Bananaquit House is a spacious home with lovely views that can accommodate a crowd, but it is not a luxury property by any stretch of the imagination, despite what one would think when paying nearly $6,000/night, as we were during Christmas week.
While the views are great and the infinity pool is lovely, the pool area offers little shade. Overall the house is extremely run down and in need of major upgrading, although the staff did a nice job of daily cleaning the place and making the beds.
We experienced at least three episodes when there was no running water due to a pump problem but hopefully it has been replaced by the time you read this.
A/C units in two of the bedrooms were not working and the fan in the principal bedroom was also not working (both issues were eventually resolved). Six of the seven bedrooms do not have windows that can be closed. No screens, no glass… just mosquito nets. This would not be a huge deal except that it’s so humid that it doesn’t really cool down at night. You can imagine how effective AC units are at cooling rooms with open windows…
One of the lower floor suites smelled intensely of chlorine and was unusable (it could also best be described as “dungeon-like”.
There were bathrooms without working towel racks or toilet paper holders.
If you read the house description, it states that the rental includes a cooked
Breakfast. The problem was the staff arrived at 9:00am and breakfast was
supposed to be served at 10:00am; way too late for families with children.
The chef prepares delicious meals but since the staff leaves by 3:00 pm, it is left on the stove for you to reheat and serve. The dishwasher was not working so every evening without a dishwasher (and perhaps without water) we had to leave the dishes, pots & pans in the kitchen for the staff to do the washing up in the morning. The water problem was intermittent but occurred three of our six nights there.
The most upsetting thing was the fruit bats flying through the house in the early evening. The bats actually nest in the living room rafters and have direct access to the twin bedroom on the upper level, where the kids were sleeping. We captured and released one bat but once we found more flying about, we had to move the children to another bedroom a floor below. Despite what we were told, bat bites are serious and can be fatal.
Rum punch and a snack was only served the night we arrived. After that we
were on our own. Not the idyllic meal situation we imagined but that said, Margaret was a good cook and the meals were tasty. She did make salads when we asked and chicken fingers for the kids one night.
Before we rented the house I emailed quite a bit with Sam, the owner. He wrote that the beach was a 5-10 minute walk or a 1 minute away by car. Very misleading! If you dared to walk to the beach it would be 30-40 minutes on a completely unpaved VERY steep, rocky winding road and an 8 minute car ride (we timed it).
In conclusion, this house was unsuitable for a family with children and would be best suited for a bachelor party. If you are visiting during the off season and renting really cheaply, like $2,000 per week, you might tolerate a house in such poor condition.
Jason, the house manager, was very responsive whenever we contacted him with one problem or another but be forewarned, when you finalize your grocery bill with Jason he will ask for 4.5 % extra if you use a credit card. Better to bring cash.