Guest Report

[Diane Prosser]

Small, cramped accommodation set well above the main road and a long walk from the beach. Definitely not suitable for anyone who is not athletic, has a heart or mobility problem or is above 25 years old. The cockrells (sitting directly under the bedroom window), parrots and barking dogs made a continuous cacophony of noise throughout the night. We left after one night because my partner has a heart problem and could not manage the steep steps from the road and we had to pay a 10% cancellation charge.

[Julia C.]

Maybe I'm being stupid, but with "Guest reviews" unless the poster names the place in their post or in the subject I can't work out where the post is about?!?!

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Julia

Each accommodation forum relates to a single, specific property. It can/should be assumed that all comments in that forum are about that particular establishment (and will be moved if not). There is therefore no need for the poster to mention the name of the property.

You must have entered this forum by selecting it from the list of sub-forums (or by clicking on the 'Reports' tab in the accommodation listings for a specific property). If you have forgotten the name of it (which indicates the property to which the forum relates) you can remind yourself by looking at the index address at the top of this page - .......... Accommodation -> Apartments & Condominiums -> Nature View Apartments -> Not Recommended. This means that you are viewing posts in a thread entitled "Not Recommended" in the "Nature View Apartments" forum.

Hope that clarifies it for you and that future reviews are more meaningful.

[Roland Siebenhorn]

Steve,
I can not see that the Nature View Apartment was meant.
On my screen is written: Accommodation -> Apartments & Condominiums -> Not Recommended

Enjoy your last days on Tobago!

[Graham Jones]

Steve,

It is possible to access Diane's review without going through the accomodation forum and hence you do not know which establishment is mentioned.

I have bookmarked the forum page which shows up new posts since I last visited. That is the first page of myTobago which I access and have wondered for some time about these postings which have no forum title.

Anyway enjoy your remaining time in Tobago.

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Roland

I am assuming that you either do not have your browser (Internet Explorer, etc) window maximised or are working on an old computer with very low screen resolution (800x600 or less) and therefore cannot see the full width of the screen without scrolling. It sounds like you are reading part of the index line without scrolling to see the full address.

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Graham

Sorry, I missed your post.

Seems like I'm the one who is missing something obvious here. Can you please either email me the bookmark you are using or explain further. If you come into the forum and click the link "view posts since last visit", it presents you with a list of topics with new additions, with the forum name listed under "Forum". So, the property is self-evident, but from what you are saying, there is yet another way that does not show the forum name. Help! I am really scratching my head here.

[Julia C.]

Hi Steve,
I'm seeing what Roland is seeing:
http://www.myTobago.info Forum Index -> Discussion Groups -> Accommodation -> Apartments & Condominiums -> Not Recommended
I log in then click "view posts since last visit"
I can see the full width of my screen.
If I click on "Apartments & Condominiums" there are only 7 properties listed and they are all ones that you reviewed:
Bijou Des Caraibes, Canoe Bay Beach Resort, Castara Retreats, Hummingbird Heights, Ocean Air, Porridge's Place, Sherwood Park Apartments.
I can't see this thread at all until I log in.

ANYWAY - please don't sweat about this during your last few days on Tobago. I feel a bit guilty about bringing it up right now. It's something I've wondered about for a while. It can wait until .....

[Gill O]

I also had this problem of not being able to identify the property mentioned in the review. I clicked on the the" latest posts" section on the welcome page, and it brought up the review without listing the property. I just hoped that it was not about where I am going to stay!

[Jo B]

Steve

I have noticed this too. It occurs when somebody posts a Guest Review via the Accommodation pages for a property that does not have its own individual forum. It shows up as a new post under the Accommodation Section, in this case 'Apartments and Condominiums', but only in the latest post column, as it does not have its own forum. The only way to access the post is to click on the link in the latest post column, but this takes you straight to the Guest Review with no info on the actual accommodation referred to.

It is something I noticed some time ago, and has been around since you introduced the Guest Review option. It also means that if something else is posted after the Guest Review on the same forum subsection, it is impossible to locate the new post.

Hope that makes sense and helps somewhat.

Jo x

[Steve Wooler]

Hi Folks

My humble apologies – all is revealed and I now appreciate the problem that everyone is experiencing. It is nothing to do with anyone being stupid, or their browser window size being set too small.

To allow unregistered users to file reports directly in the accommodation listings, every property on the island actually has its own forum. However, with 350+ accommodation properties on Tobago, I was concerned that the Accommodation forum was going to become even more confusing to some users. So, in an attempt to simplify things, all these new forums are actually ‘hidden’ and only directly available to the administrator – me. Technically, posts in these hidden forums shouldn’t be showing in the “latest posts” search, but they are for some reason. However, the system is hiding the forum name to normal users, but not to myself, as administrator – hence the reason I wasn’t aware of the problem and misunderstanding everyone’s confusion.

Within the next few weeks I will be able to fix this problem. I’ve got to make the forums fully available to all. This is going to mean navigation will be a trifle more complex. I don’t want to list too many sub-forums in any forum because this can severely impact on download time for users with slow Internet connections. My thoughts at this moment are that under each accommodation type (Guesthouses, Apartments, Cottages and Villas), there will have to be alphabetic sub-forums (e.g. A-E, F-L, M-Z) each listing the property in that category and whose name starts with those alphabetic letters. There are currently over 350 properties/accommodation sub-forums, so it’s a complex problem and I’m open to suggestions.

So, bear with me folks and I’ll get it fixed as soon as possible.

[Julia C.]

Well done for figuring it out Steve.
Now go and have a rum punch (or Carib) - I'd buy you one if I were there. Heck I'd buy you two!