Apartments Villa Aura

What a most peculiar place to stay, I can’t say that the apartment was clean. But don’t move anything from where the put it, we had a late flight had to check out at 10 nowhere to store our bags just on steps, when we get back after a hot and sweaty day round Dubrovnik town was told can’t dip my feet in the pool, think long and hard if you are in the same situation.

We were a group of 5 couples in 5 apartments all accepted under 1 booking. The apartments and grounds were spotless and very secure. We were met on check in by the host who explained how everything worked, told us about the buses etc and handed us the keys. Great start to the holiday. After an early start we all settled in and met at the pool. Some were swimming and some just chatting in the pool. We were then told only 5 in the pool at any one time. We thought very strange as pool large enough for all of us! After dinner the next evening we returned and decided to have a drink together in the lovely seating area in the garden. We were shocked to find that all the seats had been removed. Apparently rest time is from 9pm to 8am ( we arrived back at 8.45pm) so no sitting and chatting during this time...not ideal when on holiday with friends! Overall we had a lovely time but because of all the rules it wasn't really suitable for a group of friends so we ended up just using as a place to shower and sleep. This place would be ideal for a single couple.

Let me start this review by saying that in 16 years of travelling this had been the first time ive been compelled to write one. Ive been fortunate enough to travel widely, including the US, Asia and Europe and have just spent spent 8 years living and working in New Zealand and have stayed everywhere from - mostly - budget backpackers to - very occasionally - 5* hotels. Adding in that ive worked nearky 20 years in customer serive and the hospitality industries, I write this not to show off but to add context and hopefully point out that i feel like i have a pretty good understanding of what decent, basic hospitality should look and feel like. On with the review - The apartment itself was spacious, reasonsblbly clean with good amenities. The pool was great and Id say needed in Dubrovnik in July, id say. Then there is Nikša. He is the apartment manager. At first I thought he was just a bit "kooky". It started on day 1 when I asked for more towels - there were 2 bath towels provided - and he looked at me like i had 3 heads. I know we are all trying to save water, but a few extra towels is a request granted without qurstion in the most basic of accomodations and Nikša is meant to be manager of a 4 star and made me feel like i was asking for his first born. Eventually he lamented in the form of 2 beach towels and also supplied 2 blankets, one the size of a tea towel. You also only get one set of keys so if you and your companion aren't glued at the hip, be warned, you will need each other to survive this experience. Nikša said he would check for more keys and nothing else was ever mentioned. I needed two more nights accomodation after my friend left snd he said would get back to me, and I'm still waiting after checking out yesterday. Incidently because of this I'm now in a cheaper 3 star in the area and they don't give a damm about how many towels you use 🤷‍♂️❤️ I can confirm as of July 22 the list of passive aggressive and just aggressive rules are still on the wall. Now things get weirder. On day 1 one of us left damp foot prints to the apartment - Aprox 10 metres away - and i got a whatsapp message asking to dry ourselves properly. Bare in mind its 30 degrees folks and things dry pretty quickly outside. On night one I dropped a miniature of alcohol and stupidly used one of these to soak the alcohol. Next day I got another whatsapp stating- "Sorry for bothering, during the cleaning this morning cleaning ladies found this towel, they wanted to change it for you and give you the new one but the laundry service where we wash the towels doesn't accept this one anymore saying that it is destroyed, if we do not succed in washing it we have to pay to them to buy the new one, new one would cost 10€, i will inform you until end of the day did we wash it, thank you. Niksa" I just ignored this. I don't know about anyone else but I feel like stained towels/bed linen is collateral damage when operating this kind of business? Then a bill turned