I am a recently certified diver who stayed at Captain Don's in a 2 bedroom bungalow (Room 2021) from July 30-August 6, 2011. The positives have been noted by many visitors, e.g., great diving and dive masters, attentive kitchen staff, beautiful house reef, etc. however this resort is unsafe! On August 1st, during the meet Captain Don mixer at the bar, our room was robbed. This was not your typical robbery in that the thieves not only entered our bungalow and removed all valuables, they also removed the room safe from the wall! This may sound like a remarkable feat, however we discovered that the safe was secured with only 2 dry wall screws! The thieves entered our locked bungalow by easily jimmying the lock on one of the rear windows. I have to also say that the timing and nature of the robbery has led me and my friend to believe that the thieves may have been aided by insider information. The thieves removed a laptop computer, computer speakers, our wallets (with cash, credit cards, licenses, etc) binoculars, an iphone, one passport, a camera and a knapsack: total value- +$4000. We later learned that in addition to the compromised safe, the property has only one security officer.
I have never written a review on tripadvisor and delayed doing so for 2 months, as I thought the hotel management would eventually "make good" on this unfortunate event. This is definitely not the case at this time. As we were penniless, I will confirm that the hotel returned the cash that was stolen and paid for all meals and drinks after the robbery. Note: we were charged for the meals that we ate on the premises before the robbery and received no compensation for our stay including the room or diving. The Hotel Manager, Mr. Jack Chalk, has been less than helpful in rectifying the situation. At the time of the robbery, he gave us a letter indicating that we would be reimbursed for the declared value of the items that were stolen. He also told us that an insurance claim was filed. At this time, we have received no compensation despite multiple emails to Mr. Chalk. In fact Mr. Chalk has not initiated communication with us at any time. Mr. Chalk noted that Captain Don's has been in the hospitality business for 30 years, however I see no evidence of hospitality! He also said he could do nothing to eliminate the "criminal element" on the island. While this may be true to some extent, the hotel could have at least had better locks, security and most importantly room safes that are secure! Our vacation was ruined by this event and I have had to spend hours replacing documents/credit cards that were stolen, dealing with scam emails from the thieves to people on my contact list and trying to get Mr. Chalk and the Captain Don's "Corporate Board" to do the right thing. I am happy to write a follow-up to this review if anything changes.
Room Tip: If you consider staying at this resort, and I would not recommend it, do not accept a room in any of...
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
5 October 2011
I have read the reviewer's comments and have the following response. The reviewer is correct that their unit was indeed broken into and the safe along with other valuables were taken. He is also correct that I did provide him with a letter stating that Habitat would make up the difference in the event our insurance company did not completely cover all items they had listed on their incident report. The following is word for word taken from this letter "A claim has been filed with our insurance company and in the event the payment to us by the insurance company falls short of the claimed amount, Habitat will make up the difference so that you will receive 100% of the claimed value." We have informed the reviewer on multiple occassions that we were waiting on the insurance claim to be settled and once that was done, payment would be forthcoming. We have contacted the insurance company on multiple occassions and are still awaiting the final outcome of the claim. We cannot control the speed of the claim process with the insurance company and we have, as I stated earlier, informed the clients appropriately. The client also states that we have only "one security guard" when in fact we have 5 security guards plus a supervisor and there at least 3 on duty at all times from 7:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. 7 days a week. The reviewer also states that the safe was "secured with two drywall screws"...again not entirely true. Yes, the safe was secured with 2 screws as directed by the manufacturer. We have since changed the types of safes in our rooms and they are more secure. He further states that the perpetrators "may have been aided by insider information". This is purely supposition on his part as there have been no concrete facts that have led us or the police to this conclusion, however we are investigating this possibility as we are all possibilities. In closing, we feel we have responded appropriately and have (pending final outcome of the insurance claim) reimbursed the clients fairly and equitably through direct reimbursement of cash that was alleged to have been stolen without question, since cash is not covered on the insurance policy plus covering all F&B costs incurred after this unfortunate incident for the remaining 5 days of their stay with us. I am sorry the clients feel as though they have not been treated fairly and will not consider a repeat visit, however as they also state correctly, we cannot control the criminal element on the island as no resort operator can on any island and/or destination. We can only do what we can with reasonable costs and effort to ensure our guests and their valuables are as safe as possible and will continue to do so. We take crime against our tourists very seriously, so much so, that we have lobbyed our island and federal government to increase penalties against criminals that commit crimes against our tourists and also to step up their enforcement of these laws. I assure the clients that as soon as the insurance claim is finialized, payment as promised will be immediately forthcoming.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
