Doesn't realy give a good first impression of Barbados
Dec 21, 2020 andreastephenielo Hong Kong, China
I stayed here for a week, during which I underwent compulsory quarantine for 3 nights. I booked a standard room, which is one of the old bungalows across the road from the reception area. The hotel is fine if you're not planning on staying in your room very often. And the staff are all quite friendly. But if you are planning on doing so, as much…
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I stayed here for a week, during which I underwent compulsory quarantine for 3 nights. I booked a standard room, which is one of the old bungalows across the road from the reception area. The hotel is fine if you're not planning on staying in your room very often. And the staff are all quite friendly. But if you are planning on doing so, as much as I did, here's what you need to be aware of:
1. My room was FILLED with mosquitoes, and I got bitten to death. It got to a point where as soon as I got out of the shower I would need to spray myself with mosquito spray to minimise the damage. I never left my door open and I closed these "windows" as much as I could (they're not real windows, they're glass panels you can adjust to let in air and no matter what you do, they will never be closed all the way. There are security grills fixed on the windows.) There are actually plenty of geckos inside the room but it didn't help the mosquito situation. As this is my first time in Barbados/the Caribbean, I assumed this was just how things were around here -- that there are mosquitoes inside. It wasn't until I came out of quarantine and went to a friend's house in the area that I realised you can be inside a home/ even outside a home in the garden and not for the whole place to be filled with mosquitoes. In fact, I have now moved to stay in an AirBnB near the beach, where I have left my windows open all day and into the night and there is not a single mosquito in sight. I did see a Rentokil truck on site at one point but obviously, something has gone very wrong here for the situation to be so out of hand. I can count close to 20 bites on my legs alone.
2. The shower is awful. The drain in my room was faulty, so you are standing in a puddle of dirty water by your feet. Every time I showered the water doesn't drain until well after I've exited the shower. I've never stayed in a place that makes me feel dirtier to shower than not to shower. The water temperature tends to be on the cold side. I thought this was a Barbados thing until I talked to other people here and realised there are hot showers here. In fact, I had a piping hot shower the AirBnB I moved to today. So, if you have a problem with this, don't stay here.
3. I am a woman travelling alone and I didn't feel that safe here. These standard rooms are bungalows across the street from the hotel reception and is on a main road that anyone can walk or drive past. If privacy is a big thing for you then you won't like people walking past all the time and being able to peek into your room. As far as safety goes, I guess we can't really control what goes on and just have to pray for the best.
3. It's true what the other reviewers say -- the bed is very hard. Some people might like this but I didn't.
4. I kind of regret not paying more to get a deluxe room, or maybe just paying more to stay somewhere else. To the hotel's credit, it offers very affordable rates for a West Coast property. But if you do book to stay in a standard room, aka one of the old bungalows on the property, maybe go with the mindset that you're staying somewhere one step up from a hostel. The rooms are so dirty and tired that it feels unhygienic just by virtue of everything feeling so old and dusty, and with geckos running around everywhere. It's probably my own fault for expecting more from a 3-star property but I guess that's a lesson learned.
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