Villa review: Can Pep Toni, Ibiza, Spain

Recently my wife and I completed a stay at Villa Can Pep Toni in Ibiza, Spain. Since I'm not sure any comments I provide on other sites will be preserved, I'm putting the comments here (and putting links to here from other locations).

Summary: Lots of good, a few oddly silly bad, but a good value and I'd repeat-visit (unless something better shows up).

Layout: A very roomy tri-level, with LR/kitchen/DR on middle floor, 3 BR downstairs (various bed configurations, and 1 bathroom containing 2 sinks, toilet & shower), and 1 BR upstairs (with 1 bathroom containing bathtub (with shower curtain), 1 sink, and toilet). Note: NOT good for handicapped people; you must climb stairs to get to the main (middle) level entrance, or up/downstairs to the bedrooms.

Pros:

• Super-good location (Can Pep Simo), and is a 5-minute drive outside the main town of Eivissa, and reasonable access to most places (though always a short drive to a nearby main road). In an area of nicely-maintained villas, and very safe-feeling.
• Great views of the main harbor. South-western view off the living room, main balcony & upper-floor bedroom makes for good reasons to hang out & drink coffee in the mornings.
• Nice pool. The pool is an in-ground, high-quality pool (vinyl lined), good size for paddling easily back/forth to cool-off. High-quality artificial turf surrounds the pool (avoiding dirty feet and dead grass); good idea! Plenty of well-maintained chaise-lounges, along with a nifty bed with tiltable backrests and sunshades to escape the heat.
• Secure, with a motorized gate entry, and doors / windows that are certainly safe from burglers & bad-guys.
• Clean. 'nuf said.
• Overall well-maintained. Nothing was broken (on arrival), and everything worked as-designed.
• Lower-floor bathroom is super nice, modern european. It's much nicer than the upstairs one, and the one we tended to use (despite sleeping upstairs).
  • Note: the Upstairs bathroom is ONLY usable by the people sleeping in that upstairs bedroom; so the 3 BRs downstairs are for-sure sharing the one down there. The upstairs bathroom is also a bit old-skool.

Cons:

• Towel racks? You want bathroom towel racks? Bah. There's a small one in the downstairs bath, and none upstairs. And there's no real place to hang your shower towel in your bedroom. So basically, no place to hang your wet towels. Super-bizzare, especailly given how many people this house holds.
• Upper floor bathroom. The porcelain is of poor quality, so the (super-hard) water leaves water spots on the dark blue tile in the sink. After a few days, the sink looks super-messy, though it's really just hard-water-spotted.
• Pool access. There's no exit to the pool on the pool-side (back) of the house. You've got to go down the front stairs, and walk around back. It's kind of a pain if you want to take a bottle of wine, or water, or ice bucket, or etc. outside.
  • During our stay, the pool wasn't cleaning itself. I suspect the automated timer for the filter wasn't working. I operated the filter pump manually, and used the skimmer, and nicely cleared the pool in about 10 minutes.
• Small-ish refrigerator. Maybe 5' tall and about 20" wide overall, with a small freezer on top. Barely big enough to hold a few days provisions for 2, much less for 8.
• Under-equipped kitchen. Good silverware supply, good up / plate selection. But far-too-few beverage glasses, no ice bucket (neither large one for wine, or small to to refill glasses), limited selection of other kitchen utensils, etc. I'd call it sub-par compared to other villa's we've rented. Don't plan on making ice; the freezer isn't really right for this. Buy ice bags at a local store.
• Air conditioner. The A/C master power is on a timer that lasts (roughly) 6 hours. If you, like us, prefer to sleep in a dry, cool room vs. typical Mediterranean warm, moist nights, the A/C won't stay on all inght; you'll get hot before you wake.

A couple of comments that have to do with the management company, Ecoibiza (vs. the property):

• Good selection of properties. Conceirge services available (though we didn't use them).
• Communications. Acceptable (but not awesome) communincations prior to the visit.
  • On arrival, the expected packet-of-stuff (that was ready for other renters) wasn't ready for us, so we had a bit of a wait while things were sorted out.
• Responsiveness. We called for a small plumbing repair, and it took a day-and-a-half before it was resolved.
• Over-cleared. Either the management company, or the owner, completely empties the villa of all consumables between visitors. Example: Villas we visit typically have some olive oil, a bit of salt and pepper, etc. in the kitchen cupboards. We'll even often see a welcoming bottle of (usually local) wine. This villa had zero of that stuff. So it felt super-cheap.

Bottom line: Overall, we were happy, and would definintely rent this villa again. In particular, I think it was a really good value for a nice property in a super location.

BUT, I may look for a different one before I book next year's visit, just because of the nagging, irritating con's listed above.