My wife and I, on a whim, decided to get away for a few days, a break – yes, get away from our little spot in paradise to check out the tourist supermarket, Ocho Rios. We trawled through hundreds of potential listings – guest houses, hotels, condo apartments and rooms in houses on various booking websites. After many hours we settled down to scrutinizing ten final contenders for our hard earned dosh. What quickly became apparent was the front page price (the price designed to suck you in) was, more often than not a lot less than we would be asked to hand over to secure the room.
Admin charges, ‘local’ taxes (I have no knowledge of these local taxes in Jamaica), and cleaning fees, as high as 60US$! It also became clear that we were expected to pay (on certain properties) an additional charge for certain items normally considered to be included in the price of a rented room or property. The phrase ‘for your convenience’ we can provide linen and towels at an additional cost made a very tedious search a little more amusing.
At Lime Tree Farm, for your convenience, we provide, free of charge, linen, towels, soap, toilet paper, bed and furniture. Your room is cleaned daily – beds and towels changed every second day at no extra cost. We won’t hit you up for ‘local’ taxes or admin charges – or indeed any other charge we incur in the normal running of our business.
PS
I know you are all dying to know which place we chose. A condo apartment overlooking the cruise ship dock. It was nice enough, (a tad noisy compared to the mountains! ) though we were given one small bar of soap, one bath towel each and one set of bed linen, this to last for 3 nights.