My wife and I booked a Villa through COSMOS for a two week holiday in Crete - Greece, it was named Villa Melini and was situated about 3 kilometers from a resort call Rythemo
To start with our flight from Manchester was delayed one hour, when we arrived at Ghania Airport - Crete, we had to wait around the luggage area for over an hour ,as we were told not enough people were available to unload our luggage, when we eventually got our luggage, we proceeded to the Sixth Car Rental (paid with COSMOS), to be greeted by a very miserable female, (needed a stay at charm school), where we collected the Volvo S40, which we had upgraded to as we were told by COSMOS they could not guarantee a two door car (with large doors as I am a big guy 6'5" and need the legroom and height), however the S40 was a four door but I managed to lever myself into the car (very uncomfortable), when we collected the V40 in the car park at the airport we noticed about 12 Peaguots 307 with 2 doors which would have been more comfortable (as I have driven one before and told COSMOS this), but Sixth would not change the S40 for the 307.
We after following some very poor instructions arrived at the Villa Melini about 2 hours after leaving Ghania, on entering the Villa Melini (keys in the door when we arrived) we were confronted by lots of flies, we promptly went to find a shop to buy some insect killer spray, we returned and sprayed the lounge and upstairs area with the spray and sat utside while the spray had taken effect, we then cleaned up the dead insects.
The main bed room looked clean, but the bed had a metal frame which was much larger than the materess, I have a scar on my left leg where i caught it on the sharp pertruding corner of the metal frame.
My wife noticed that the place could do with cleaning (it should have been done before we arrived), I cleaned brown stains off the walls of the bathroom while she set about cleaning the cupboards, the dishwasher its self was that dirty my wife would not use it, we did the washing up by hand for the two weeks,
On the second day after we had been out we returned to find the cleaner upstairs in the bath room, she was in for quite a while, after she had left we checked upstairs to see what she had been doing, it was as we thought, she had been taking a shower (it must have been the village wash area), as that was the only possible explanation for her being in the Villa at that time, the shower head in the upstairs bathroom was horrible and I would estimate 20 years old along with the taps which had the chrome worn off them with use.
Down stairs was a shower and toilet, we again did not use this as the smell in ti was very unpleasant (Extraction Fan did not work), plus the door opened directly into the cooking - food preperation area, which was not nice, the same room also had very large COCKROACHES climbing up the walls and the door,
One morning I was sat eating my breakfast looking out of the window, when I notice a very large Rat running across the deviding wall between the Villa Melini and the adjoining property, I shouted my wife to come and look, only to find that the Rat was in the pool swimming, as we got to the pool it had climbed out and was running into the shrubbery, we rang the COSMOS Representative who said she would contact the agent, after about 5 hours the pool attendant arrive and put in the pool what I presumed was Chlorine (bucket of white powder), he than told us it was now okay to swim in, this was on our fourth day, (I rang my daughter who is a Doctor and mentioned this to her she told us not to risk going in the pool again as Rats are desease carriers) so we decided that it was not worth getting a desease and never went in the pool again , regarding the pool, it obviousley had a very severe leak as it had to be filled daily, which took upto two to three hours (this would have weakened and chemicals that were in the pool anyway), the pool had a menagery of drowned insects in it due to the unkept gardens around it, they got watered but never weeded - also around the pool side it was infested by ants, which I may say had a very nasty nip, very uncomfortable sunbathing!!
On another occassion we were eating our meal one evening outside the frontdoor when from the next doors garden came a Rat, just walked past us as if we were not there and into the shrubbery, we noticed during our first week that just in front about 1 metre from the front door was a dead bird, and a broken birds egg, I said to my wife that we should leave it to see if it would be cleared by the cleaner-gardener or pool attendant, it was still there rather dried up when we left the place.
Opposite the front gates to the Villa Melini were TWO BIG BINS measuring approximately 1500mm x 1200mm x 1500mm high with a big lid on and was mounted on wheels, these were the WASTE BINS for all the village, besides waste food and excremment they had old televisions - chairs - cupboards etc, and also Dogs raking throough the bins every evening (no wonder the Rats enjoyed it in the area).
We had tried some of the Restaurants in the area, but must say that none seem that interested in serving us and eventually when they did, the food was not that good so we decided to eat more in the Villa, which really was not nice anyway.
On our return journey we were again late departing the Ghania airport due to COSMOS altering the flights, we actually travelled back with Thompson Fly, we were given different seats to the ones we had paid extra for, (the Aircraft was an exact replica of the aircraft ,Boing A380? that we had flown out on), the COSMOS attendants that were working with the Thompson attendants said that they could do nothing about the seating as it was not a COSMOS Flight, the seats we had booked were taken by two children, I had managed to get wedged into the seat I was allocated, and could not move as I found it very awkward to do so(I reiterate I am 6'5" and a big guy), COSMOS reimbursed me after I rang them about the seating when I arrived home, I would have really prefered the seat!!
After leaving Ghania about one hour plus late, the Aircraft Captain made up about ten minutes on the flight, howevr this did not matter as is usual we find at Manchester Airport, we had to wait over one hour again for our luggage, needless to say we do not have alot of faith in air ports, especially Manchester as this has happened to us on numerous occassions,
Overall, I think COSMOS should vet the Villa's they charge the earth for, and would suggest that who ever owns the Villa Melini, they should demolish (may get rid of the vermin) it and start again, needless to say we would not reccommend this Villa to anyone.