Reviewers Rating: 
Fair
After reading previous reviews on the internet about this hotel, we decided to go there. Initially we had booked 12 nights but reduced it to 6 nights so that we may visit Tobago.On arrival at the hotel late evening, we were warmly greeted with cocktails and wet flannels. It was nice after our very long journey from London. We were taken by shuttle to our ocean villa. Unfortunately, our key did not work and so we had to wait another 30 minutes before the shuttle driver returned with a master key to let us in.
The villa was nice and clean but we were disappointed with the lack of maintenance - some of the window blinds were broken. Anyway, we went to bed straight away. The next morning, we woke up to see the fabulous ocean view. Meanwhile the airconditioning had broken down. So we went to the reception and reported the fault as well as the problem with our key and we were assured that things would be taken care of straightaway. Later we returned to the villa only to find that our key was still not working. So we rang from the shuttle bus pickup point and a while later we were let in with the master key. We reported this again to reception and assured it would be sorted straightaway.
We went to have lunch in the Bayside restaurant and the food was nice and reasonably good value - after all it is the Hilton. The beach was lovely and peaceful - just what we wanted to make a perfect holiday. Then the rain came. So we returned to our villa and still, we couldn't get in. We rang from the shuttle bus pickup point and still no one came after 1 hour. I was on my way back to the shuttle point when I spotted a housekeeper and she kindly let us in. She phoned from our villa and within 10 minutes the engineer had arrived and fixed the door lock and gave us a new key.
We felt that things were picking up even though it was raining. The next few days proved to be disappointing though. We found that there was very low morale amongst the staff. One day at the Bayside restaurant, our lunch was served but we had to ask the waiter for cutlery and condiments. He was clearly not in a friendly mood.
One good thing about the Jalousie Hilton would be its scenic location. We also had a couple's massage and that was well worth $90. We were massaged in a three walled hut up on the mountainside and enjoyed the view of the ocean. It was splendid.
I really would not recommend getting an ocean villa near a helipad. We were in number 4 and it was directly over the helipad. Sometimes it was a bit much to wake up at 7.30am with the villa shuddering with the noise. At the weekend, there was a lot to endure with helicopters landing and taking off nearly every 20 minutes or so.
We certainly won't be returning to the Jalousie again. We feel that there is no justification for the high room rates and poor staff attitude. We had tried to contact the manager before leaving but he never returned our calls. Quite disappointing. However, our holiday was saved when we went to the Tobago Hilton - far superior in atmosphere, food and value for money.
Caz
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