SpainAway • Property Selection Criteria

Property Selection Criteria

In choosing a hotel you have a fair idea of what you’re going to get with a 2*, 3* and so on.

However choosing an apartment or villa can be a complete lottery – the fear is that it may not come close to living up to the promise shown in the brochure or on the website.

For this reason, SpainAway only offers apartment or villa accommodation that it has personal knowledge of, has directly vetted to make sure that it comes up to its unashamedly high standards, and which has local management in place that is capable of dealing with any problems that might arise. In particular paid advertising of arms-length properties is not accepted.

As a consequence, all properties currently offered are located solely in the Nerja area of the Costa del Sol, which is where our local expertise lies. We make no apology for this restriction – in our view Nerja is the finest holiday location in the whole of Spain.

It may be necessary to explain just what is understood by the terms ‘apartment’ and ‘villa’.

Apartment Accommodation
The archetypal Spanish holiday apartment is one that is located in a high-rise block, with limited balcony facilities, and often with commercial occupants at street level. SpainAway
does not offer such properties.

More recently, custom-designed low-rise apartment complexes have tended to be built, often featuring substantial terraces, communal swimming pools, and so on. SpainAway is happy to recommend these, providing that they meet its overall selection criteria.

Villa Accommodation
At the top of the apartment range, and overlapping with ‘villa’ type accommodation, is what is often referred to as a ‘duplex’ apartment (a duplex is essentially a small villa, with all of the accommodation on one level, with a similar property underneath, often set one above the other on a hillside – the terminology is different to that used in the USA).

The term ‘villa’ can be used quite generically to mean a property with its own individual entrance (in contrast to an apartment). It covers all types of individual properties, from the ‘duplex apartment’, through town houses to detached properties in their own grounds. If in doubt, please ask for clarification.

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