Do not trust your keyholder

Just a note of caution that on rare occasions we decided to let our apartment on Arenal Golf out.  Recently my wife attended the property to find clear evidence that people had been staying there without our permission or knowledge.  Kind of supports the large'ish utility bills when nobody was present.

We'd previously disposed of the services of our keyholder/cleaner, somebody who is probably well-known on Arenal Golf, for one reason or another and she was supposed to return our keys but never did.  It seems likely that this person has been letting people stay in our absence, possibly taking rental money.  Talk about s**m of the earth.

So, just a word of caution to anybody considering using the services of these people.  The technician that we called out to replace the locks told us some horror stories.  I guess we've been lucky.

Oliverson,

Sorry to hear of your bad experience when letting your property out. Reading between the lines, you have handed your apartment keys out to someone who has no official business, no office address, no land line telephone number and is working from the back of a car. I guess that you wouldn't do this  with a second home in England, where it is much easier to manage, so why take the chance in Spain. When you enlist the services of a registered agency you have some protection in law and they are obliged in law to carry a complaints book where you can make an official complaint.

There is always risk when you rent your property out, be it holiday or long term, but if you use a registered agency, who have an established office, they can never run away from their obligations and should always be there to assist you when things go wrong and usually work closely with lawyers.