The house & what to know before you arrive
Every house has its little quirks. Here are Villa Alakaza's, so you feel at home quickly.
💧 Tap water is safe to drink, according to the Société Martiniquaise des Eaux.
⚡ Power cuts happen from time to time: we're lucky to be equipped with gas, so life carries on without a hitch.
🍳 Kitchen
The kitchen is equipped for your meals: oven, stovetop, microwave and fridge with freezer, plus a toaster, an Italian coffee maker, a kettle and a French press. Many of these are manual — in case of a power cut, everything keeps running on gas, so you'll never be stuck.
One note on the stovetop: the centre burner isn't working at the moment, we're waiting on a replacement part — but the other 4 burners work normally.
To help you settle in, a bit of coffee is offered as a welcome.
🛋️ Living room
The living room is our favourite room — you'll quickly understand why. From the sofa, the view over the banana garden is simply soothing.
A smart TV (Netflix and Disney+) completes the room. The sofa also converts into an extra bed (140 x 200) and has its own mosquito net.
The living room has shutters we ask you to close if you leave the house: one remote is near the entrance, the other two are on the wall between the shutters. Make sure nothing blocks their path. No need to keep them down all the time — we only close the two at the back in the evening, for the night.
Small note: the remote for the first shutter is a little temperamental, but it works fine.
📚 Snug
A cosier corner with a small bookshelf, kids' games and board games — ideal for a reading break or a family game night.
🛏️ Primary bedroom
⚠️ No kids without parental supervision — this room opens directly onto the pool, with no barrier.
Four-poster bed 160 x 200, with its own mosquito net — it's fairly fragile, please take care of it.
As for the air conditioning: we barely use it, usually just in the early evening to help you fall asleep. No need to go below 23° — the house sits up on the hillside, and a light breeze comes through the window openings, which gives that cool feeling even at night.
Clean bedding is waiting for you on arrival; extra linen is available on request.
🛏️ Bedroom 2
Bed 160 x 200, with its own mosquito net — it's fairly fragile, please take care of it.
Same logic for the air conditioning: we barely use it, never below 23°. The natural coolness up here is more than enough, even at night.
🛏️ Bedroom 3
The house's third bedroom — photos are coming soon, we'll update as soon as we can.
🚿 Bathrooms
Towels and the basics are provided for the whole of your stay: soap, toilet paper, hairdryer.
Hot water is normally available continuously, but note: the water heater holds 150L — after several showers in a row it can run low. A little care avoids bad surprises.
🌴 Outdoors
Outside you'll find a BBQ and a plancha, a carbet (covered shelter) for eating in the shade, and the pool — for all pool information and rules, see further down this page.
The garden is closed off by a gate with a code (0000) for safety reasons. You're welcome to go in, but be careful: it's on a slope and gets quite slippery. If you come across any fruit, help yourself! We're in the process of redoing it, and hope to add more fruit trees over time.
An idea to improve your stay ?
If something is broken, isn't working properly, or you have an idea to improve the experience, let us know ! We're always happy to make small improvements.
🏊 The pool
🧂 No chemicals in our pool. It's a saltwater pool: a chlorinator converts the salt into natural chlorine, in small amounts, continuously. The water stays gentle on skin and eyes, without the smell or residue of regular chlorine — just more natural upkeep.
It's 2 metres deep.
What you should know
- 🔒 Safety: the gates must stay closed at all times.
- 👶 Children: the pool is 2 m deep — constant supervision is required, including from the balcony (watching from a distance doesn't count).
- 🛏️ Primary bedroom (garden level): it's an integral part of the pool area and must always be occupied by adults, never by children alone.
- 🍃 Leaves and surface debris: you can gently remove them with the skimmer net provided.
- 💧 Cloudy or dirty water: let us know. Depending on how long you're staying, we may ask you to run the robot cleaner for 2–3 hours, or send our pool technician.
- 🟢 Water turning green: tell us right away — it can happen fast here, sometimes within 3 days.
- ⚠️ Slippery edges, especially when wet: no running around the pool, especially at night.
- 🎈 No balloons: they could fall into the overflow tank.
- 🍂 Dirty overflow tank: don't worry, it's actually a good sign — it means leaves are draining out naturally. The pool technician takes care of it.
- 🔊 Noisy skimmers: if you hear the jets making noise, it means the overflow tank is low on water — let us know and we'll top it up.
- 🚿 No sandy feet in the water! Rinse off at the tap by the entrance, or the one right next to the pool — sand damages the filters and water quality.
