Although the pictures looked amazing, we were very disappointed upon arrival. Arriving at night, the property was poorly lit (only 1 of the six bulbs in the gate lights actually worked) and we had a difficult time locating the house. The promise of a "staff" for cleaning, cooking and helping us around the island was quickly dashed. With the exception of the groundskeeper, Brandon, the rest of the staff was less than attentive. We were greeted by the housekeeper and cook but there was nothing prepared for our arrival...no food or drinks in the entire house. I had asked the property owner about food and beverage arrangements and he assured me the "staff" would take care of it. Prior to our arrival, I requested menus and suggestions several times with no clear responses.
There is no vehicle provided with this property and we had to scramble to figure out transportation. Brandon saved the day by finding us a van when nothing was available on the entire island. I am not sure what we would have done had he not stepped up to help us out. He even drove us everywhere we needed/wanted to go. Of course after our first outing, I was scolded by the cook for not coming to her with our requests. I didn’t feel comfortable asking her to do anything. It was very clear, they did not want to do more than the absolute minimum.
As for the property itself, the pool had a fabulous view of the ocean. The small (about 30’) private beach allowed us to dip into the ocean and Brandon was good about cleaning it up for us every morning. As long as we stayed outside, the property was acceptable and Brandon was constantly fixing and tidying up. Unfortunately, the owner does little to provide him with tools to properly fix things, but Brandon does the best he can with what he has to work with.
Going inside is another story. The place has not been well maintained. The refrigerator has trouble keeping things cold and the coffee machine looks like something you might find on a construction site! Be prepared and bring your own coffee filters or you will be using paper towels like we did! We even had to supply our own toilet paper! Individual air conditioning units try to cool the bedrooms but have difficulty keeping up. The mattresses are hard and the showers have little to no water pressure. The head in my shower actually fell off when we turned the water on…luckily we had better luck with the pipe coming out of the wall than the actual shower head!
