Beautiful Holiday Villa near Beach & City Center - La Rochelle

Wow. We've just returned from La Rochelle, staying in Villa Verde for 7 nights and it was everything we expected and more. The owners met us on arrival, gave us a lovely welcome pack including a bottle of local bubbly, and explained the basics. The 4 bedrooms, all with ensuites were spotless, beautiful linen and soft furnishings. Lots of space for three teenagers to chill out with wifi. Distance from the town was 10 mins walk and if you hop on one of the new bikes available at the house you're there in no time. Lots to see and do out and about or just relaxing on the balcony, a great sun trap. Not sure if small children would be safe as the stairs are wooden spiral and high, glass tables, steep stone steps out the front and back too. The deposit was requested in Euros on the website, however when I asked about taking GBP the owners were understanding and accepted £1000 instead. Having to hand over €1000 and getting it back on the last day of your holidays means a loss on the exchange back home. A definite must.

We booked this villa because we were having a special family holiday to celebrate my retirement. Our family are now adults and our nieces and nephews teenagers. We booked 3 weeks and had our family visit us by turn for several days each. The property location fulfilled our expectations . Reception rooms, bedrooms, parking on street, location allowing an easy walk to the town centre and the beaches are good. Although the house has been updated internally the building exterior needs maintaining and a good re-paint. We rented the whole property for family use but the limited facilities, external space and the poor maintenance of the garden and forecourt space make it more suitable for short stay bed and breakfast stays by individuals or couples. It is not well equipped for catering at home for 10 people (although the house is let to sleep 12). There were fundamental deficiencies that we found for renting in August with a family. For example minimal and poorly kept external spaces which included a dark and small garden with overgrown boundaries letting in no light to what could be a super courtyard space. There was minimal seating and external furniture and the BBQ was found dirty on arrival. The rear first floor balcony had no shade provided so was unusable after 11am. Judging from the animal hairs and smell the small rear garden is used by domestic animals at other times of the year. The bedrooms and ensuite bathrooms are well done, comfortable and bright . The house came with 6 bikes but only five were useable as the owners had lost the key to the lock on one of the bikes. We rented at our own expense a bike to make up the advertised number and the owners refused to reimburse us for this. They allowed us to bring our dog but then accused us of letting her wee on a curtain even though we know she did not do this so withheld £300 of our deposit. They also charged us for a blocked sink - surely that is their problem to have helped us with? This property is potentially a good town house rental but the poor attention to detail for family use has left us feeling short changed .Our disappointment has been exacerbated by not having our deposit fully refunded with reductions spuriously made from unfounded damage claims.