Dear Guest, We thank you for taking the time to write a review of Casa de las Olas. We welcome this opportunity to highlight what we are about so as to avoid misunderstandings between future guests. First, you booked your reservation directly through our website at www.casadelasolas.com without any previous correspondence with us. As our website is very thorough in detailing our concept, amenities, location, and policies, whenever an automatically-booked reservation comes in through our site, we presume the guest has done their research and read the site. In order to manage expectations, we also reiterate our policies in our confirmation, which was sent to you after booking. We are a small, sustainable property on Tulum’s far south beach, neighboring the Sian Ka’an Biosphere preserve. Like the rest of Tulum, we are off-grid; we personally supply our power with solar panels. Our website clearly states that Casa de las Olas was designed to take advantage of the sea breezes without the use of air-conditioning and that we do not have televisions, nor does the suite you chose to rent have a refrigerator (though our other suites do). As a convenience, we do provide normal, stand-up fans that make no more noise than any other fan. We are disappointed that you felt our owner, James, didn’t like you, as nothing could be farther from the truth. As you arrived several hours later than you’d told us to expect you, we were working in another one of our suites, but greeted you after only a few minutes once we realized you’d arrived. James welcomed and gifted you with a roast chicken dinner from our favorite local chicken restaurant to celebrate your honeymoon after you had been traveling all day.
Our drinking water provided in each suite is purified, bottled water. The shower water is cenote-fed and so, yes, it contains a little bit of salt, which is also mentioned on our website. Your chosen suite, the Junior Suite, is in a completely private corner of the house, facing the sea, and raised so high off the ground that there is complete privacy. No one can walk past the windows and look in whether on our grounds or our beach.
Casa de las Olas does not have a restaurant, but we have a wonderful chef, Lulu, who provides authentic daily breakfasts at no costs to our guests, and lunches at additional cost, using fresh, locally-procured ingredients. Our location/distance from other Tulum beach restaurants is mentioned in our detailed confirmation. We have bicycles for our guests to freely use and will gladly call a taxi should you need any local transportation.
Finally, with regard to your requested refund, because our villa has just 5 suites and we have no walk-in business, we must protect ourselves with our no refund policy, which was explained on our site, in our confirmation, and in person after you decided to leave after only a few hours. As you had only paid half of your balance due, in truth, you received a 50% refund of your stay. We thank you, again, for your feedback as it reaffirms our commitment to managing our guests expectations so as to attract like-minded guests to Casa de las Olas who appreciate our sustainable operations and personalized guest hosting. Sincerely, James, Samantha & Chris