in Puerto Pollensa), via a holiday lettings website.
I was going to rent a ground floor apartment but decided that seeing as this was the first summer holiday abroad that we'd had for 7 years (and first with children), we'd recklessly splash out and upgrade to a Penthouse instead. It all looked lovely and it had a big balcony with a shaded area and stairs up to a roof terrace etc. etc.
When we booked, the guy we booked through at BH said that there was only the owner's Penthouse left and I asked if there were any photos of it. He said no but that it was furnished almost identically to the Penthouse referred to in the advert which I was looking at and which did have photos. I asked if we were able to secure it for the same price as the other Penthouses and he said that the owner (his boss it turns out) had agreed to let us have it for £X, which was the same price as the other Penthouses.
When we got there, we were met by BH's 'Concierge Manager' and taken up to our Penthouse ... only it wasn't. It was at this point that I found out that this block of apartments had two styles of 'Penthouse' - one the nice large one with the very large balcony, shaded dining area and stairs up the private roof terrace, and the one we were being shown to - a top floor apartment with the same size balcony on it as the middle floor's (small'ish - 3 metres by 1.75 ... something like that) with absolutely no shade at all and ... in order to reach the roof terrace (which was completely bare of any furniture or shade) you had to go out of your apartment, up the public stairs and gain access via a locked door. This type of apartment was completely unsuitable for anyone who had young children (no shade, and rubbish access to the barren roof-terrace via 2 locked doors). I would not have booked it for our holiday under any circumstances.
After a good deal of fuss and upset on my part (this was NOT what I had booked and paid for etc. etc.) and discussions with the (clueless) Concierge Manager and the BH guy I'd booked through via phone, we were eventually lucky enough to be moved down to a Ground Floor Apartment.
So we paid for a large Penthouse, got put in this top floor 'penthouse' (honestly I?d have called it a top floor flat) and ended up in a Ground Floor Apartment that I would have booked, had I known the reality of my booking. We lost the difference in price (a lot of money) because the blurb in the adverts referred to all the Penthouses in the same way ('access to balcony and roof terrace), made no differentiation between different types of penthouse and the guy I booked through phrased things, including the answers to my questions, so carefully that I had no idea that I was supposed to be asking the questions that I would have had to ask, in order to determine the differences between what we paid for and what they gave us. If that makes sense. They wouldn?t refund me the difference because I?d accepted their offer of a move to a different floor and that negated any kind of refund in their eyes. Obviously being thousands of miles from home and my computer, I was not in a position to be able to argue the fact that I had been ?miss-sold? the ?Penthouse? and so had decided to leave the fight until I got home ? I was also in tears over it all and absolutely gutted at our holiday dreams dissolving, along with all that money.
Sorry that's so long but I just wanted to suggest that if anyone was keen on using these people then don?t make a booking without getting a signed and dated photograph of what you are actually booking. Alternatively, you could book one of the apartments instead through one of the private owners at Puerto Pollensa?s website ? you?d probably get it cheaper too.
In addition, if you are still keen to go, then (as at August 2009) please be aware that there was no shaded area by the swimming pool; there were not enough sun loungers; and, no outside/communal loo ? so if you were based on the middle floor or the top floor and were pool side, then you had to go right the way around the back of the apartment block and access the stairs to your apartment that way ? a bit of a bore if you have young children. The walls are paper thin between the apartments. We had 6 knives, 6 forks, 6 spoons, 6 bowls, 6 plates ? you get the gist ? which meant lots and lots of washing up (there is a dishwasher ? but you probably need a couple of spoons/bowls each for some meals) ? all Ikea, but they still hadn?t splashed out for two sets to make the holiday makers life easier - and only 1 sharp knife which was too bendy to use (kitchen was generally ill equipped); and although it looked great in the photos it was all a bit cheap and falling apart (all furniture etc. Ikea). They did provide clean linen and towels however. I think it?s down to the private owners to equip their own flats and so those were better provided for ? but according to the other people there that we chatted to, the rest of them were all pretty much the same as ours. Unexpected considering what the price we thought (talking of which, I asked for my breakages/damages deposit back and got it ? but my friend didn?t until we were discussing the place, several months later, and she realised that it hadn?t automatically gone back into her account 2 weeks or whatever later ? she did get it back once she?d contacted them and asked for it though).
The pool was great though and the saving grace of the holiday ? the children had a lovely time ?