Hi
Have read a whole pile of things positive and negative about the hotel and would like to offer my take if it helps.
My partner and I just came back after two weeks there. I'll say straight away that we spent about 4 days fairly incapacitated through very painful ear infections that I personally feel may have had something to do with the pool.
Now, having said that, I want to make something clear. Despite the efforts of the hotel management, I sense that it is a humungous task to keep a pool that's located right next to a beach clean and healthy when it bakes in the sun at 104 degrees for most of the day. Perhaps - whether or not the pool was to blame for our discomfort - the most sensible advice (which I wish we'd had) would be to avoid swimming underwater in ANY caribbean hotel pool. Have you ever looked underwater through goggles HERE in the UK at a public pool / leisure centre? If you have, you'll see sights you wish you hadn't... corn plasters, pubic hairs, snot (sorry) and all manner of other things floating about. Are we surprised? Not really.
So I want to be fair about the caution WE need to exercise in bathing in what must be a pretty biologically active soup in a pool in the caribbean.
Now to the hotel in general and its people. Sadly, we heard (around the pool on the few days we were 'trapped' there when we didn't have transport) so much grumbling about this hotel. We went Room Only and the grumbling was loudest from the all inclusive guests (understandably) but not exclusive to them.
The MAIN grumbles were the following - which (your patience permitting) I'd like to address in the same order.
1) Staff Attitude
2) Promises not kept / material things not right
3) Quality of food / cost of 'hotel' arranged things
1) Staff attitude
I was born in Trinidad and I understand perhaps better than some visitors the Trinbagonian character... To a first time visitor, the T&T attitude can seem perplexing; a confusing mix of great warmth and scathing disdain - often experienced from the same person in the space of a single hour. At risk (throughout this report!!) of making massive and unforgivable generalisations, T&T people are (in my experience) not 'natural' service type people. They love to be treated with respect - and our 'european customer - always- right' ethos is not the Trinbagonian paradigm... never was. Dealing with T&T staff involves the kind of interpersonal negotiation that while for some expecting AI 'service' is deeply unsatisfactory, can also - if you approach it from the right mindset - be deeply rewarding.
Perhaps the single most noticeable thing is that if your request is outside of the narrow normal machinations of things (i.e. can we have a pot of coffee for two, NOT in there, out here, NOT on room tab but for cash please) it easily becomes a major kerfuffle (as Lou would say in Little Britain). If you want a TV in your room that requires that someone stop what they're doing (the normal, relaxed, sticking to the regular way of things) and get into a whole set of moving things around from here to there, it will become a major problem. From a UK perspective, it is all too easy to read this as a rejection of our request - a failure in customer service. But if you don't approach it from this angle, you'll find the process of negotiating what you want with these proud (sometimes aloof and surly) people almost charming. If you come expecting 'Moathouse' robotic UK efficiency there is only one possible outcome; you will be upset, indignant, enraged even. And if there's one thing that a Trinbagonian will not respond to (other than in kind) it's you doing your outraged, rich whitey thing on their heads
2) Promises not kept / material things not right
Whether we like it or not (and I suspect we do, since we seek it out as an antidote to our stressed first world lives), T&T is a hot, developing country. For those reasons, for reasons of general 'small island' inefficiency and because of the characteristics I've described above, things are HARD to get done. If you want to know what the General Manager of the Rex has to put up with, try building your dream house in Tobago and I guarantee that you'll either have gone grey or lost your hair years before it's completed... and it WILL be years before it's completed.
The things that are 'grubby' - the details in the rooms, the sun parasols on the pool deck, the fact that your water didn't work for a few days here and there are - and be warned if you CANNOT tolerate this - a fact of life. The General Manager's biggest problem is that he cannot find staff who will work to the European mindset (he's in Tobago, for God's sake where if you're lucky enough to earn the minumum wage of £1.00 and hour you're doing extremely well.) Those smart security guards employed to look after your white ass (and I mean that in the sense of the colour of your sun-starved butt
) are on £1.20 per hour. Keep that in mind to keep a sense of perspective on this.
3) Quality of food / cost of hotel arranged things
The hotel has two motivations for positioning itself as a middle man between you and your money and the real world outside its doors waiting to take that money off you. One is genuinely your safety. Unless you are a robust individual capable of dealing positively and cheerfully with unexpected and strident interactions with local people, your experience WILL often be better if you pay a bit through the nose for the hotel food, the hotel-arranged taxis, the hotel-arranged tours, the hotel-arranged car hire. Its more expensive but EASIER for those who aren't sure how to interact with the local T&T character.
The second motivation is that, of course, the hotel makes a little more money if you stay in and eat its food (less interesting and often less delicious than, say, Pepi's roti in Scarborough). And of course, there is a sealed-in relationship that it has with it's approved 'vendors'. Face it, you'd probably do the same for much the same reasons if you ran the hotel.
Overall, if / when you develop an open understanding of the local community and way of life, sure, get out and take the cheaper taxis, eat the great home-made food, find the colour of the local supermarkets. But don't be offended that the hotel anticipates that you DON'T have that local experience / understanding. Judging by my experience, most visitors don't.
A sure fire recipe for disaster during your holiday (or for rubbishing your memories of it later) is to go to Tobago UNWILLING to understand the essential differences that exist - and that, let's face it, truly give your experience its richness and colour.
Go with an open mind, smile a lot - YOU MIGHT AS WELL COS YOU'RE IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE
- and don't take how the locals are personally. If you can get past that - even the psssssssst! Dahlin' fired at your girlfriend as you pass - you'll have a great time.
Hope this was worth the effort to read.
