Dear Hotel Chatter,

We wish to ask that you remove the "FAKE" review that was posted on your site on March 11, 2007 entitled. "Disaster Vacation at Jungle Bay Dominica". We are certain that the person who posted this review never stayed with us and is simply using your site for mischief. Several strange comments in the review make it clear that this person is not familiar with our property and would not have described it this way if they had come here at all.

1)They claim that we spray our gardens. First, we do not have any gardens! Secondly, our property is located among the original coastal shrub and the natural virgin rainforest; there is no need or reason to treat the natural wilderness.

2)Our plumbing system is a gravity fed spring that comes from the mountain to our cottages through PVC piping. Such a system simply cannot make noise even if you wanted it to. The writer's claim about out system is nonsense as is the suggestion that there is a charge for changing cottages. What is the basis for charging a guest to change cottages if this silly claim was true? It makes no sense.

3)This person also claims that their room was not clean and they were told by the owner that the cleaner went home. First, our housekeeping system ensures that all rooms are cleaned daily. If for some strange reason we miss a room our housekeeping / laundry department of nine persons work in a staggered manner; so unless this fictitious guest checked in at 11 pm someone would be on duty to assist. We would never expect a guest to stay in an unclean room.

4)"The Owner" was directly quoted twice in the letter. I am the owner and there is no way I would make such unprofessional comments to a guest! I would probably dismiss anyone who did! It makes absolutely no sense.

Our property, Jungle Bay, is a tremendous success in a number of ways as evidenced by major articles in The NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Outside Magazine to name a few. This is causing some envy by some properties on our relatively small island. We do not know for certain but we think that they are behind this however the wording is pointing us in a specific direction.

Obviously your posting site was not meant for abuse so we request that you remove this fictitious posting for the sake of integrity. We do not mind people saying unflattering things about our property however they should be somewhat accurate by real guests.

We are absolutely certain that this is a fake. Please require this "guest" to demonstrate that they were a Jungle Bay guest. I am 100% certain they will not be able to.

Please remove this posting as soon as possible. We get most of our business via the internet so please be mindful that this posting may be unfairly impacting our business. Also, please feel free to communicate with me as we attempt to resolve this matter.

I await your response.

Sincerely,

Samuel Raphael
Owner and General Manager
Jungle Bay Resort & Spa

[Photo: Todd Black/Black Star]