Bird of Paradise Beachfront Cottages — Hotel in Central Eleuthera

What could have been one of our best vacation rental experiences has turned into one of our most disappointing. We chose to visit Eleuthera for our first visit to celebrate our 20th anniversary. After reviewing many houses, we narrowed our search to only beachfront rentals that included a pool. This house was chosen because of the amazing pictures of the pool (shown in 13 of 24 pictures on the main website) overlooking the beach and because of the following description of the pool as a "custom made tear drop infinity edge pool over looking the beach". There were several other beachfront properties at a much lower price point that do not include a pool. Upon arriving we immediately noticed that the pool was green, filled with sand, and had debris in it. We contacted the property manager, Tarictia, who also instructed us to contact the property owner, Alissa, which we did (on the day of our arrival). While Tarictia worked to communicate with us on the problem, we did not hear from the property owner until 2 days later (after a second attempt of reaching out) – and her only response was ‘the pool guy comes weekly’ without regard to the fact that the pool is clearly not in working order. In the first several days there was continuous back and forth with the pool maintenance person and Tarictia – though the issue was never resolved during our stay and we never heard back from the property owner to try and offer compensation for the problem.

Once we returned home we reached out again to the property owner stating our disappointment of communication and lack of compensation and did not hear back from her for another 7 days. We realize things happen and were fully aware of some things out of the owner’s control (such as power/ water outages) cannot be avoided. However, part of the owner’s response stated the following about the person responsible for pool maintenance: “‘Unfortunately he is not reliable”. This is unacceptable if you have an amenity that you are up charging a rental amount for (by a significant amount) if you know you have an unreliable resource to maintain it. Again, we understand that it is a small island and that some things take longer. If that is the case, then don’t showcase the pool as a primary amenity for the house – and clearly state that it may or may not be working given there is no reliable service. At the time of our stay, there are 3 cottages associated with Birds of Paradise – and 2 of the 3 didn’t have working pools.

Pros of our stay: Tarictia (the property manager) was excellent in communication and empathy for the issue. She also makes beautiful handmade baskets for sale. The house is on a beautiful stretch of beach and the house provide excellent views. If you happen to be staying when Tippy’s is open, it is a very easy walk. The house provided beach chairs that you could easily take down to the beach.

Cons of our stay: Alissa (the property owner) did not communicate directly with us regularly, was slow to respond, and did not provide any kind of good customer service or ownership of the issue. One of the key amenities was not available. The pool was unavailable because (in the property owner’s words) the person responsible for pool maintenance “is not reliable”. It is a different story if the pool was not available due to something unavoidable. The house is over-priced for not providing reliable...

This review is in response to the owner's response 5 days ago:

Everything we stated in our review was 100% accurate, not false information, which is why we included pictures of the broken pool along with detailed info that also included texts, emails, and calls during our stay. We checked into this house and I immediately noticed a non - working, contaminated, dirty pool. It did not work the entire time we were there, despite the pool maintenance guy coming over several days later. If the pump was working fine prior to our arrival , as the owner stated, then why was it green from algae and filled with beach sand when we checked in? The pool obviously hadn't been looked at or touched in several days. If you are going to advertise a beautiful infinity pool on your website with 13 pictures (but you know that your pool guy is unreliable), then state on your website and in the description that the pool may or may not work. The pool was one of the main reasons we chose this house, so we indeed asked to be compensated for this.

As far as the updates of this issue while were there, both the owner and property manager knew that I had a phone with working cell service, including WhatsApp, and text messaging available. Were we supposed to sit at the house all day and anxiously wait for updates? That's not how we wanted to spend our vacation! We spent a lot of time exploring the island, eating out, and enjoying ourselves.

Half way through our vacation, the property manager offered to use the pool at the cottage next door (which was the only one working out of all 3 cottages). We felt that using another pool was not an acceptable solution and did not make up for the inconvenience. It also did not make up for the extra money we spent on this house. We could have saved alot of money if we rented a beach house without a pool.

By the way, there are very nice houses with great reviews right on the beach that aren't 30 years old (as the owner stated in her response). Yes they are a little older, but they are bigger than a cottage and are on the same beach.

It was a shame that our 20th anniversary turned into this fiasco with an owner who clearly is blaming others for the issue and being this unprofessional. We definitely know that our next trip to Eluthera will be spent at a...

The Purple Papaya residence in the Bird of Paradise Cottages is amazing! It lives up to the pictures in every way. A few negative things to note. Unbenonced to us the house was hit with an electrical surge a few days prior to our arrival which caused many of the electrics to go haywire meaning some overhead lights, built in speakers, and power curtains were inoperative. That being said they were all luxury features that did not affect the functionality at all. There was plenty of light through lamps and we had a Bluetooth speaker we brought. A local hired by the owner was here to appologize for the inconveniences and explain the issues on the day of our arrival. The owner also comped us a night of our 7 day stay to rectify the problem which was more than adequate. The place is relatively secluded although expect people to regularly stroll by on the beach and catch occasional live music from Tippys which is right next door. The only significant disturbance we noted during our stay was surveyors and yard workers hired by the owner to maintain the property. They were unannounced but extremely polite and even cut us down and opened a bundle of fresh coconuts from the trees above the property which was refreshing and an awesome surprise! Inside the couch and bed are extremely comfortable suited to a beachy vibe. The kitchen was well stocked with cleaning supplies and cutlery. Plan on loading up on food for your stay and cooking most breakfasts and lunches. We stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies at the market stands on the drive down from North Eluthera airport and grabbed bread, deli meat, and eggs from Bachus. The infinity pool is stellar although note it is not heated so unless it's above 80F and sunny it was too cold for our liking but was refreshing to wade or dip our feet in. Overall the property lived up to our expectations and was worth every...