USVI-On-Line

We just returned from a week at Villa Sibella. We used Christopher taxi and Dohms water taxi for private transfers. Highly recommended! A great value for the cost. We rented the villa through Caribbean Villas. They were 20 minutes late picking us up at the dock. Really frustrating since we had called them 3 times after our arrival in St. Thomas. We arrived at the villa to find out it had neither a phone nor a safe. Not huge issues however, I wish I had been told of this at the time of booking. The villa is brand new and beautiful however we had a MAJOR problem with a horrible smell in the house. It was an undescribable smell but somewhere between sewer gas and sulpher. We contacted Caribbean Villas twice. Once via our cell phones and once we drove directly to the office. Both times we were told they would contact the owner who lived on island and took care of his own maintenance. We never heard from the owner or Caribbean Villa's. The villa is for sale. When the realtor stopped (since there wasn't a phone he physically had to drive to the villa) by to advise he was going to show the villa the following day we advised him of the smell as well. He assured us he would let the owner know and again we heard nothing. While we were able to live with the smell it truly was bothersome. The pool was great, the kitchen well stocked and the furnishings beautiful. I would stay there again IF they were able to guarantee the house was rid of the smell.
My 5 year old son developed a respitory problem which required a trip to the Myra Keating Hospital at 300a. The staff were wonderful to both my son as well as my husband and I. We were released at approximately 1000a after several visits from the doctor and nurses. I don't know what I expected in terms of the health facilities but I can tell you it exceeded any expectations I had. We had 3 prescriptions filled at Chelsea pharmacy. Again they were great.
We ate in most nights (pizza, Chinese, or grilled) so I don't have any restaurant reviews other than Vie's Snack Shack. While I didn't eat there my brother in law did and said it was the best fried chicken he has ever had. We celebrated a birthday while we were there. We ordered the cake from Baked in the Sun. It was fabulous.
I would be happy to answer any questions regarding the villa if anyone has anything specific they were wondering about.

Sorry to hear of your problems, but don't give up the Island is GREAT and give it another chance.

To bad you had the problems but a least you made the most of it

Oh my gosh I hope I didn't give the impression we didn't have a good time. The bumps in the road were minor. This was our 3rd visit to St. John and frankly it was our best. I have been lurking this board for more than a year. So much of what made our trip a success was the information I found on this board (Francis Bay - we had never been there and loved it, Vie's Snack Shack, Dohm' water taxi etc). We had a fabulous trip many thanks to all of you.

Sorry about the horrid smell at your property...we are just back also. I have to say that your house looks like the Taj Majal compared to the villa we rented which was a much older place. I guess I don't think much of the company you rented through...didn't seem to care about problems you were having. What could the smell have been from? Bad plumbing??? UGH

Interesting input regarding Carribean Villas and Villas for sale. I would assume that villa for sale, owner maintenance, etc would be disclosed. I certainly wouldn't want a realtor stopping by during my vacation. Thanks for sharing your story. Hope all is well now for your son.

Brand new and already for sale! That's interesting. Was the smell coming from the house itself or the vicinity? Just curious.

Hello, would you give me a little information on the birthday cake? Did you order in advance? Was it reasonably priced? My daughter turns 2 when we are there in November. Thank you!

That's a beautiful house, but it is terrible that someone did not at least come and and see what the smell was.

I am glad that you had a great time anyway!

Bad smell? House for sale? No attempt to fix problem? Owner on island and still no resonse? Makes me wonder if all things may be related?

mia wrote:Bad smell? House for sale? No attempt to fix problem? Owner on island and still no resonse? Makes me wonder if all things may be related?

Fairly new house. listed for 2.5M

Thank you for your review, I had admired Villa Sibella
from the website and I am glad to be able to cross it off my list. Crazy that they did not have a phone, if you needed 911 and did not have a cell, what would you have done? The fact that Caribbean Villas charged you a 5% service charge then did not provide you service and were late to pick you up does not say much for that company either!
Do you think your son's respitory condition was caused by the fumes in the house?
I am glad you didn't let these things spoil your trip!

Thanks for the report...Glad you were able to have a great trip despite an unpleasant villa experience. Only one of the villas on my short list is represented by Caribbean Villas, but reports like this make it less and less likely to be selected.

Hi arenee! I'd love to hear more about your trip -- beaches, snorkeling, etc. Thanks for the report!

Would you consider posting a villa review on that part of this board? It would help other people who might be looking at the villa. Thanks!

Thank you everyone for the nice words. I try and answer your questions and give you a few more comments.
1. The house was BEAUTIFUL. It truly was. The deck area, the furnishings, there were Ipod docking stations in each bedroom, Bose speakers. All appliances in the kitchen were JennAir. Front loading washer & dryer. Really it was gorgeous. Again, if they could guarantee the smell was gone I would stay there in a heartbeat. However, I would be hesitant to go through Caribbean Villas.
2. I mention the hospital stay for two reasons. The first and foremost because I was sooo impressed with the staff at the hospital. I can't say enough about them. The second reason was that I was so worried about not having a phone should there be an emergency. What if I lost cell service. I'm grateful we didn't lose service and we were able to call the hospital to confirm they were open (it was 300a). Had we not known where the hospital was I would have needed to call 911. Without a working cell phone this could have been a life threatening situation.
3. Thank you so much for the kind thoughts about my son. He is fine and on the mend. He has had respitory problems in the past. However not for more than a year. We have always traveled with a nebulizer. Thank god we had one again this time. He woke up at 300a and was having trouble breathing. After a nebulizer treatment he wasn't any better. He was in true distress. I called the hospital and flew out the door. The staff said that the vulcanic activity on Montserrat has been sending alot of dust into the air. Without much rain it has been affecting people w/ respitory problems and asthma. She said she couldn't rule out the odor at the villa especially since we didn't know exactly what it was.
4. The odor was definitly IN the house and not in the vicinity. While sitting at the pool we couldn't smell it. If we had all doors open in the villa it lessoned the smell. We had friends on the island who came to visit and immediately commented on it.
5. The villa was shown by a realtor on Wednesday which was the day we returned from the hospital. We apologized immediatly to the realtor that we were there (although initially he said we could stay or leave)and assured them we would stay out of their way. I kid you not, they were in the house for no more than 3 minutes. I have to believe the smell played a big factor in this. We were out at the pool. They never came out to the pool nor went downstairs. This villa is gorgeous. I can't imagine not wanting to see the entire house unless something hit you wrong right away. Again, this is total speculation but a good possibility.
6. The odor was so strong that upon our return even the clothes we never wore had to be washed. All luggage had to be aired outside. I have traveled to Mexico and other caribbean destinations several times. I understand that humid environments often have different odors. This is NOT what that was.
7. We had friends staying in another of Caribbean Villas rentals. I was unable to reach them by cell phone (I didn't know at the time they did not have cell phone coverage at the villa, only in town). I called Caribbean Villas to get the villa phone number. They said due to security purposes they could not give it to me. Totally understandable. They did offer however to call our friends and give them our phone number. I pointed out Villa Sibella had no working phone. The gentleman seemed surprised by this. I asked him to tell our friends to call us on our cell phone. He said he would. They NEVER called our friends. The villa they rented had a vmail so it wasn't an issue of them not being there. I doubt they actually even tried. Again, not the end of the world as we were eventually able to connect but frustrating none the less.
8. We ordered the birthday cake from Baked in the Sun. The staff there was GREAT! We ordered it the day before and picked up the next morning. They are located in Market Place above the Starfish Market. We ordered the 9 inch round. It was $35. They had a smaller size that we should have ordered as the 9 inch was way too big and we had 4 adults and 3 kids. The cake was chocolate with chocolate mouse layers. Absolutely delicious.

There you have it. I don't mean to bash Caribbean Villas as much as it sounds. We have rented through them in the past and not had a problem. But these string of events has put a bad taste in my mouth. We are looking at another villa for next April and of course our favorite is offered ONLY by Caribbean Villas. We will be thinking long and hard if we want to go down that road again. In their defense our friends on the island called them 3 times with issues all of which were resolved in a timely manner. I will be calling them this week to voice all of my concerns. I will follow up with their response.