Casa Rural la Quinta de Malu

Having read some of the negative reviews, I realise we got away very very lightly compared to some. After driving nearly 5 hours to get to this accommodation, we wandered all round the village, found the road this 'hotel' is supposed to be on, but could not find it. So we ring. We say, we are parked a few yards from where you are, but cannot find you, please come out and let us in. I presume it is the owner, a guy, says we have been trying to ring you all morning because we have a boiler problem and you cannot stay here. No, you have NOT tried to ring me at all, or indeed contact me through booking dot com which has an efficient messaging service. We tell him we have driven hours and what are we supposed to do? He offers us an apartment in Cuenca but gave us no details about it, just told us to go to Cuenca. It is 25 miles away and we are tired! We drive towards Cuenca and to cut a long story short, we decide to ring booking dot com and get them to help us. It took HOURS to get something sorted because booking say the place Cuenca doesn't exist. We meanwhile get urgent messages from Casa Rural La Quinta saying they have fixed the boiler and to turn round and go back. No thank you! We managed to get booking dot com to cancel our booking at Casa Rural and we found our own hotel in Cuenca. The whole process took many hours and we felt very let down. What surprises me is... this sort of behaviour by this 'hotel' has been going on nearly ten years!

This place is a hidden gem in the middle of the Cuenca countryside and we were thrilled to discover it. The actual house itself is a beautiful, old building with a lot of history and character (it even has its own Visigothic cave!). It is tastefully decorated in an eclectic style, giving it a very interesting atmosphere. The rooms are fantastic and each one is different. One of the best things about La Quinta de Malu is its hosts, Javier and Malu, who were very attentive and really interesting people. We had great chats! Another key thing that was super important for us was the food. We were really impressed that they provided delicious homemade vegan options, which is rare in rural Spain. The location also speaks for itself, and something to highlight is the Roman site with really interesting ruins and artefacts. Since we went in the summer, we also enjoyed some live music in the village square.