Cuffie River Nature Resort- ok

[Jay Walker]

My Husband and I stayed at Cuffie River for one night in August. The rooms were ok, the bathrooms need some work, the grout and toilet seat were stained. I suspect the seat was stained with urine. The rest of the room was fine. Breakfast and dinner was delicious but lunch was not very substantial, we brought crackers with us, so we had them in our room to make up for the hunger. The difference in price between half board (Breakfast and dinner) and whole board (3 meals) was pretty high, so you could guess my anger at having shelled out money and resorting to crackers! Lunch was soup, coleslaw and wantons, not worth the price at all.
The environment was great, especially the birds.
Just a note, hotel managers dont dish out the same treatment to locals as foreigners, I guess they see $$$.

[Regina Sanchez]

Dear Jay(ne),
I'm sorry to be only now replying to your report dd. Sept. 13th but I was away for a week and returned only last night.
Although I always check rooms before guests enter for the first time, I xamined the bathroom to give you the benefit of the doubt. The bathrooms were all originally grouted in the colour of the tiles in the individual bathroom and now, after 10 years of operation, the colour is beginning to fade. What looks like fungal activity on white grout is actually blue grout fading in places so that some areas look white and some the original blue. What you refer to as a urine-stained toilet seat (I still cant believe I read that!) is actually citronella oil which someone allowed to fall on the seat and which even bleach does not remove.
I'm sorry you thought the lunch was insubstantial - it's normal fare since most of our visitors like to eat light meals at lunchtime. Maybe it's because I make it a point of principle to treat local guests the same way I treat those from overseas that you were the recipients of lunch which you thought inadequate. Which brings me to the point which I found most upsetting of all - the inequality in the treatment of local as opposed to foreign guests. I am the only manager here so am naturally the one person at whom this charge is levelled. Would it surprise youto know that given that this is the low season the foreign guests who were here paid exactly the same amount that you did? Check the rates on the website and see what I am saying. More importantly, tell me in what ways you found a difference in my treatment between you and the other couple.
Finally, I find it interesting to note that whereas you made the time to call me on several occasions prior to your one-day stay, mainly to check that the road was suitable for your husband's car to drive on, you - a fellow Trinidadian - used this medium to convey your opinion of the property and its management.

[Jay Walker]

Interesting to note, a hotel owner/manager can post an aggravated reply to a negative opinion. This will certainly deter some future negative posts, Im sure.
Ps. toilet seats are cheap.

jay

[David Watkins]

Ditto!

[Dr Stefan Rustscheff]

I must say that I personally think it is a good idea that managers may respond to criticism. Why shouldn´t they? And where is the aggravation in the response? The system works well on tripadvisor. I think one should remember human psychology. As they say on tripadvisor-rants and raves are what they get. So an answer from the manager or other gues´ts should be seen as a way of giving other readers a chance to form a less biased opinion.

[Steve Wooler]

Stefan's reply has reminded me that I had meant to reply to Jay's last comments.

A forum MUST be a two-way street. We welcome both praise and criticism here - although those who use the board in a malicious way will get very little sympathy from me. Readers should also have given management the opportunity to take corrective action before airing grievances here.

So, with all of this in mind I actively encourage business owners/managers to respond here. For this reason, the system automatically sends a copy of every post in their forum to the management of selected properties (basically every property on our 'recommended' list with the exception of one hotel chain who opted out of the system. ).

Remember, any reply from the hotel can also tell you an awful lot about the management of the property.

[David Watkins]

By my 'ditto',I meant anyone can make negative comments but when it's returned to you you don't like or accept it.You say you are a local?
David ( more local than you!)