Vilamarlux VII

The owner is renovating another flat close by and it can be really noisy at some point. But the owner managed to stop it when I needed calm for calls

It was a little far from Barcelona city but that was okay as we had a car to drive in.

I was told the day before arriving at the property that there would be a €200 deposit and €45 cleaning fee, to be sent by bank transaction. After phoning booking.com to check if this was legit, I was assured by booking.com that it was and that if there was any problem with the deposit that it would be sorted immediately. This was a lie. After returning from the holiday, I did not receive the deposit. After contacting the host, he claimed that he did not receive the deposit. After trying to resolve the problem we discovered that the deposit had been sent to the host, but due to international transfer, there was a large sum (~€50) taken as a fee by a third party bank, and an additional €20 taken by the hosts bank for receiving the fund. The host then proceeded to claim that it was in fact MY BANK which had charged the fee, despite the fact that there are statements from both mine and his bank showing that this was not the case. After trying to explain this to the host MULTIPLE times, he was reluctant to acknowledge this, and in turn suggested he send back the reduced amount (€120, before fees). With this conversation going nowhere, I then contacted booking.com and explained the situation. They then promised to reimburse the €200 deposit on their behalf. This also was a lie. I then waited two weeks before contacting booking.com again, to which they again promised to reimburse me. Again nothing happened. I repeated this twice more and still there has been no progress. I am appalled at the host for the hidden cleaning fee, for blaming me for international banking fees, for refusing to return my €200 deposit in full. I am also appalled at booking.com for leaving me in the dark and promising to reimburse me without taking any action. I would under no circumstance book with this host or booking.com.

If you want to get to Barcelona center, it is a bit far but if that's not the case, this place is great as it is close to beach where it is so calm (unlike Barcelona beach)