We booked our condo well in advance in order to try to get the best room available for our preferences. The rental company, and I think most in that area, classify their rooms/condos as Silver, Gold or Platinum, with Platinum being the best room with “better” furnishing and amenities. Condo unit # 730 was classified as a “platinum” room. Once we arrived, it started to become obvious that it was less than platinum. We have even stayed in “gold” classified rooms that were better.
To name a few disappointing things we start with shag carpet. This is a “sand catcher” and reminded me of something out to the 60s. There was a torn lamp shade in one room, no bar stools, uncomfortable couch, and what appeared to be an “old”, yellow smoke alarm in one room (we tested it…it made a noise). The sink in the extra bathroom would not hold water. One could pull on the “drain stopper” and it would not hold. Not very water efficient when one must shave with the water running or turning it on and off repeatedly. If you use and need a laptop computer, the connection was very weak, and actually I just stopped using mine because of the slow speed or no connection. I’ve had better phone dial-up connections. The internet service is “free”, but good luck on getting a good, consistent connection.
Probably the most annoying, frustrating thing was the patio “furniture”. I’ll just be frank…it was cheap plastic resin. They were mildewed, and one was even split. From the beach we looked at the furniture on other balconies that we could see and ours was the least quality. We called the rental company and they brought us a couple of replacements for the two worst chairs…$8.99 each. This does not meet, in my opinion, a platinum room’s furniture. This is apparently all the agency could do without the permission of the owner. There were a couple of other more minor things, like no pizza cooking pan, no plastic glasses for the beach, etc., but I could live with those, although one should expect all amenities in a platinum room. I add to this the fact that the balcony and the area over the balcony had spots that needed to be sanded, patched and painted.
We expressed our feelings to the rental company, and they accommodated us with some discounts, but I think they should probably actually visit the rooms to make sure that a “platinum” room hasn’t dropped to a “bronze” room. Needless to say we will not rent that unit anymore, and I suggest that one looks closely at any virtual images of the room, and ask detailed questions to the rental agency. There is more than one agency who rents the units at Jade East. We used Resort Quest, but there are others. We will rent again from Resort Quest and will stay again at Jade East, but not in that room.
