Responding to extremely negative reviews such as this is always very difficult for us, especially when our previous reviews were always highly complimentary.

Our previous success in ensuring that our valued guests always have a wonderful experience with us is obviously proven with these fantastic reviews, and as such we are distraught when suddenly faced with comments such as yours, which are totally opposite to what most of our guests say about us.

Given that we had recently weathered our 2nd hurricane during a one month period it is understandable that you may not have seen us in perfect condition, however, we did our best to correct everything, despite the storm lingering for many days, and we apologise for anything we could not correct. You state that there is paint peeling, but a thorough inspection of the property shows this not to be true, other than some damage caused by the hurricane.

Maintenance is in fact ongoing, and at this time we are currently repairing damage to the roof which we sustained during the last hurricane.

Fountains were not working because they were partially dismantled as a safety factor for the hurricane, and also disconected from the electricity supply. Water and electricity is not a good combination when a hurricane arrives.

You also state that the restaurant was filthy, which given that is cleaned every day I found hard to believe, and subsequently performed a thorough inspection, which proved to be positive. The upper celing is in fact painted a slightly darker colour than the remainder, and once again I found it to be clean and not covered in grime as you stated.

Coco Reef opened less than 10 years ago, so I find it difficult to understand how you can state that we are "old and dated", especially when almost all exterior areas have been given a facelift this year. In fact, as I previously stated, the only problems were because of the hurricane, and in fact the terrace and surrounding areas were all completely repainted in September after the passing of hurricane Leslie. Most bedrooms have also had a complete facelift with all problems being addressed.

The interior decor was all specially made for us, and we purposely chose a "Classical Caribbean" style as opposed to the typical boring decor of a town center chain hotel. The artwork is also all original art as opposed to the normal prints which are seen in most hotels. The fact that is was not to your taste is not something that we can not control, and we do in fact recieve many compliments for the artwork and also sell many pieces.

The steps down to the beach are completely safe, and they look the way they do because we want them to blend in with the environment. We do not feel that painting them in gloss white paint would be pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately we do not know what you mean when you state that the lighting is dangerous, as we have checked it thouroughly and see no threat whatsoever.

Although we do have some rooms which have 2 single beds together, this as never been an issue in the past, and once again after a thorough inspection we found that none of the mattresses were "ancient & filthy" as you stated.

You also state that you had ants and other insects in your room for your entire stay, which is contrary to our records, which show that after the intial complaint, follow up visits to the room were clear on subsequent days.

When living on a tropical island surrouded by lush foliage, it is inevitable that occasionally bugs will be a nuisance, especially after sustained heavy rainfall, and we do all that we can to alleviate the problem. We cannot always control nature, however, and the can of bug spray that was left for you was simply in the event that ants did return. No other rooms reported a serious problem with bugs during this time.

Despite your obvious dissatisfaction with your stay at Coco Reef, we hope that this does not deter you from visiting the beautiful island of Bermuda once again.

Ken Watson.