La Merlaia Beauty and Quietness with Pool on Hills of Florence

Very polite and respectful host in our home

Dear Lisa, Your review is so negative compared to the others we have received that it makes it clear how unreliable it is. However, we have decided to reply in order to make it clear to anyone else who reads it that it is full of inaccurate or false things and that it is due to reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of our villa. Outside Our property is in no way unkempt as you write, but the garden and patio are deliberately kept with lush vegetation, but absolutely cared for, as you too could verify from the fact that the gardener spent 3 times a week cleaning the pool or watering the plants in the garden and patio. This is the original Tuscan country style that we like to keep, we are sorry it is not to your taste. Like all Tuscan country houses, access to the house is via a dirt road, which is only 150 metres long and causes no damage to the car. The road is also used by neighbours who live there all year round without any difficulty. It is also absolutely false that there is no parking area. There is an area where 3 cars can be parked next to the entrance of the house and then there is the fenced parking area at the bottom of the garden where 4 more cars can be parked. Inside Inside the house there are many antiques and original paintings from past centuries, which you evidently were unable to appreciate due to lack of knowledge since you called them cast-off junk. To give you an example, the dining room chandelier you are complaining about is fully functional and is an 18th century Murano crystal chandelier. There is also a lot of other original Tuscan antique furniture from past centuries which our guests usually appreciate very much. However, if you were looking for a house with only modern IKEA-style furniture, ours was not a suitable choice. The built-in fridge was too small, which is why we installed a larger stand-alone fridge in the kitchen, as well as another fridge in the basement to meet the needs of 12 guests. Your group was only 4 elderly people, so you may not have appreciated it, but most of our guests are large groups. The pizza oven and fireplace are not broken, but as we have suffered damage in the past due to inappropriate use by our guests, which has caused us considerable damage, we do not allow it to be used. I would however point out that for this reason they have not been included in the description of the villa's equipment. Regarding the insects in the living room no other guest complained about this either before or after your stay. I asked Dafina (the person who does the cleaning and whom you spoke very highly of) and she told me she doesn't know what you are talking about. Considering that she came several times to assist you, we think that if there was really this problem you would have told her. The only faults we found, after your departure, were that the oven had a screw that had come loose, that some air had got into the pipes and was making noise, and that there was a small object under a bathroom door (probably inadvertently jammed by you, as previous guests had not reported this problem to us) preventing it from closing. It would have been enough if you had reported these things to us immediately and we would have sent a person who would have sorted it out in a few minutes. Obviously these small problems can justify such a negative review, but as we said at the beginning, the reason why you wrote it is very clear to us. In fact, a few days before your arrival you had asked us if you could reduce the length of your stay and get a big discount, making us understand that, if we did not comply with your request, you would leave us a negative review. We, even though our cancellation rules did not foresee this, did our best to try to re-rent the house and thus meet your request, but unfortunately with so few days' notice it was not possible for us. We really believe that this is the real reason why you left this review as well as the fact that, for your personal reasons which absolutely do not depend on us or on the quality of villa, the period spent in our villa was probably not as pleasant as you expected. We would like to conclude by saying that we have been renting our villa for 12 years and fortunately, as witnessed by the many other positive reviews, our clients appreciate our villa and our choices for the interior and exterior. Gaia & Andrea

Dear Neshani, Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We are thrilled that your family enjoyed the large spaces, our fantastic pool, the peaceful atmosphere, and the stunning views! We will also be sure to pass on your kind words to Giulia; she was very happy to assist you and ensure your group was well taken care of. Regarding the layout of the house, La Merlaia is a traditional Tuscan countryside villa. As is typical for these historic properties, the bedrooms are located on the upper floor. We always do our best to show the layout in our listing photos and description so families can plan accordingly. As for the beds, joining two high-quality single beds to create a large double bed is the standard setup in most European villas and hotels, as it allows for flexible sleeping arrangements. Thank you for pointing out the noise with the faucets; we will certainly have our plumber look into it. Regarding the basketball, we usually keep one at the house, but it may have been misplaced by previous guests. We wish you had mentioned this to Giulia during your stay, as we would have happily brought a new one for the kids right away! Finally, we would like to kindly clarify the point about the Tourist Tax. This is a mandatory municipal tax required by Italian law. To ensure complete transparency, this specific tax (€2 per person/night) is explicitly set up in our VRBO tax settings. It is clearly displayed to all guests in the pricing breakdown before the booking is confirmed, and it is noted in the reservation details. We apologize if this detail was overlooked prior to your arrival, but it is always disclosed upfront on the platform. Thank you again for choosing our villa for your family vacation, we wish you all the best! Warm regards, Gaia & Andrea

Dear Laurie, Thank you so much for the wonderful review and your kind words about Giulia! We are so happy to hear that you had a great stay, enjoyed the house, and appreciated our assistance. We just wanted to clarify a small misunderstanding regarding the plumbing, especially for future guests reading this: regular toilet paper can absolutely be flushed down the toilet! The signs in the bathrooms are only meant to ask guests not to flush feminine hygiene products, paper towels, or wipes to prevent clogging. We are so sorry if our signs were a bit confusing and caused you this inconvenience during your stay! We wish we had realized this so Giulia could have cleared it up for you immediately. Thank you again for choosing our villa and for being such great guests. We would love to welcome you back anytime! Warm regards, Gaia & Andrea

Dear Darlene, We are very happy that you enjoyed our villa and spent some nice days in La Merlaia. We sincerely apologize for the temporary inconvenience with the hot water for the third bathroom, but unfortunately during your stay the boiler in that bathroom failed and it was necessary to install a new one, which we were unable to do before your departure. However, as you also said, fortunately the other two showers worked perfectly, so we hope to have managed to minimize the problem. If you want to return to visit Florence and Tuscany, we will be very happy to welcome you again.