Casa Alice Marbella Lodge♡

Fine but curious to see the place at it's best.

7.0

The place is of a high standard and has great design. Clearly a great place for surfers in particular. Many facilities and clean inside and outside.

− It seems the place has changed it's name and identity on booking.com. The communication was tricky and just a little strange to be honest. It seems the place in it's hayday was a 9.4+ rated lodge for surfers. But now it seems like it's missing a little love.

Superb

9.0

We loved Carlos.He is very helpful.Close to coco beach and there is a market also near by.Better to go with car.

Disappointing

4.0

The location is nice and it is a large home with lots of space. We rented the entire place for 1 night and the communication was good.

− The place looks like it used to be very nice but has not had the maintenance upkeep. It does not seem dirty - the cleaning is kept up, but it seems the general maintenance has been lacking for a while. Some cupboard doors were loose or falling off in the kitchen. There was no hot water in the shower of the room we slept in. The bathroom faucet had water shooting out the back of it. The toilet kept running when flushed so I had to lift the cover to stop it. The AC was weak and would go through cycles of sounding normal, then sounding like you're next to an airport runway. The bedsheets were clean, but old, thinned out and stained - not so bad you're scared to sleep on them, but obviously quite old and very used. The TV remote did not work the TV - I switched the batteries from another room and it was powered but did not function - it was a universal remote, so maybe had been dead for so long it had lost the memory of the correct signal for the TV. The way the TV turned on was with the Fire TV remote, but could not adjust volume, so was blasting like it had broken speakers, and then the only way to turn off the TV was to unplug it. It is unfortunate as it looks really nice from the pictures but it has been left to deteriorate. Maybe when you rent just a room and have the communal vibe and the hosts present it really improves the whole experience, but we feel we were deceived.

It was not good. The place is neglected.

5.0

location was fine for my purposes. It had been cleaned.

− It should have been aired out before I arrived, there was a terrible musty smell. There was a poor neglected dog on the patio, very near death. It broke my heart. There was nothing I could do as I was there for my work. The dog needs to be put down by a vet. It was so cruel to see him there suffering and the young man who manages the place could not have cared less about it. The ceiling in my room leaked water, thankfully it did not hit the bed. The mattress was like sleeping on the ground it was so hard my arms went numb.

Stressed as 2 of the people staying there were very sick and the 3rd got sick the night I was there.

7.0

no Breakfast

− I called to say I was coming but had to wait for the audante /worker to come let me in. The family staying there were sick, yet it was a shared kitchen with shared utensils etc. That felt a bit awkward as I did not want to get sick. The helper sat around on his phone for hours in the am. When I left he did not offer to assist me with my cooler or bag ( Im 68 yrs old ). It just felt weird that as a paying guest, that he was hanging out and not working or seem to be working. He was a lovely young man, very friendly but something about that felt off.

Great place, and it comes with a magic dog!

9.0

Casa Alice's dog, Rio, was the absolute highlight of our stay. This wonderful animal led us around the town, to the grocery store, the beach (Playa Frijolar), the restaurant, and back to Casa Alice. He was our guardian, protector, and goodest boy. I hope that someone helps him with his eye infection because he ran away from us whenever we tried! The Casa itself was lovely - well situated, huge, full kitchen, pool (note - it says "private" but that's private to the house, not to the room you book). I didn't meet the owners, just Carlos, who gave us the keys.

− Air conditioning could have been stronger! Also, I probably should have known this, but there is soap or detergent for the laundry machine, you have to bring your own.