USVI-On-Line

Buddy-- just finished your TR on your blog and I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. Part sympathy, part horror.

I too had a serious problem at a CV villa with the flying cockroaches. Sorry but I don't buy the "rain" excuse.

I've stayed a a bunch of villas across the island and NEVER had that problem. Rain or no rain. Other locals living next door told me that they must be skimping on the bug treatments on the house.

I demanded a significant portion of our rental fee back and got it.

Pretty sure I won't be renting from them again.

Considering they charge customers the extra 5% service fee-- you'd think you'd be getting actual SERVICE for that extra $$$ and not having to solve problems for the villa owner who can obviously afford a multi million dollar property on STJ.

Sorry but you should be compensated for doing their job. Time is money my friend and you need to get paid.

My refund included 30% of the rental plus the 5% service fee for the entire rental.

It literally ruined our vacation and we didn't want to spend any time at the villa we rented. Hundreds of cockroach carcasses lying around (I took photos!), crawling in the bed with us and even on my toothbrush was enough to drive this normally critter loving gal to the edge. I couldn't sleep at night because I kept "feeling" cockroaches crawling on me. In some cases I wasn't wrong!

As for your guests my friend: $h!t happens. You did your best. Now you know. Rent through one of the other villa co's on island.

Let me know how the refund situation turns out!

I'm lovin' this hilarious report too, Gromit!! All we need are pictures. Bring it on!!!

Gromit - I was so excited to see this post! I ran to the kitchen grabbed my coffee, ran back and headed straight to the TR!

Pipanale - For some reason this is reminding me of a cross between Weekend At Bernies and any of the National Lampoon's Vacations.

Can't wait for the travel day!

BTW, It's not the misery that you experienced making it a riot, it's your description of it.

Misery=

I got 10% back from the owner...through a clerical error. She had offered "10% off your next stay" and I read it to be "10% off THIS stay" because I never could have interpreted it any other way.

Let's put it this way, the freezer problem was minor. The water pump, while annoying, was amusing as all hell and it gave me a chance to meet Ashe and use my problem solving skills while on vacation. I'll admit it, I'm a junkie for mayhem that I can fix.

If the bugs hadn't happened mere hours before we left the island, things would have been different. it really was just the icing on the already-iced cake.

Really Different.

As in I would have killed someone.

I'll never use CV again though. They didn't do anything but pass emails to the owner. The owner told me "They just take the reservations". Then what did I pay for? Although, oddly enough, when we booked, the house was like 30-40% less through CV than through the owner directly.

Despite this...we may stay at the house again. We really liked it, and let's face it, what the f else could go wrong? Of course, the owner may not let us.

They were not cockroaches...they were termites. I live in the south. I know my bugs and I know my cockroaches. And, when the lovely people at Connections back up the "rain bug" story without any prompting, I tend to believe them. Ron (St John Spice) backed it up too as did others on the island we spoke to.

What can I say? it's my life. You just get to enjoy it.

Pia...it's at nogooddaddy.com and it's just not his trip reports, it's the whole website. I'm addicted to it.

By the way....return trips to a Villa is usually rewarded with a 10% discount. It's not unusual. We were offered the same thing at a Villa on STT in May of 2007. We had ALOT of problems. I went directly to the owner. Within a year, everything was completely done over. It was beautiful and he offered me another stay at 50% off. We went back this May 2008. Same people, plus 3 others. It was great.

That's the way to do business!!

Click on pipanale's website above his catch phrase on his posts. It's a hoot!!
(thank goodness he took the X-rated STJ photos off the front page!!!)

msgcolleen wrote:Click on pipanale's website above his catch phrase on his posts. It's a hoot!!
(thank goodness he took the X-rated STJ photos off the front page!!!)

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Those were not St John pics. Those were in my backyard!

See...you all wonder why I'm so crazy.

This trip report is hilarious! But I have to say I would have totally been in hysterics over the bug situation, especially the way they showed up out of no where! An especially good read, not to mention the video of course! Thank you.
Deb

Alright, pissing on CV is pretty much a hobby around here. The real challenge is that some villa owners do not want to pay a management company to do the maintenance on their villa. They want to "handle it themselves." That's a villa owner issue, not a management company issue. I'm not defending CV for your experience (although you've probably already hit quote reply on this message and did not get this far).

I prefer VIVA's managed villas (they tell you in the listing which ones they are) and Destination St. John. I'm trying Island Getaways for the first time this time around and I've had great pre-communication with Kathy there, even though we reserved first through CV.

So, here's some positive baseline with CV:
- 1997 Hart Bay Beach House - water pump replaced same day, blender replaced same day
- 2000 Periwinkle - no problems
- 2000 Cruz Views - new a/c installed day before we arrved
- 2001 Sunset Beach - no problems
- 2002 Sunset Beach - no problems
- 2003 Jazz Villa - no problems
- 2006 Dolphin Run - no problems
- 2006 Le Lapin II - no problems
- 2007 Bay House - no problems

If CV is the only way to rent a villa I want, then I go with them because they have been fine for me. If someone else lists a house for the same price, excepting the 5% fee, then I rent elsewhere. If a management company does all of the maintenance of the villa (like VIVA! does with Eaglesnest and used to do with Callaloo) then I go with them.

Tags inserted for the humor impaired (I know that does NOT include Gromit and pipanale, you can skip ahead to the untagged version)

<Apologia><Tautology>Your experiences are your own.</Tautology> <Fallacy_of_Propositional_Logic_Affirming_the_Consequent>Just because you had these problems with a villa that you rented from CV does not mean that it is CV's fault.</Fallacy_of_Propositional_Logic_Affirming_the_Consequent> <Fact>The owner, in this case, chooses to manage the maintenance of the villa themselves, not CV.</Fact> <Opinion>If you want to have accountability with the rental company for the state of the villa, then only rent villas that have the maintenance handled by the rental company.</Opinion> <Fact>If you rent a villa from an agent that does not manage the maintenance of the villa and you have problems then there will be at least one level of indirection between the person responsible for solving the problem and yourself.</Fact> <Opinion>That is your problem, not the rental company's problem.</Opinion> <Insult>If you don't understand the preceding sentence then you should probably give power of attorney for signing all contracts to someone who does.</Insult> <Humor><Advertisement>I'll do that for you for a 5% service charge.</Advertisement></Humor> <Opinion>Or, you can take responsibility for your own happiness.</Opinion></Apologia>

Untagged version:

Your experiences are your own. Just because you had these problems with a villa that you rented from CV does not mean that it is CV's fault. The owner, in this case, chooses to manage the maintenance of the villa themselves, not CV. If you want to have accountability with the rental company for the state of the villa, then only rent villas that have the maintenance handled by the rental company. If you rent a villa from an agent that does not manage the maintenance of the villa and you have problems then there will be at least one level of indirection between the person responsible for solving the problem and yourself. That is your problem, not the rental company's problem. If you don't understand the preceding sentence then you should probably give power of attorney for signing all contracts to someone who does. I'll do that for you for a 5% service charge. Or, you can take responsibility for your own happiness.

Cheers, RickG

I think that is the funniest trip report that I have ever read... I was re-telling the part about the bugs to my husband and I think I strained my neck laughing so hard about yall trying to fall back asleep after seeing all those bugs!

Rick: Good points. I think our group learned another lesson (we're still learning St John). I assumed that CV would be handling the villa (Big error by me). I was never told otherwise (I didn't exactly ask in those words either).

Our past experience on the island had been different too. We'd used Viva, but the owners lived downstairs. Any problems were a loud stomp on the floor away from being addressed. We were spoiled.

My issue with CV was that the greeter didn't greet (something that's baked into the fee somewhere) and when I called them for help (having not gotten it anywhere else with my "manager") they really didn't explain the relationship with that house. They said "That's the owner's responsibility" and left it there. Because I'd never asked the good questions beforehand (because I didn't know them), I found it to be off-putting. (That's my fault, but, as this was all happening, I was in the moment staring at a naked, soap-covered wife and in a house with no water)

I'm not arguing your point, especially since I'm a "take responsibility for one's happiness" person. I learned a lesson from this trip; I MUST make sure I know who manages the property and is responsible for maintenance. That's a lesson for anyone who rents a vacation house anywhere.

But still...I paid CV 5% to send a greeter who couldn't drive and didn't greet.

But, as I mentioned above (or below), renting through CV (at the time of booking) saved us a lot of $$. Currently, the rates of direct renting or CV renting are the same. I'd go direct this time.

I know now what questions to ask when renting.

(Sorry for the rambling post. It's already been a long weekend)

By the By...here's the link to my review of the house posted here. I think I was fair.

http://www.virgin-islands-on-line.com/s ... 4957.shtml

Pipanale, there are no excuses for your CV-specific problems. I'd kick some butt there since they take 25% of the rental fee and then add on the 5% fee. All of that is recoverable directly from the management company.

One of the reasons you see some great rentals moving from CV to folks like Island Getaways are CV's high fees and low local presence. But, until a rental company creates a more intuitive web site (villafish tried, but it has too many search choices), CV has the best web site for shopping. That's why I ended up with them in 1997 and why we've gone back so many times.

Cheers, RickG