I have to have a bit of a whinge, a vent. If I don’t put it out there, I am scared I will explode from frustration and anger.
Last week my hubby and I went away for a few nights.
We stayed in one of the nicest locations I have seen in my life. It was at the foot of an escarpment with a rainforest nearby and native wildlife all around.
The sound of whip birds, bell birds and lyrebirds filled the sweetly scented air.
A Brush Turkey was often seen walking around the property where we were staying. It was so quiet that it walked to within about a meter of me. It was almost close enough to reach out and touch.
It all sounds great so far doesn’t it…
That’s because I haven’t said anything about the accommodation.
We stayed in a Luxury Bed and Breakfast/Retreat. Adults only, it didn’t cater for children under 18years of age. It still sounds great, doesn’t it?
We were even lucky enough to have the place to ourselves for the first 2 nights of our 3 night stay.
Our room however, wasn’t what we expected it to be.
Not long after we had arrived and taken our bags inside we found the Itchy Grubs. Little furry caterpillars that I remember my grandmother warning me about as a child. Warning me not to go near them.
It wouldn’t have worried me too much if they were outside but they were inside. Crawling around the floor, crawling on the walls… I went to the door opening out to the balcony and found the curtains infested with the hairy grubs. I freaked out at this point so my hubby found a way to safely relocate the caterpillars outside. Out of the 100+ grubs he got rid of for me, only a couple didn’t survive. We were staying in an eco-friendly retreat after all.
Our hosts were no where to be seen. We briefly meet one of the hosts and told them of our find (all the caterpillars) but we told that it was nature and we were near the rainforest and there was nothing they could do other than what we had already done.
The nightmare continued the following morning when I went to have breakfast. The cereal I opened up was not only past it’s use by date but it also had weevils in it. Thankfully there was some other cereal selections to choose from that were within the use by date so I had one of those instead.
We looked at the other food and beverages that had been left for us to use and we found the coffee was 11 months past it’s use by date as well.
There were good bits about where we stayed, it had a spa, the bathroom vanity/basin was big enough to put the kettle under to fill up so we could boil water and it was located in beautiful surroundings.
The infestation of caterpillars scared me to the point where I couldn’t get a proper night’s sleep for the duration of our stay.
The next time we saw our host was the night before we were due to leave. We once again told him we had found many, many more caterpillars since we first spoke to him and all he could reply with was that it was nature as not something he can control.
I also informed him about the food being past it’s use by date and he simply said it must be the supplier’s fault- not his.
As compensation for the bad experiences we had, he offered us a deal, “Pay for one night, get a 2nd night for free”. I’m not sure I would take him up on that offer for fear that the caterpillars would be there again if we went back.
For a couple of days after we got home I couldn’t help but think about our stay and our experience.
It got to the point where I just HAD to email the host we had spoken to and tell him all about our experience before I went doing anything rash like giving the business bad reviews online or naming and shaming the business (which I still have not done).
A couple of days later I received an email in reply. I was hoping that he would have been understanding and try and help us or even offer to refund a night’s accommodation or something but he went along with the same “pass the buck” stories claiming that because we were so close to nature, there was nothing that could be done about the caterpillar infestation; trying to tell me that the reason the food was past it’s use by date was the fault of his supplier, not his fault.
I found it very disappointing that he didn’t seem to want to admit at being at fault at all. I felt he was constantly just trying to pass the blame onto someone else.
A few friends have asked us about our time away and we tell them that the area is great and we recommend they go there sometime themselves, but we just cannot recommend that they stay where we did.
The host was always saying how it was “a Luxury Retreat/BnB accommodation”, but our personal experience was far from Luxury. The only real luxury feature would have been the spa bath.
If you have read this far, I thank you.
I hope you never end up staying in accommodation similar to what we did.
Hopefully our next holiday will memorable for all the right reasons.
cockatooscreeching 