SEWAGE AT SECRETS
These reviews all came from Tripadvisor but they are similar
to others. I abridged most of them because they were quite long. I left the
last review in its entirety because it well sums up the other reviews as well
as my wife’s and daughter’s opinions. Some of these reviews are fairly recent,
others are older. This shows that septic problems at Secrets has been ongoing
for years
Room- My room had sewer issues where
the sewerage was backed up. The room smelled like feces. The smell
got worse every day. I made a complaint on day 3 because the smell started to
get worse. By our final day it was really bad. They eventually sent someone to
look at it and even he stated that this was unacceptable. I made a complaint
and video of all of this. One day I requested that my room be cleaned. This was
about 11:00am. I was advised that they had until about 4:30pm to get all rooms
cleaned. I went on a tour and came back to my room later that day to an
uncleaned room. I was upset and expressed that I was upset. I told them this
was unacceptable. They found someone to clean my room.
We love Secrets and this would have been the 3rd Hotel we
stayed in
Staff training was very poor, Not greeted with a towel and drink like other
Secrets resorts
First room had a terrible Mould and sewage smell, we refused to stay in
the room
Staff gave us the room next door
Walked around the restaurants, the smell of sewage was sickening
Went to dinner, noticed the table beside us leaving with most of the food still
on the plate
We received our food and we also left a lot on the plate, it was very poor
Went to the bar for a drink, Cockroaches running around the bar counter
Sat in a chair only to discover it had animal feces on it and my new trousers
were covered in the feces
Went back to the room and staff were spraying the corridors with air freshners
to mask the smells
Went into our rooms and called the Travel Agents emergency line to get us out
of the hotel.
We checked out the following morning and moved to a different hotel
We stayed at Wild Orchid in March 2015 and had the best
holiday, it was fabulous, so we decided to return this year to celebrate our
40th Wedding anniversary.
This was a BIG mistake, you could say some of the problems were due to Covid
but not all, I believe they should have stayed closed until after the repairs
were completed and they had employed more staff and had them trained.
Our room was dated and as we were on the ground floor near the entrance, the
noise from the coaches was terrible and at all hours.
Also, the sewage smell was terrible and even after they spent most of
one day emptying the sewer the resort still had a lingering smell. Just to note
this was also near our front door so the noise and smell was dreadful!
We arrived in Jamaica on 12th August and stayed in Nigril
for one week before arriving at secrets wild orchid Montego Bay on the 19th for
one week and we are really disappointed with the secrets wild orchid.
On checking in, the lobby area was manic with people queuing and one person was
arguing with staff, we was allocated a ground floor room, on entering the room
there was a strange smell, it smelt like sewage and the room looked
tired, throughout the night people shouting in the corridor’s and slamming doors
so we had very little sleep, I asked if we could move rooms and had to wait two
days before we could, our next room was on the 4th floor and did not smell like
the ground floor room however the room was tired looking. On two occasions our
room wasn’t cleaned, staff had missed our room so no clean towels and we had to
wait nearly 2 hours for towels when I called to say the room had not been
cleaned.
Seriously disappointed-don’t go!
Ok, where to start. My wife and I have visited the
Caribbean on many occasions and have been to the same hotel in Mexico for the
last 7 years so I think we can say we are not people that like to complain. We
have never put a negative review on any site as we are aware that this can be
damaging, so, I will not exaggerate but must be honest.
On arrival, we should have realized how things were going to be when the check
in was chaos, and after a delay to “ensure our room was ready,” they lost our
keys and paperwork . No problem, we were given another room.
The next day my wife had to call reception as we had sewage coming up
into our bath, shower and sinks, so, pack up belongings and move to another
room. This room despite being “personally checked “ had half consumed drinks in
the fridge, bedding from the previous guests and pubic hairs from the last
occupants in the bath, as well as a broken shower.
While I was searching on Tripadvisor I initially was only
looking at reviews with one, two or three stars. And then just for the heck of
it I decided to look at the four and five star reviews and what should I find
as a five star review but this –
Overall my experience at Secrets Resort in Montego Bay
was absolutely EPIC!!! WELCOME HOME was the slogan for this trip! Service was
awesome, staff was superb! Most of all Billy Love and Robert Coates are the
best! They believe in excellence at all times. If there was any type of problem
they would be right there to fix it immediately. Joseph (service gentlemen) was
great as well. You never saw him without a smile on his face. Restaurants were
great as well, wide variety of foods, drinks were great (get the Passionate
Kiss :o) Rooms were great, beautiful view, my only complaint would be getting
use to the smell in the room and its due to the sewage system in
Jamaica. It was not horribly bad, they came in everyday and poured chemicals
down the drains to keep the smell to a minimum and it helped...
This teaches me that some people are just a lot more
forgiving than others. Although I am quite certain that if this patron had
contracted C diff during her stay, her review would have been very different.
Under four stars were these -
25 year Anniversary in Jamaica Montego Bay
Trip was good. people, food, beach,pools were great. Our
room had mosquitoes and very bad sewage smell. No recognition to our
anniversary after telling staff.
I arrived to the hotel and was greeted with an ice cold
Rum Punch (it packed a punch and was delicious) we were escorted to the room
and it was beautiful!!! Nice view of the beach and close to the pools and bars.
We were celebrating a birthday and there was a bottle of rum and a piece of
cake with a very nice note. The room itself was roomy and beds were
comfortable. There was a strong sewage odor coming from the bathroom.
Once we brought it to the attention of the staff, it was like no one cares.
This last entry was obviously a one star review. The
individual who wrote it put in a lot of time and effort.
Dirty, Drugs, Pervets, Rude staff, dated.
Serious safety incident
To save time for thise who want the main points I have
typed my summary of the main issues first but read on for my full report if you
wish.
Summary:
1. Sewage seeping up in bath, shower and sinks - resort wide problem.
2. Drugs offered openly to guests by staff, the lifeguards sell drugs to the
guests usually dispensing them with towels from the towel shack, the staff who
collect the towels also such as Timothy also openly sell drugs such as cocaine,
heroin and marijuana, the security at the hotel are paid by the dealers not to
go round to the beach side of the resort to allow this trade. Major problem and
they threaten you if your offered drugs and do not buy anything off them.
3. The rooms are dated and filthy (pubic hair in bath).
4. Food served cold
5. Staff have awful attitude
6. Drinks service on club beach is more or less non existent
7. Pervert looking in through room window and masturbating on balcony and the
hotel were not bothered - see below.
8. Drinks served in the evening in paper cups.
9. I had bugs in my bed
10. Changed room 3 times as things kept breaking - toilet, shower. My friend
had to use the toilet in the reception for two days.
11. Rooms are full of mosquitos
12. Restaurants are overcrowded and food is poor.
13. A lot of the rooms have paper thin interconnecting doors (no locks).
Ok so that was the summary, see below for the expanded points but I suggest if
you have booked this hotel that you get your money back or change to the
breathless hotel next door also in the secrets group, the breathless hotel is
completely different and what you would expect.
1. Sewage - don’t be tricked by the staff if they say there is a localised
issue, it’s not. The sinks where you clean your teeth have raw sewage seeping
up from them when it rains as the resorts drainage system cannot cope. I was in
the shower when brown water started seeping up round my feet. Changed room to
first floor next to a honeymooning couple the room had interconnecting doors -
sure you can guess the issue, not very private for anyone, oh yes and if you
push the doors they open, we know because the gentleman from next door
accidentally appeared in our room thinking it was a wardrobe.
2. Drugs: the hotel supposedly has a no drugs policy but this is not in the
least enforced - Secrets what are you doing? The staff openly sell drugs and
allow the guests to consume these in public even on the preferred club beach,
at the piano bar oh and don’t mention the nigh club, this is like a drug den.
The lifeguards offer drugs to guests openly, Timothy one of the towel boys also
deals these. The security are paid off by the lifeguards to allow them to
continue their dealing, I know because they told me, also when I refused I was
threatened.
3. The rooms are dated and filthy, they are updating the rooms but obviously
this is unlikely to resolve the housekeeping issue. A supposedly clean room we
were shown had pubic hair in the bath and on the floor around the toilet, blood
on the floor by the sink and a half drunk bottle of coke in the fridge. I pulled
back the bed sheet to find bugs in the bed which look like small beetles oh yes
and the room is buzzing with mosquitos and smelled musty like a wet tent.
4. We sampled some of the restaurants, by far the best was the Mexican, the
French restaurant was disappointing, the food was served stone cold and the
beef smelt as if it was off. The staff preparing food in the burger shacks or
the jerk chicken stand do not always where hair nets and never wear gloves even
when handling salad after holding raw meat. The preferred club chiller was not
working although was still used as if it was displaying a range of egg based
deserts and jelly topped deserts at room temperature - food poisoning waiting
to happen.
5. Ever heard this from a hotel member “I heard you the first time” if you
haven’t then visit the secrets preferred club beach at this hotel. Grunts from
staff are regular and the staff avoid your eyeline, trying to get an extra
glass of wine with your meal is like trying to get blood out of a stone. This
is not the same however at the breathless hotel next door, they make you feel
more than welcome so it’s not just Jamaican attitude for those of you thinking
that. Bad management and training is the reason.
6. Drinks service on the preferred beach or any beach in fact was awful,
virtually non existent you have to get your own and if your visiting this hotel
make sure you take your own glass or cup as they always run out.
7. Pervert looking into room - We became friendly with some female guests from
Thomas cook on holiday whilst we were there, one evening to my surprise whilst
walking past their room we could hear shouting from their ground floor balcony,
I ran over to my surprise to find them both very distressed, it turned out a
male guest had been on their balcony, rifled through their belongings, stripped
off and whilst staring through their window continued to masturbate in front of
the girls, I turned around to see the naked male culprate was still there
standing opposite the room. I asked have security been down and I was told they
came half an hour ago and then left leaving the man where he was. I had to
leave a friend looking after the girls whilst I had to make a scene in
reception to get a manager to get off his backside to come with me to resolve
the issue, no apology was given and nobody came back to tell us what had been
done or if the girls were now safe. Not even a visit from security.
8. Drinks served in paper cups: there are not enough glasses anywhere at this
hotel so you either get a glass, a plastic beaker or a paper cup, even in the
evening.
9. Bed bugs - I had these weird bites after a day at the resort, to my disgust
when I checked the bed I found small black beetles in the sheets, the room had
supposedly been cleaned.
10. Changed room 3 times, after the second time I was told that if I wanted to
change from the room with the broken shower I would have to pay. Really? All I
wanted is what I paid for, a room that is clean and functions correctly.
11. Rooms full of mosquitos, the rooms here are not sprayed and the maids leave
the doors open when they service the rooms resulting in lots of mosquitos in
the room.
12. Restaurants are overcrowded and the food is basic, the restaurants are used
by 3 hotels, two restaurants are closed each evening, the service is slow at
best. The world cafe restaurant in the morning is like a Christmas sale,
packed. The food is the same each day and is very basic.
13. Paper thin interconnecting doors, you can hear a calm conversation from
room to room because of these doors, and if you push them they do open, as
demonstrated by our neighbour, an extremely loud honeymooning couple.
All in all a terrible experience, I can only praise two staff members at this
hotel, Desmond and Trevor who both went out of their way to make us feel
welcome.
At breathless next door the food is much better as are the staff, secrets you
should be ashamed having these hotels next to each other and having such a
degree of difference in service.
The staff at the breathless resort are friendly, the managers do walk arounds
twice a day, the hotel is clean and the food is hot and tastes good.
My advice to anyone going to wild orchid or st James is to avoid at all costs,
if you have booked cancel and go somewhere else for your safety and security. I
will be sending this report to secrets themselves and our tour operator.
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