Review Time
Ongoing dispute:I booked a villa in Kefalonia on Airbnb. Immediately after booking, I went onto Google to find things to do in the area and came across two independent reviews from the last 3 weeks, of squatters living underneath the swimming pool, with needles and other paraphernalia scattered around the entrance. Seemingly the people acted aggressively and Solmar denied it until there were photographs provided.Within 20minutes of making the booking, I requested to cancel for obvious reasons.They took a long time to reply, have tired to reassure me by denying there’s an issue and they won’t cancel the booking. When there are a reports of drugs and illegal squatters, I can’t understand why they wouldn’t respect my request to cancel?? It’s totally unethical and arguably fraudulent.
Place was dated. WiFi extremely slow. Our flight was in the evening and when we asked for a late checkout they refused saying their deep cleaning needed time so we have to leave at 10am. This is obviously untrue because judging by the cleanliness, the last time that villa had a deep cleaning was years ago.
Villa was lovely and has everything we needed (although was tricky to find) however I will stress that the note on the villa that you MAY be disturbed is an understatement. We stayed three nights and had 9 different people in and out - yes into the villa whilst we were trying to enjoy a family pool day. Early morning right through to late evening so even if you are out during main hours of the day you will be disturbed by "maintenance ".
The villa is excellent for families, great space, massive garden, the barbecue area was good only missing a sink. Swimming pool is great for kids, although the lights weren't working, I reported the issue. The maintenance men were there but the problem wasn't fix during my stay at the villa.The cleaning wasn't very good special in the kitchen and living room, the day we arrived dust were visible in these areas.We enjoyed very much the stay here, the place is very quiet.
DO NOT USE. Absolutely shocking experience with this company, do not use.We had issue after issue with this company from day one and nothing was ever resolved. I don’t even know where to start, the villa was dirty and not cleaned even when the cleaners visited once in our 2 week stay they only changed our towels over no other cleaning was done. From day one of booking this holiday they got so many things wrong for us. I have 8 month old twin boys, we requested and paid for 2 cars seats for transport these were not present when we got picked up from the airport so we were illegally driven to the villa by a driver who had no care of safety for young children or people in general. We also requested and paid for 2 high chairs for my babies only 1 was at the villa and it took them 4 days to get another one to us so I had to feed my babies on the floor! Our villa was also broken into, all of our bags, money, etc stolen and they couldn’t even care less. They were supposed to do a security check and visit us at the villa for a follow up and this never happened. The police came to visit the villa and explained the security of the kitchen window where they broke in wasn’t secure around the window frame so we got robbed for there inadequate security to the property. The downstairs bedroom door had already been kicked in before we got to the villa by somebody else which makes us think this villa has been burgled before. The security and safety of this villa is shocking, the windows upstairs where my sister slept they didn’t lock and the side door where the pool man let himself into never locked either. We emailed the company and spoke to them verbally to raise these complaints and just before we were due to go home we rang and emailed to confirm car seats for the pickup and our pickup location as this was different to where they dropped us off and yet again to no surprise we had no car seats at pick up and they went to the wrong location so we were over an hour late to the airport and had to run for our flight. We have emailed them several times with other issues and they never emailed us back, we spent everyday calling them with complaint after complaint. They have ruined my first family holiday. Do not use this company.
Absolutely amazing Villa!Our family stayed at Light Star II in August 2025, and it was perfect from start to finish. We were welcomed by the Villa owner, who was incredibly helpful both on arrival and departure. Especially when we needed assistance with luggage storage due to a later flight.The Solmar team were fantastic, promptly helping us when we needed to adjust our transfer times.The Villa itself had everything we could possibly need and more! The BBQ was amazing! It’s in a great location, close to shops and restaurants. Easy access to Split by bus. We also loved being near Kamerlengo castle in Trogir, which was ideal for taking a boat trip to see the beautiful three blue lagoons.We would definitely recommend this Villa and can’t wait to return.
Great villa. Spacious and everything that you needed was included. Service while we were there was great,very prompt. We made a couple of requests which were dealt with very quickly.My only criticisms would be that the outside area could have done with a good clean a couple of times with a hose pipe or similar as it got very wet, grubby and slippery through the week and maybe some sort of key safe to collect and drop off the keys at the villa rather than having to go into town. Would happily visit again!
We were travelling as a large group of 13 so good communication was very important and Solmar were excellent in this area. However… we were somewhat disappointed with the villa we stayed in The Mirador Faro which cost us £6000 for the week and therefore we expected good quality accommodation. The general condition of the villa was poor. It needed updating throughout in the main the bathrooms and kitchen which was very small to accommodate so many people. The villa was quite dirty upon arrival. Layers of dust under all furniture and the fridge was filthy obviously it had been missed!The air con units kept breaking down periodically and were black with dirt/mould inside. Porch lights didn’t work. Our pool was freezing ! Outside areas hadn’t been cleaned properly and we stepped over cigarette ends! The bedrooms were basic in the main with poor quality bedding and mattresses! There was just enough crockery and cutlery to accommodate our group size. All in all we had a lovely holiday and tried not to let the poor quality of villa to ruin the holiday but I would never stay here again as it is way over priced for the poor standard of finishing and the kitchen really let’s the property down. Final comment … only one key ! We unfortunately locked ourselves out on one occasion with a sleeping baby inside so there definitely should be a spare key held in key safe.
We booked a villa well in advance through this company, however, just a few weeks before we were due to go they advised the villa was no longer available. The villa we checked online and saw that it was on now with another company and fully booked. We were offered alternatives, all of which were not as good as what we had booked. We were offered a refund but of course had spent thousands on flights for the 8 of us so that wasn't an option. We ended up in a villa which was over kilometer from any beach, restaurant or shop, meaning for the little ones in well plus 30 degree heat, walking wasn't an option. We spent additional money on hire cars/ fuel due to the change of villa (original one was 100meters from the beach/shops plus closer to the airport) upon arrival the villa was clean and well presented, but was ill equipped with kitchen items for self catering, no spare bedding (we had 4 young kids so would be reasonable to expect a night time accident or illness) and no covers just sheets. There were some scratchy old blankets but not enough for every bed. On arrival a company rep happened to be there. It was mentioned to him that there was insuffifient glasses to drink out of for the 8 people present, he said he would sort. Well, we never heard from them or saw anyone again. We didnt bother reporting anything else as who wants to spend a week doing that. But, the toaster was broken, the BBQ coal tray was slightly damaged, and as i said, the kitchen ill equipped for self catering. We made the best of it and Due to great friends, we still had a good time, but we will avoid booking through this company again. The villa itself, bricks and mortar, was good. Excellent air con in every room, lovely pool.Bathroom tired and shower leaked a bit. Black out shutters on every room were brilliant.Villa kobe was that which we ended up staying in. It would have been nice to be offered some kind of compensation for the additional expenses we incurred due to the late last minute changes made by the company, but this was not offered in anyway. 16th to 23rd August 2025 Villa Kobe Moraira Spain
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
We're Solmar Villas and we help discerning holidaymakers enjoy wonderful, relaxing holidays by making it easy to book beautiful villas with private pools.
Celebrating over 30 years in 2025, we’ve come a long way. But we’re still a family business with personal service at the heart of what we do. Growing steadily over the years means we can offer you:
- Loads of choice – more villas and destinations to inspire your break.
- Peace of mind – villa managers nearby and 24/7 phone support while you’re away.
- Wonderful holidays – guests love what we do
With over 2500 beautifully selected villas across over 40 destinations and winners of 'Best Travel Company for Villa Holidays' at the 2025 British Travel Awards, you're in safe hands with us.See more
hotelsetc.com
holidayinnexpresssuitesmarshall.us
skyfallbath.com
btwvisas.com
luxuryholidays.co.uk
boatcrowd.com
travorium.com
meetmule.com
travelbag.co.uk
govoyages.com