HotelChatter

Our Deluxe Ocean View Guestroom (Room #78) was rundown and in desperate need of some TLC. The bathroom was icky – water varied in shades, ancient plumbing, discolored grout, dirty drains and chipped tiles. Worn/torn/stained bedding and mattresses and walls in desperate need of new paint graced the bedroom. One cockroach sighting. Fine. We don’t love it, but the room met our most basic needs and we can live with it.

Nevertheless, all was smooth sailing until one morning we woke up with a batch of fresh bug bites across our back. A co-traveler (in Room #74, right next door) who’d already tallied over 100 bites woke up with similar new bites. Curious, but mostly concerned, we got on Google, researched the bite marks, patterns and images of our suspected offender(s). Sure enough, when we returned to the room and pulled back the comforter, we immediately spotted three nasty buggers that yep, looked strikingly similar to our Google findings. (However, these have not been 100 percent confirmed as bed bugs.)

Bugs are not our fave bedfellows under any circumstances, so we immediately alerted Assistant Manager, Claire Sealey of the bugs and our bites. Here’s where customer service comes to a screeching halt: the reaction was a deadpan “We’ll move you to another room." No apology, no look of surprise, no nothing. C’mon, really? We don’t make serious allegations lightly and spend the next 27 hours without a peep from hotel staff or management regarding if/when/how the situation would be resolved, an apology or whiff of concern for our well-being.

There’s a reasonable window of time to do damage control (in this case, immediately), but despite plenty of opportunity, hotel management failed miserably in the communication department.

At 11:40 a.m. the following day, we spoke with Sealey who made a lot of excuses, a lukewarm apology and finally conveyed that yes, she’d been taking measures to resolve the situation. That’s great, but your average hotel guest is not a mind reader. Shortly thereafter, we received a very professional and apologetic email from Barbara Seidel, Director of Operations for Maduro Dive Fanta-Seas, the company that books dive packages for the resort. She got it.

More than 48-hours after the initial complaint,the Island Health Department showed up to inspect the rooms. We only wish we’d been onsite for the festivities, because the post-play report of the Island Health Department’s inspection that we received via email from General Manager, Jack Chalk (who was off-island during the incident), seemed inconclusive at best.

Regardless of how you wanna spin it, the bottom line is: if this is how the concerns of hosted media guests of the hotel are met, what can other guests expect? We know the Caribbean is filled with all sorts of service stereotypes, but we have grown to expect more from the ABC islands based on past travels. We had the benefit of traveling with Bonaire’s publicist who kicked into damage control mode, but solutions need to be initiated by the hotel and not its hired mouthpiece.

We hope to return to Bonaire in the coming months and will report back on whether cleanliness and customer service has stepped up at Captain Don’s Habitat. We also hope this incident is a wake-up call, because aside from these serious snafus, believe that Captain Don’s Habitat is a world class destination for scuba divers and that Captain Don Stewart plays an important role in Bonaire’s eco-conservation efforts.

[Photo: Globetrotting Gourmet]