I am a frequent traveller to Negril - I have family that lives there. We do not expect frills, just basic necessities. However, this accomodation was unable to provide even that.
To begin with I arrived to discover that the owner had left Jamaica and returned to the US.. I was very uncomfortable having had no advanced warning that I would be dealing with others when I arrived. The caretaker left in charge was nice enough, but spent most of the day on the porch socalizing with his friends and family. This was the same porch adjoined to our room - not giving us any privancy or opportunity to relax outdoors. When the neighborhood expreienced an water shortage - there was no back up. Water was trucked in sporadically, until my husband took it upon himself to use our rented car and get water each day. We had enough to rinse off and flush to toilet once or twice. There was a kitchen available - supposedly included in the price - but they ran out of cooking gas and hooked up a dangerous hot plate that my husband was shocked on. They advertise that the caretaker will cook for you, or you can cook for yourself - my husband an I did our own cooking, and when I complained to the owner about the lack of gas - she replied that we should have bought more gas ourselves. Not sure how that makes sense if cooking/use of the kitchen was included. Also supposedly included was the use of a washing machine - not possible without water. The side of the house next to the porch is a garbage dump. There is all manner of food waste, empty and broken bottles, glass, plastic, liquor, you name it. It does not smell so great in the heat, and was one more place I had to protect my child from. There was a discarded toilet in the yard, lots of broken glass and debris strewn about, there was virtually nowhere safe for my child to play. There is a pen of dogs on the property - once they were loose and on the porch and and scratched both myself and my child. My scratches were pretty deep, some of them were bleeding. I expressed my disappointment to the caretaker as soon as we arrived, and was not planning on paying the balance due to the poor conditions, but he indicated that the owner had not left him enough money to pay the utilites or purchase cooking gas. I paid him all but 50 US (which only reduced the daily rate by $5) and tried to resolve the issue with the owner upon my return. When I reported all of these conditions to her, she basically said I should have just found another place to stay.
That is easler said than done when travelling with a three year old - we were housebound for three days because our child had a fever, and didn't want to spent the remaining time we had searching for new accomodations. I do not travel to Jamaica as a tourist - our main objective is to spend time together as a family, since my husband and I live apart for most of the year. All we wanted was a clean, safe, basic accomodation. I would not recommend this place to anyone under any circumstances.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
26 June 2010
I am so sorry for your dissatisfaction. I was not there but didn't realize it was important to you that I was. The water shortage was all of Negril, not just at Right Vibes. I do have a 400 gallon water tank for a back up but it was not enough. I was told by my caretaker that you had enough water to flush the toilet, cook and shower every night with hot water. I know there wasn't enough water to use the washer and I am sorry for that. I was also told that your husband used the car to get water twice. Your husband has been back to the property to see the caretaker so I wasn't aware that the problem wtih you hadn't been worked out. It is not fair to blame us for your not leaving as your husband lives in Negril and you had a vehicle. It would have taken no time for you to find another place. You did get a $50 refund, I don't think it was fair to ask for a full refund when you had the choice to leave or stay. It had only been a year since our move up to Westland Mountain and I will admit we've had our share of difficulties. Nothing is easy or fast in Jamaica. My most sincere apology.
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