Chardaka Guest House

Our two night stay at Chardaka should have been an absolute delight: just five minutes walk from the lovely town centre of Kalofer, a bright, clean, airy room, comfortable bed in a traditional style outbuilding surrounded by fig trees, vines and the braying of the neighbouring goats. What could be more idyllic? Unfortunately, the owner neglected to tell us she wouldn't be around during our 2 night stay or that the optional chargeable breakfast would not therefore be offered. Her son in law was tasked with giving us the key but after unhelpfully telling us the owner famously laid on a fantastic breakfast spread, ended up blaming us for not saying at the time of booking that we would want breakfast. From our point of view, the obligation was on the owner to ask us whether we wanted breakfast to give us the opportunity to cancel if we felt strongly about it. Grudgingly, we were offered an egg, bread and jam but as that was unlikely to be worth the 10 euros normally charged and only offered on the first morning, we declined in favour of an improvised affair using the open kitchen. Other issues worth mentioning major on the bathroom which was far from ideal. It was not only tiny but, more importantly, the shower was not curtained or partitioned off and so when you used it, there was no way of avoiding a soaking wet floor , toilet seat etc. Shower curtains hung in front of the door and the window but these were covered in mould, suggesting they hadn't been cleaned for a long time. Finally, there was no plug for the basin and nowhere to hang wet towels. Oh, and no-one thought to tell us to turn on the water heater if we wanted hot water! Allegedly, we were 'upgraded' to the larger room but this was not something that compensated for the lack of hospitality or the nuisance of having to make alternative breakfast arrangements or being told we were the ones at fault for not knowing the host would be away. Clearly, none of these matters entered the mind of the host so hopefully, this warts and all review will help focus her attention on where it is needed and benefit future visitors who will, if these things are fixed, have a wonderful stay.