Trade Winds Bar & Restaurant, Guest House & Gift Shop — Restaurant in Isla de Vieques

In January 2020 (pre-COVID), my wife and a friend had stayed for a few days at the Trade Winds Guesthouse in Esperanza, on the south coast of the Puerto Rican offshore island, Vieques. At the time, we occupied Rooms 9 and 10, farthest from the street noise. Service was excellent, and in 2022, we rebooked Rooms 9 and 10, this time for ourselves and another friend. We received confirmation of the booking from Joseph at Trade Winds on 22 April 2022, confirming that we had paid for Rooms 9 and 10 from Thursday, 8 December, until Friday, 16 December. Sadly, we discovered that since our previous visit, Trade Winds Guest House had descended into a highly amateurish operation.| When we arrived in the afternoon of 8 December, Joseph was totally surprised. His office had lost track of our reservation and rented Rooms 9 and 10 to other people. Fortunately, I had the confirmation slip with me, and Joseph substituted Rooms 7 and 8. My wife and I occupied Room 7, our Swiss guest Room 8.| Room 7 was not a problem, apart from the street noises. Room 8 was a horror. A pipe leaked water onto the tile floor, making the floor as slippery as a skating rink. Our friend, a man in his 70s, had to step carefully in case he slipped and broke a bone. We reported the problem to Joseph in the morning of Friday, 9 December. A clean-up squad dried the room, but the pipe continued to leak.| Joseph told us that it would be difficult to arrange for a plumber over the weekend, but no plumber came Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Finally, on Thursday, 15 December (our last full day), a plumber and his assistant arrived. They stopped the leak. |The bill for that room was a grand total of US $987.60: $110 for each of eight nights, 7% tax ($95.60), and $12 cleaning fee. We thought (and still think) that a partial reimbursement was in order. We did not receive the rooms for which we had paid, and one of the rooms was deeply flawed. As we checked out on 16 December 16, however, Joseph was not available. He had gone to the main island on business.| From home on December 20, I sent an email to Joseph suggesting that we deserved at least a partial refund. A week passed without an answer, so I phoned and spoke to Joseph. Joseph confirmed arrival of my email but said that he lacked any authority to authorize a refund, even a partial one. That would depend on Samantha. Samantha was currently on Vieques and would be visiting Trade Winds later that day.| The following morning, I phoned Joseph again. Joseph said that Samantha had categorically refused even as much as an apology. As far as she was concerned, Rooms 7 and 8 were as good as Rooms 9 and 10, and Trade Winds had dealt with the problem in Room 8 as quickly as was possible. There would be no reimbursement, no credit toward a future visit, not even an apology.| Travellers considering a stay at Trade Winds should be aware of the risks in doing...

In January 2020 (pre-COVID), my wife and a friend had stayed for a few days at the Trade Winds Guesthouse in Esperanza, on the south coast of the Puerto Rican offshore island, Vieques. At the time, we occupied Rooms 9 and 10, farthest from the street noise. Service was excellent, and in 2022, we rebooked Rooms 9 and 10, this time for ourselves and another friend. We received confirmation of the booking from Joseph at Trade Winds on 22 April 2022, confirming that we had paid for Rooms 9 and 10 from Thursday, 8 December, until Friday, 16 December. Sadly, we discovered that since our previous visit, Trade Winds Guest House had descended into a highly amateurish operation.| When we arrived in the afternoon of 8 December, Joseph was totally surprised. His office had lost track of our reservation and rented Rooms 9 and 10 to other people. Fortunately, I had the confirmation slip with me, and Joseph substituted Rooms 7 and 8. My wife and I occupied Room 7, our Swiss guest Room 8.| Room 7 was not a problem, apart from the street noises. Room 8 was a horror. A pipe leaked water onto the tile floor, making the floor as slippery as a skating rink. Our friend, a man in his 70s, had to step carefully in case he slipped and broke a bone. We reported the problem to Joseph in the morning of Friday, 9 December. A clean-up squad dried the room, but the pipe continued to leak.| Joseph told us that it would be difficult to arrange for a plumber over the weekend, but no plumber came Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Finally, on Thursday, 15 December (our last full day), a plumber and his assistant arrived. They stopped the leak. |The bill for that room was a grand total of US $987.60: $110 for each of eight nights, 7% tax ($95.60), and $12 cleaning fee. We thought (and still think) that a partial reimbursement was in order. We did not receive the rooms for which we had paid, and one of the rooms was deeply flawed. As we checked out on 16 December 16, however, Joseph was not available. He had gone to the main island on business.| From home on December 20, I sent an email to Joseph suggesting that we deserved at least a partial refund. A week passed without an answer, so I phoned and spoke to Joseph. Joseph confirmed arrival of my email but said that he lacked any authority to authorize a refund, even a partial one. That would depend on Samantha. Samantha was currently on Vieques and would be visiting Trade Winds later that day.| The following morning, I phoned Joseph again. Joseph said that Samantha had categorically refused even as much as an apology. As far as she was concerned, Rooms 7 and 8 were as good as Rooms 9 and 10, and Trade Winds had dealt with the problem in Room 8 as quickly as was possible. There would be no reimbursement, no credit toward a future visit, not even an apology.| Travellers considering a stay at Trade Winds should be aware of the risks in doing...

We had an admittedly giant table of 11 in the very early evening of Saturday, December 17th, 2022.

A very mixed bag. On the great side, the view is beautiful. The deck is lovely. The lobster fritters were phenomenal, as were the cocktails. The staff were friendly.

On the bad side, my Cuban was kind of terrible. The pork in it tasted as though it was cooked in an immersion cooker (sous vide) for way too long. The meat was a pasty mush. I'm not suggesting that's how it's prepared, but that's how it tastes. The bread wasn't pressed, making it not really a Cuban at all. My French fries were undercooked and soggy. The entire dish was room temperature when I got it. It seemed like the kitchen had accidentally made a Cuban 20 minutes before we got there and just decided, "let's just give that to the next person who orders a Cuban". I complained to the waitress about my sandwich, and she said, "thanks I'll let them know". She didn't offer me a new Cuban, or even some decent fries. I wasn't offered any kind of discount on the Cuban.

Everyone who ordered the cilantro crusted Mahi Mahi said it was very dry and overcooked.

When the food was brought out, our waitress asked us if we needed anything, and suggested their house made hot sauce, which we were very excited about. Four of us asked for some. She never brought it out. Luckily she did come back to the table around 10 minutes later to check on us. We asked for the forgotten hot sauce at that point, and she did bring it after the second request, but by then, it was kind of too late to be useful.

Finally, when we asked for the bill, my wife ordered a latte to go. The waitress brought back the bill with no latte listed on it, and never brought the latte. I offered to go prod the waitress for the latte, but my wife thought it wasn't worth the time and hassle.

I looked over some reviews of this restaurant after we left, and noticed a theme. On every non-glowing review, the restaurant basically replies, "you didn't mention it to us, so it's not our fault". I'd like to reply to that before you guys inevitably post that reply with that. First, I did complain, and your staff did nothing about it. Second, everyone who eats at your restaurant isn't responsible for quality control of your staff. Stop blaming others for your own failings. It's kind of...