Islet House

Sea view from top floor

Need more toilet paper, come on..

We stayed in the apartment on the ground floor which has a concrete wall to the terrace rather than the glass screens on the upper floor. Views are wonderful, and it's very close to the swimming area. Good size apartment, very well equipped, bed comfortable. One of the window locks was broken, the owner had warned us in advance. Parking is close, and you can park right outside to load of you need to, it was easy to find using phone map, but the directions from the owner need updates because one of the approach roads is now one way. Getting the keys was easy.

Great location. Spacious, modern property fully equipped. Easy parking nearby. Good communication with the host

There were problems with the Internet and TV connection,.which were eventually sorted upon contacting the host. It'd have been great to have an extra blanket and paper filters for the coffee machine.

The ground floor apartment at Islet House presents a severe issue with overpowering mold smell, leading to significant discomfort, including acute headaches. Despite having prepaid 2300 EUR for a month's stay, the smell was unbearable and forced us to relocate to another apartment in Ponta Delgada after just one day*. When we contacted the property manager to address the issue, we were met with dismissal and a refusal to inspect the apartment, with the claim that, "We know that the apartment has no problem. There is nothing to check." (this is a quote from a text message). This response suggested that the management was already aware of the issue but had taken no corrective action – other than deploying numerous fragrance devices in an (unsuccessful) attempt to mask the odor. Our reasonable attempts to resolve the issue were met with intimidation by the property manager. Their statement was (this is a quote from a text message): "As long as you have the keys it means that you did not check out and that the apartment is at your entire responsibility (its safety and all its belongings)," – where they implying that they could enter the apartment and hold us liable for any subsequent issues? Whoah. What is important, the apartment is newly repainted, so the mold problem is invisible and impossible to prove simply by taking photos (how do you document a smell?), while a necessary toxicity examination would be costly. The owners agreed to a 20% refund, but initially stipulated through the booking.com team that we couldn't post a review*. This condition seems to confirm that the owners are more interested in hiding the problem rather than resolving it. * Disclaimer: after a week-long dispute, we were reluctantly granted a 20% refund with no additional terms, which we accepted. Yet, the compensation is disappointing.

The property had a really great view of the ocean and morning sunrises. Easy access to swimming in the ocean. Nothing is more than an hour drive away.

I will admit I was quite disappointed with Islet House. Location: Out of all of the towns, villages and parts of the Island this street seemed to be amongst the dirtiest with garbage everywhere and decrepit buildings. It is also a very busy street so there is a lot of traffic to deal with when entering and exiting the property. I understand the owner probably got a good deal on the property and has great vision for the area, because it does have potential, but there is still a long way to go. Overall it is fairly central so nothing was more than an hour away by car and there were plenty of restaurants within walking distance. Cleanliness: When you first walk in you are slammed in the face with an overwhelming amount of different scented deodorizers and infusers. It actually gave me a headache it was so strong of a scent. At first glance everything looks great with its white walls and ‘live love laugh’ type decor everywhere, but then as we settled we started to notice more and more. The walls had dirty hand prints and marks all over them, the couch had dirt stains and also included a collection of finger nails along the back, scissors were filthy, coffee machine was dirty with old coffee. I did contact the owner and they offered to have the cleaners back, but we decided to just clean some of the things ourselves. Parking: Parking in the area wasn’t too difficult but you definitely can’t park right out front of the apartment. There is barely a sidewalk, which is quite common for the area. Functionality: Islet House definitely focusses on Fashion before Function and it really wasn’t as welcoming as it seemed it would be. The ‘Welcome basket’ was two crumpled packs of instant coffee, two tea bags, a couple packages of crackers/cookies, a carton of milk and a glass bottle of tap water. The owner was very adamant that they would provide nothing else (oil, salt) nor replace anything if you ran out during your stay. For example toilet paper.

The apartment was very clean and well equipped: filter coffee machine, dishwasher, plenty of glasses and crockery. The view from the balcony across the bay and out to sea was exceptional. The bed was comfortable and it was lovely having a balcony. Thank you for the welcome basket and the lists of places to eat/local shops etc. Thank you for including swimming towels-we used the black ones as requested when going to the beach!

It would have been really useful to have a clothes drier for the balcony for wet things, including swimming stuff. The apartment did smell damp (we think the shower tray leaks) despite keeping the aircon on as requested, so we really didn't want to keep wet stuff inside. Could we suggest including filters for the coffee machine and washing up liquid in the welcome basket? we couldn't get filters locally, and we just washed up our dishes by hand rather than using the dishwasher.

Good location, modern apartment has everything you need during stay, all guidelines were provided ( including taxi phone numbers, interesting places, apps, stores etc).

Too noisy during the nicht - you can hear motorbikes, cars on the street and the roof creates some sounds (maybe because of cooling during the night ). For us it was ok, but if people are sleeping sensitively - I’ll recommend take your earplugs.

The view from the balcony of the property was fantastic. The property was super clean, everything was delivered as the host suggested it would be.

Would have preferred if the property was a little closer to more amenities. The dropping off of luggage was a bit inconvenient, as was the parking, but not too bad.

Everything- this place is wonderful, everything had been thought about including a chopping board and bottle opener which most properties forget! There are lots of towels and its a spacious apartment with stunning views. Highly recommend!

Not much. Only thing that could make this better is more toilet paper!