Personal VillasReviews of personalvillas.com

Villa Long Beach in Punta Cana DR: Unfortunately the quality for the home did not match the photos and description of the home posted in the listing. I try to be understanding of vacation and rental properties as I own myself but we paid a lot of money to stay here and I expected the home to be in much better condition. Some of our party ended up spending half of our vacation at an resort near by due to sanitation issues at the villa. -The condition of the home is very far removed from the photos in the listing (with the exception of the outside of the home and pool). The home is significantly older and has rust, mold, an order in areas and broken parts throughout. I provided pictures to the home manager on our first full day of the stay and they responded by saying "The house is 18 years old..." -The ac does not work in the common areas. It was 86-88 degrees in 50% of the property. This created a significant odor throughout the entire villa. The maintenance staff and house manager was aware of it and said there was no fix. -The cleaning staff was present all day from 9-3 but they did not do anything besides make half the beds in the villa. The majority of the time we found them laying on the couches in the common areas of the villa while talking on the phone. We went several days without fresh towels and without the bathrooms cleaned and sharing our common areas with them. While we did not need maid service, it was odd to have maids laying in our common areas of the house we rented and then not even receiving fresh towels from them. -Half of the refrigerators and showers did not get cold. Some of the refrigerators had left over old food in them. There was also left over food in the cupboards and trash cans. -Most of the TVs also do not work or don't have remotes to turn them on. -We requested Chef services one night and while the food was fine, we were told the price would be $110 plus groceries. The chef charged us $150 plus $250 for groceries plus tip. I have been grocery shopping in the DR and there is no possible way that the groceries for that meal were $250. I do not mind paying a higher rate but I think the price was very misleading and should have just been accurately quoted up front. The menu was also very different than what was presented to us. I was told that they would provide us a receipt for the groceries and after a few days I got no response besides that they may no longer have. -The wifi worked find for day 1-2 but it stopped working after that. -There were several roaches found during our stay. They were seen floating in the pool, coming out of the couches and seen in the bathroom. The mosquitos and biting mites were also excessive. The staff said that the roaches were standard for the summer in DR, but when we went to a resort up the street on the 5th day of our vacation there were no bugs at all. Overall the home is NOT in the condition advertised on the listing and the lack of AC and proper/sanitary refrigeration is a health concern. I will note some positives: The house was located in a great neighborhood and the booking staff and cleaning/maintenance/security staff were all very kind while we were there. The outside and grounds of the home is accurate to the listing. The pool and outdoor furniture were nice and the most comfortable portion of the home.

BEWARE! I booked a villa for a family vacation 7 months in advance and put down a deposit. 3 days later I had to modify and change the booking for personal reasons. 16 days later I received no solution to my problem. I emailed multiple times and called. They offered to change the dates of my trip and offered a more expensive condo as a solution. I have 3 kids, a condo is not going to work. I asked for a refund and still no response. Frustrated because I had not heard anything from Personal Villas, I filed a dispute with my credit card company and within an hour finally received a call from Robert with Personal Villas. I thought...finally I can talk to someone about the issue and we can get this resolved. Robert made it very clear he had no intention of even hearing my issues or trying to come to a solution to the problem. He told me his main goal was to get me to admit I signed the agreement and policy on a recorded line. Isn't it illegal to record someone on the phone without disclosing it first? He then argued with me for about 30 minutes and told me there was nothing they could do. So they just get to keep my $4,000 even though I cannot use the villa? I understand the policy but I thought the company would actually care and help me out and not take my money just to have it. Do not use this company! They do not know what customer service is and do not care about their clients.... their only concern is about the money.