Smaranda Dobrovicescu
Google
Probably all the good reviews are from people staying in the main house, however beware if you're booking a room or an appartment in the annex. Appartment 2 on the ground floor and room 5 on the first floor of the annex smell mouldy. The mouldy smell is coming through the ventilation vents which can't be turned off. Two people in our group have a mould allergy (not a humidity allergy which the staff kept saying wrongly), one was quite severe and started coughing badly after only a couple of minutes inside the apartment. We asked for a different room and they said they were fully booked providing no other options. When we insisted, they started providing ideas like having everyone sleep in the same room using the sofa in the other room, but there was a mouldy smell in both rooms so that wasn't a solution. When we kept insisting that the person with severe allergies prefers to even sleep outside on the terrace in the rain and cold or in the car instead of inside (in this case it's clearly not a humidity issue as the staff claims, but a true MOULD ALLERGY), finally the staff found a bungalow at the nearby camping site that they offered. The bungalow was ok, no mould smell, but the heating couldn't be turned on because September is still considered summer in Northern Spain despite battering rain and 12 degrees at night and 17 in the day the whole week. During our 2 week stay in Northern Spain we didn't have this issue in any other accomodation. The bungalow was so cold during the night, that the walls were covered in condensation by the morning due to their breaths. For the people who remained in the hotel, we asked them to turn on the heating, they told us we didn't have any control over this although there were 19 degrees inside. Instead of turning on the two heaters they have in the room and bathroom, they actually turned on the heating that comes via the ventilation which we told them from the beginning was the source of the mouldy smell. We tried turning this off immediately and every time we turned it off it restarted 2-3 minutes later with a lot of noise. We turned it off a couple of times, but ultimately gave up and used ear plugs to try to sleep. The result was a lot of frustration, a sleepless night and some of us even caught a cold. In the morning I wanted to share my comments of our stay at the reception, but they kept dismissing anything we said, saying that nobody else has had this problem in 26 years, that they did what they could and we were actually the problem?! Apparently Spanish people never complained about this according to them. I guess living in London doesn't make me an expert in humidity and mould, only Spanish people can comment according to the reception. They also complained that they kept tracking us throughout the night and said that we had 22-23 degrees in the room, so it must have been really hot - what normal person stays up at night to track guests in such a detail to then complain about it? Not everybody sleeps in frigid temperatures. Last but not least, we travelled in an electric car and when we arrived their charger wasn't working. They said it sometimes works, other times not because of the humidity "that's why we don't charge for it". They were nice and tried to turn it on a couple of times, but it didn't work until later in the evening when they restarted the whole electricity in the house. Chargers are designed to work in any weather conditions and humidity should not be an issue. Maybe they should consider installing a better charger and charge for its use. Having a reliable charger is much more important for someone who chooses an accomodation because of its EV charging capabilities, than having this service offered for free if and when it works. Maybe instead of complaining about your guests online you should try to fix your own issues first. I recommend spending a night in apartment 2 of the annex maybe it will open your eyes. Overall it's a shame because the house itself was really lovely and the breakfast was great!The annex shouldn't be classified as a 3-star hotel though.