Xabin Etxea Basque Stay

Recent Reviews: 37

• User:gittemik

  Trip type: Couples

  Not recommended

  15 Jul 2022

  Lovely setting for the hotel, but check-in was with a code we had not yet received upon arrival. Beds were quite hard to sleep on and the host family lived upstairs and first went to bed at 2 am in the night. Didn’t get much sleep here. Too expensive for what you get

• User:carysw756

  Trip type: Couples

  Lovely hostel type accommodation, perfect for an overnight stay

  01 Sept 2021

  This was our first accommodation on our trip and it did not disappoint. The outside looks a bit like a hostel and we had a key code to enter both the front door and room door. The surrounding area is beautiful. Our room was spacious and clean with a lovely view of vineyards. Getaria Town is around a 35 minute walk and is rather pleasant although is on a main road for the most part. Didn't see the shutter on the outside of the window until the day after, only thin curtains on windows.Only downside are the paper thin walls, hearing fellow travellers but not enough to spoil this great accommodation.Breakfast was laid out the next morning, quite basic, we only had a coffee before we left.

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• User:gathernomoss123

  Trip type: Family

  Prison like! This Owner should NOT be in the hospitality business.

  19 May 2019

  My wife and I stayed at an absolutely wonderful Casa Rural in Butron the previous night so on the strength of the CR designation we sought out another for the following night and happened upon this place in a flyer. It sounded great so we booked a non-refundable room through a third party website.Our experience was nothing short of misery from before our arrival until our departure. Settle in, this will be a long review.1. After I booked the room I received a note from the property telling me that checkin would be done via an app I had to download onto my phone. Fortunately this trip I had purchased a SIM card so had some overseas data - typically we rely on wifi and do not do that and had that been the case this trip we would not have been able to check in, let alone access the property.2. Downloading an app meant dumping others off my phone since I did not have capacity to upload another application. There is a huge assumption by the property owner that people want to be bothered doing this sort of thing on vacation and I repeat - there was NO mention of any of this before I booked the non-refundable night. Had there been, I would absolutely not have rented this property.3. After downloading the app I had to scan passports into it. That failed so I had to manually input passport information. I was traveling with my wife and only one passport worked. It is the law in Spain that all guest passports must be scanned. This was not done as the app failed on the second attempt and then moved to the next screen.4. We arrived in daylight and had to use the app to open both the front door of the property and the door to our room. There was nobody anywhere. Lights clicked on and off noisily as we moved about trying to get our bearings.It was a rainy evening and the temperature was about 8 degrees outside. It was cold as an icebox in the building. The common area is in the basement and it was absolutely freezing down there. Our room was equally freezing. We had rented the room on the understanding that we would have a place to sit in the evening. We did not.I emailed the property and explained how cold it was in there. I received a prompt reply telling me how to turn on the heat. I did that. However - the building is heated by a boiler and is large. There was no heat by the time we went to bed that night.5. Down the hall from our room was the eating area. It was freezing as well but as cold as the basement so we sat there, on hard dining chairs. The breakfast for the following morning was already partly laid out: pre-packaged baked goods from the grocery store. 6. Our room itself was tiny. We had reserved a 22 sq. metre room and what we got was about 10 sq. metres. Between the double bed and the wall where the door to the porch was there was about 18", another 18" on the opposite side. The room felt like a University dorm room - cold and characterless. There was one student desk chair. There was nowhere but the floor or the bed to put 2 small suitcases and we had to step over those at night to get to the bathroom. Further, I found a huge, twisted, long black hair on the sheet when I pulled back the covers to get in. My wife does not have long hair (and sadly, I am virtually bald), so it definitely was not ours. There was also some kind of sticky paper stuck to the sheet. There are pictures.There were sheer curtains over the door to the balcony. There was no blind so at first light we were awake. 7. Now we come to the really wonderful part. Someone else has already commented on this. We were locked into our room by the automatic door lock. I have a video of my wife trying to open the door from the inside. Had there been a fire...I cringe at that thought. While we were locked in there was an alarm sounding as the video shows (hopefully I can post it). Sometime in the night we heard others arrive - we also heard their alarm so they must have also been locked in. Needless to say we didn't sleep much.The following day I messaged the owner with my complaints and requested a partial refund. I have never done this before. I listed all the things above and he (or she), replied that there was a blind on the window and he (or she) couldn't believe we hadn't see it. There was no blind. My wife has a picture.He (or she) also told us there is instructions on the door as to how to work the automatic door lock and that we had done something wrong. Well, in the dark, in a fire, I wouldn't want to have to turn on the light and try to figure out the instructions, would you?I expressed disatisfaction that I had not been informed until after I had reserved that an app was required to self-checkin. He (or she) responded that as of 15 days earlier that information was on the 3rd party website. Perhaps it is on the Spanish site, I don't know. I double checked the English site and it was not there the following day.I have just joined Trip Advisor with the sole purpose of writing this review. This accommodation is the Hotel California. It is a 2 star place charging what we paid for 4 star rooms all through Spain. We have travelled extensively, worldwide, and have never, ever had an experience such as this anywhere we have stayed. We have certainly never encountered any kind of robotic experience like this. This owner has not a clue what it means to be in the hospitality business and he should be de-listed as a Casa Rural. We stayed in several others during our time in Spain and they were all delightful, unique, and owned or managed by people who care about their patrons. We were not expecting fancy, nor do we need that. But we were expecting to be treated as guests by someone who cared enough to turn on the heat, say hello, and not blame us for getting locked into our room.I encourage anyone who would like more information to contact me directly. I am still in disbelief that any person who chooses a career in hospitality would go to such lengths to avoid dealing directly with their guests.

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• User:maketracks

  Trip type: Couples

  A complete ripoff. Run far, run fast.

  08 May 2019

  It seems the Casa Rural designation does not apply to this place. Pictures lie. Had to download an app to self-check in, scan passports (which failed), unlock main and room doors. Breakfast was grocery store individually plastic wrapped croissants and sweet things. At one point we were locked INTO our room by the electronic door and had to force open the balcony door. The entire house was freezing cold and echoes like a casket.For this awful place we paid top dollar.I have videos and pictures to prove all claims and will be pursuing.

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• User:Laia-Arnau

  Trip type: Friends getaway

  Nice little country house

  19 Jul 2017

  This is the best place I have stayed in this trip, very nice staff, very nice rooms and the breakfast was delicious and very complete. It is very far from the city center, but 100% recommended, you won't regret it. The price was fine, and it's by "El Camino de Santiago".