Lantana Resort Barbados

Where do I start?? My daughter booked me and a friend into #36 for a month. My mother had just passed away and my family felt I needed time to process it.

When my friend and I arrived it was getting dark and there was a fairly long walk down a dimly lit path to the back of the property to gain entry. As two lone women of a certain age, this was the first thing that put us off, because we didn't feel safe.

The apartment is on the top floor as stated in the description, but what was not stated is that there is no lift. You only learn this by trawling through reviews, which, unfortunately, we hadn't done before we got there. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Once we'd dragged all our luggage up the stairs, the apartment was a huge disappointment.

Not only was it quite smaller than it looked in the pictures, the lighting was poor, making it very dark even with all the lights on. The whole place was tired and in need of renovation. Not at all what we expected when it was advertised as a new development.

The AC wasn't working properly, and you only felt it if you stood directly under it. The celing fan made a horrendous noise so we left it off. The oven wasn't working. There was a layer of dust/dirt/ grease over almost everything. We had to wipe everything down before we felt able to touch anything. The fridge, the kettle, the microwave, the hob, all of it.

It boasted of a 'work area' which was nonexistent. Or maybe our idea of what makes a work area is different?

The bedrooms and linens were OK if basic, though the wardrobe in the master suite was unstable and didn't seem safe to use.

All in all it was a complete let down. We didn't even want to spend one night there but it was too late at this point to find anywhere else, so we agreed to move the next day.

The manager Richard tried his best but admitted there wasn't much he could do about the issues. He couldn't change our expectations based on the misleading pictures, though he agreed the place did need 'sprucing up'. The AC was what it was, the fan WAS noisy, the lighting WAS poor, we'd already cleaned by the time he came but showed him the dirty wipes. The oven baffled him. But he did message me the next day after we had moved out, to let me know he'd fixed it!

As for the hosts... according to my daughter and the feedback from Richard they were unhelpful and unwilling to acknowledge that there were any problems and would not take on our concerns. They made no attempt to resolve the matter and flat out refused any refund.

They claimed they wouldn't have time to 'rebook' which I understood to a point, but this was a WHOLE MONTH, we were talking about not a week or two. Had they been bothered, they could have tried to recoup some costs because we only stayed one night!

Airbnb also totally failed us and were absolutely no use.

The booking wasnt cheap and the hosts have basically pocketed a MONTH's fee for ONE night. How they could do this with no conscience, is beyond me.

They could have made a good will gesture or even offered a partial refund. We did not expect or deserve this unreasonable treatment.

There has been no resolution, and we're still paying for this nightmare.

We would have put this all on Airbnb, too, if we had not missed the review window. However, the hosts did leave us a review.

We just wanted to make sure this was out there as a warning to others.

Nice and easy to access! Super special rooms and set up complete with comfy patio furniture on private balcony with direct access to the pool and tanning area. Gated with coded locks is nice. Walking distance to Weston beach(half a block). We walked to a fresh catch fish market and to several small well appointed restaurants.