We have arrived home and we see that quite a bit has been discussed as to our experience at L’Hoste Hotel. We thought we would try and fill in the blanks, so to speak, and if anyone has any questions we would be happy to answer them.

We arrived at L’Hoste Tuesday, July 11, 2006 at approximately 5:30 PM. The hotel was extremely quiet. Traveling with us were our 3 kids and 3 of their friends ages 18-21. There were three rooms we were put in at the building next to the main hotel, rooms 114, 115, and 117. (I believe it was the former Capri Hotel that L’Hoste acquired a few years back) I was handed the keys to all 3 of the original rooms and they all had safe keys on them. For maintenance reasons we were moved to the main hotel within an hour of our arrival, rooms 107, 108, and 112. Jim and I received our room key with our safe key on the same key ring. Unbeknownst to us, the kids were only given room keys, no safe keys. In checking with them later, I found there were no safe keys and told them not to forget to get them in the morning. (I questioned Judy why they weren’t given safe keys and she said people lose them and then she has to replace all the safe locks and if they wanted them they should have requested them. Yes, perhaps they should have requested the keys but Jim and I were automatically given our safe key without having to ask.) Basically the evening was uneventful.

The next day was spent at the beach. After cleaning up, we were off to dinner. While walking through the lobby, there was one employee and two other men with him who were not guests of the hotel. We were asked if we were going out for the evening and our response was ‘yes, we are going to the Marina for dinner’. That was at 6:30 PM. Just before this our daughter had walked over to Tap 5 and we told her we would pick her up on our way out. After picking her up and driving a bit, she told us she had left her watch in the room. We contemplated driving back to let her get what she forgot and then decided not to, which in hindsight was maybe a good decision or maybe a bad one. We arrived back at 10:30 PM, walked the kids back to their prospective rooms and found that both rooms had been ransacked. (Our room #112 was fine). The chain was cut on both sliders inside, but the sliders were still locked, and the hurricane barrier was half-way down in the girls’ room, which lead us to believe that entrance was gained through the front door. We went looking and calling out for the security guard and found him asleep in a dark corner of the hotel’s breakfast restaurant. He came and ‘examined’ both rooms. Jim asked where the manager was. He told us she was home and would be back in the morning. Jim had to request several times that she be called. At much insistence the phone call was made. Judy, the manager/owner’s daughter, refused to come to the hotel. She told Jim she was not coming to the hotel that night and she would discuss the problem in the morning. With a couple of phone conversations between Jim and Judy, and Judy and myself, we told her the kids were scared and her reply was to tell them to put the shutters down and go to bed. ( the security bars in the sliders were not an option in this case because out of the 3 rented rooms, only one room had a bar)Jim told her that this reaction could destroy her on the internet, she still would not come. Not getting anywhere with Judy, we called the Gendarmes. The gentleman that answered the phone laughed, said they weren’t coming, and told us to stop by the next day to fill out a report. When I mentioned this reaction to Judy the next day, she told me ‘why should they come, there was no blood here.’ Frustrated, we put all 6 of the kids in one room to try and make them feel a bit more safe.

The next morning (Thursday) we were told by Judy that she would meet us at 8:00 AM. We were in the restaurant at 7:30 AM waiting. She did not show up until 9:00 AM, (I even had to go to the front desk and have them call her at 8:30 AM to find out when she would be there). Upon her arrival, the fireworks started. She ranted and raved and insinuated it was our own faults. She seemed to lose sight of the fact that the crime was the break-in, not the fact that the items in the rooms were left out. She told us our kids were ‘irresponsible’ and told our kids that ‘she had dealt with people like them before’. As a side note, Sandy Molloy of Molloy Travel was on the phone with Janet and she was able to hear Judy yelling at Jim, and wanted to know who was yelling and what was going on. Being in business ourselves, we have never dealt with anyone in her position that lacked so much professionalism and sensitivity. We could go on for pages how shabbily we were treated, which is much more upsetting than the items that were taken. Material things can be replaced. Reestablishing a feeling of safety and security was not going to be restorded in this particular case. To give you an idea of what was stolen, 4 IPods and their chargers, an IPod dock , 3 American cell phones and their chargers, jewelry (4 necklaces, 4 bracelets, and 4 rings) a Movado watch, an alarm clock, a hair straightening iron, underwear, undershirts, bathing suits, gym shorts, regular shorts, sandles, cash, among other small items plus 2 carry on bags. Judy told us she would not even attempt to put in an insurance claim for us because the safes were not used. The only good part of the experience with L’Hoste was after much negotiation, we were able to get our room costs refunded, (bear in mind we only stayed 2 nights). Judy never offered to let us stay without charge, which I am sure other hotels may have done in this particular instance. Even if that was offered, we would not have accepted it because we no longer felt safe for ourselves or our family and their friends. Judy’s parting words to me were if we didn’t bring the Gendarme report back to her, she was going to take the refund back.

The bottom line and the most important one is that no one was hurt and all 8 of us took comfort in that fact. We moved to Alamanda, pulled ourselves together and had a wonderful vacation. This was all with the help of Sandy Molloy. She was absolutely wonderful. Within 90 minutes of speaking with her, she had us out of L’Hoste Hotel and all safely booked at the Alamanda, where by the way, the staff could not have been more accommodating.