Hello. I am new to the forum ( glad I found it) but grew up on St. Thomas during the 80's. Been back a few times on a cruise with my wife and recently spent a few days at Frenchman's Cove (and bought) and had a wonderful time. We were only allowed to stay at Frenchman's Cove till Wednesday since we were on the "preview package" and since we wanted to make a week out of our trip, we decided to stay the extra days at the Mafolie. At least that what's our plan was.

Below is a e-mail I sent in response to the Mafolie after they sent me an e-mail hoping we had a wonderful time. My intention here is to let people know about the poor customer service. I know some will see this a help, others will see as I am just complaining. See it for what you will. I hope to make more positive contributions to other posts. BTW ,I sent the reply and it came back as Mailer Demon (i.e Undeliverable) I called the Mafoile to let them know. The girl who picked up, probably the same one in letter I reference since her voice sounded familar, said she knew there was a problem, but if I e-mail it to her she would pass it on. She gave me her e-mail address, to date we have yet to hear a response.

Scott

Mafolie Hotel,

We can't beleive you sent us this e-mail. We were at the Mafolie on Wednesday May 28th and we can honestly say it was the first time We ever left a place in the middle of the night (literally).

Let me recap some of our reasons why we will never come back too, nor recommend, the Mafolie again. First, when we booked the reservation online we requested a balcony room, if availalble. When we got there a family was checking in right before us. I even held the door for them to your office. They checked in and we proceeded to do so. We had requested a suite and one with a balcony. I asked the girl who was checking us in about the balcony and she replied "Oh I just gave it away to the people before you, If I had known I could have given them the room I have for you." If she had known? It was on my reservation request, obviously that means nothing to you. What if my request was a more sereious issue like a specific allergy? You obviously don't read them.

Reason # 2 We get into our room and begin to unpack after an afternoon of hanging out by the pool. My wife discovers the remote on the TV doesn't work. I bring the remote to the office where they change the batteries. No big deal this happens. I return to the room and the remote is still broken. I call the office and they said they will send Adam right over to fix it. Adam is a no show after 30-45 minutes so we leave the room to go to dinner.

Reason # 3 We return from dinner to discover that our room key doesn't work. When I left I locked only the bottom lock. The key opens that lock, but not the top lock.It appears Adam did come during our time away and locked both locks. Another trip to the front office. I again spoke to the same girl who checked us in, and she follows me to our room with another set of keys in hand. I try my keys again and she agrees they don't work on both locks. She tries her keys and they work as they should. Shouldn't both sets of keys work? Seems to me you have a security issue. She exchanges my keys I had earlier with her set.

Reason #4 ( The straw the broke the camels back) About 10:45PM we were sitting in our room watching TV when the power goes out. We went from a brightly lit room to utter darkness. I grew up part of my life on St. Thomas so I know power outages are not uncommon, we even had one a few nights earlier while eating dinner at a restauarnt. My first reaction was to get out of bed took look out the window and see where else on the hill the power is out. To my surprise, I see nowhere the power is out and the pool and the rest of the hotel are lit up as if nothing happened.

I leave my wife sitting in a pitch dark room with only the light from my cell phone to go to the office. I arrive and Iam greeted by 3 men. One who is older, has blood shot eyes as it is evident he was drinking, the other two younger are in their early 20's. I explain my power is out and I am in room 109. The first thing they say is it's not their fault and that the generator kicked on, but that room is not hooked up or on an generator. How do you run a hotel with only parts of it on a generator? They said my room is on "Street power" but even on the street nothing appears out. They begin calling VI Power and Light with no success. They then offer a flash light after fumbling around for 5 minutes with batteries that were suppose to be new but only provided a dim light. The blood shot eyed man upon handing me the light also pointed that I have a hand crank if the batteries die.

What I supposed to do with a flashlight? I returned to the room beyond pissed off and told my wife we are leaving. By flashlight I found a St. Thomas This Week magazine and the hotel listing. After a few calls, I was able to find room at the Frenchman's Reef for the remainder of our 3 days on St. Thomas at a cost of $289 plus taxes a night! a lot more than I had planned to spend.

We literally packed our stuff up in the middle of the night ( it was now 11:15PM) in the dark via the light of a flashlight and my cell phone. I returned the items to the front desk ( keys, flashlight) and checked out, making the 15 minute drive to Frenchman's Reef arriving after Midnight.

We have now told this story to others we met on St. Thomas, as well as friends and family back home. I have also put the first nights charge that was charged to my card prior to our arrival in dispute with the credit card. We come back to St. Thomas often ( at least once a year) and will never stay or recommened the Mafolie again to anyone.

One final note, although this had no bearing on us leaving we thought the following two issues were absurb. The first was the charge for a safe key. Yes, it was minor $2 a day and we perfer to keep valuables and jewelery in a safe. But, to charge for something that is provided free even at a Motel 6 is just leaves a bad taste with us. For $170 a night plus taxes I think you can forego the $2.

The other was the note on the air conditioner unit that if we left it on while out we would be charged and additional $10. St. Thomas days are hot. After a day of the beach, sailing , shopping etc. it is enjoyable to come back to a cool hotel room and relax. We are on vacation and that's what we were there to do... relax. Which means leaving the air on. Not wait to have the room be the same 85 degrees as we are and then wait 45 minutes to an hour for it cool down to a comfortable level. We understand energy costs are higher these days. We would rather have that $10 built in our rate, by raising it another $10 then to tell it to us on a note taped the air conditioner unit. Very unprofessional.