To Be Avoided At All Costs
Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 4:21 pm
My wife and I arrived at the Tropikist for a four-night stay in January of 2004, having reserved a deluxe room. We had just attended a friend’s wedding in Trinidad, and were set to relax in Tobago for a few days. Upon arrival, we were required to pay the entire amount for our full stay by credit card. In retrospect, this should have been the first clue that something was awry. However, we were eager to check in, and so agreed to have the four-night stay charged in advance.
The deluxe room itself seemed pleasant enough at first – spacious, with a king bed and a lovely view of the water. Regrettably, this was to be the only positive feature I can think of to point out when it came to our dreadful experience.
The front desk neglected to inform us when we checked in that there was no power in our room or the entire building we were in. Hence no electricity, no air conditioning, no toilet, no running water. To seek some relief from the heat, we went back to the front desk to get beach towels to go to the pool. We were curtly informed that towels were a “luxury item”, which seemed to mean that none were available. This, despite the fact that the literature in the room made it abundantly clear beach towels were available to all guests at any time.
Two hours later, we had our power and water back, only to discover that the toilet leaked. Unfortunately, this was only to be the first of many problems we were to have.
The room had a phone, but not one from which it was possible to make an outgoing call. (Try to figure that one out.)
Other couples we stayed with were even less fortunate. The superior and standard rooms were cramped and unpleasant. The wall-mounted air conditioning unit leaked onto one of the two double beds in their room, soaking it through. No cable was available, and no effort was made to fix it. One needed a degree in engineering to discern how to turn on the shower, which once mastered, had ridiculously low water pressure.
The hotel currency exchange rates could only be described as outrageous. The Canadian exchange rate that week at the nearby bank was 4.7 TT to the CDN dollar. The hotel was offering 3 TT to the dollar, or in other words, charging a sickening 57% premium. The US exchange was somewhat less severe, but a still a swindle nonetheless. The result was that after conversion with their rates, it was actually more expensive to stay at the Tropikist than it was for us to stay at the lovely Coco Reef down the road.
Trying to make the best of a bad situation, we went down to the restaurant for dinner. The entree we ordered consisted of an anemic fish with perhaps a few grams of meat on it at most. Amazingly, we were actually lucky to have eaten the pathetic meal—a larger group of about 15 we traveled with ate at the buffet, and half became quite ill the next day.
Exasperated, we felt we had no alternative but to leave after only one night of being there, along with two other discouraged couples. We got up early the next day and attempted to check out. Not only were we refused a refund for the three nights we hadn’t used, (after waiting a full 40 minutes while the clerk consulted with someone in the back room), we were also denied any type of itemized receipt detailing what we had paid for.
I am sorry to report that the front desk staff was exactly as several others have described in their own reviews: smug, arrogant, and rude to the point of utter absurdity.
After a few tears, a phone call to the credit card company, and a great deal of frustration, there was little we could do. We simply chose to go to another hotel, and absorb the cost that the Tropikist had bilked from us. Astonishingly, as we were leaving the hotel, our cab driver pointed out that he regularly hears similar complaints about the Tropikist, and that they frequently try to stick people with phone calls and charges they didn’t incur. (Which I found impressive, since we couldn’t even call out.)
It is absolutely incredible to me, even in a remote place like the Caribbean, that a business this unscrupulous could actually remain viable. I could elaborate at further length about our how bad our experience was at the Tropikist, but we discovered that someone had already stated it more eloquently by etching a few words into the drawer of the bedside table: “This is the worst hotel ever. Good luck here.”
The deluxe room itself seemed pleasant enough at first – spacious, with a king bed and a lovely view of the water. Regrettably, this was to be the only positive feature I can think of to point out when it came to our dreadful experience.
The front desk neglected to inform us when we checked in that there was no power in our room or the entire building we were in. Hence no electricity, no air conditioning, no toilet, no running water. To seek some relief from the heat, we went back to the front desk to get beach towels to go to the pool. We were curtly informed that towels were a “luxury item”, which seemed to mean that none were available. This, despite the fact that the literature in the room made it abundantly clear beach towels were available to all guests at any time.
Two hours later, we had our power and water back, only to discover that the toilet leaked. Unfortunately, this was only to be the first of many problems we were to have.
The room had a phone, but not one from which it was possible to make an outgoing call. (Try to figure that one out.)
Other couples we stayed with were even less fortunate. The superior and standard rooms were cramped and unpleasant. The wall-mounted air conditioning unit leaked onto one of the two double beds in their room, soaking it through. No cable was available, and no effort was made to fix it. One needed a degree in engineering to discern how to turn on the shower, which once mastered, had ridiculously low water pressure.
The hotel currency exchange rates could only be described as outrageous. The Canadian exchange rate that week at the nearby bank was 4.7 TT to the CDN dollar. The hotel was offering 3 TT to the dollar, or in other words, charging a sickening 57% premium. The US exchange was somewhat less severe, but a still a swindle nonetheless. The result was that after conversion with their rates, it was actually more expensive to stay at the Tropikist than it was for us to stay at the lovely Coco Reef down the road.
Trying to make the best of a bad situation, we went down to the restaurant for dinner. The entree we ordered consisted of an anemic fish with perhaps a few grams of meat on it at most. Amazingly, we were actually lucky to have eaten the pathetic meal—a larger group of about 15 we traveled with ate at the buffet, and half became quite ill the next day.
Exasperated, we felt we had no alternative but to leave after only one night of being there, along with two other discouraged couples. We got up early the next day and attempted to check out. Not only were we refused a refund for the three nights we hadn’t used, (after waiting a full 40 minutes while the clerk consulted with someone in the back room), we were also denied any type of itemized receipt detailing what we had paid for.
I am sorry to report that the front desk staff was exactly as several others have described in their own reviews: smug, arrogant, and rude to the point of utter absurdity.
After a few tears, a phone call to the credit card company, and a great deal of frustration, there was little we could do. We simply chose to go to another hotel, and absorb the cost that the Tropikist had bilked from us. Astonishingly, as we were leaving the hotel, our cab driver pointed out that he regularly hears similar complaints about the Tropikist, and that they frequently try to stick people with phone calls and charges they didn’t incur. (Which I found impressive, since we couldn’t even call out.)
It is absolutely incredible to me, even in a remote place like the Caribbean, that a business this unscrupulous could actually remain viable. I could elaborate at further length about our how bad our experience was at the Tropikist, but we discovered that someone had already stated it more eloquently by etching a few words into the drawer of the bedside table: “This is the worst hotel ever. Good luck here.”
