Hemingway House - Barbados Beachfront Villa

2 years ago

We have been coming to Barbados for 15 years and third time to Hemingway. Blue Sky has been good over the years. However, very disappointed that the owner of Hemingway hadn't the courtesy to tell us about the changes to the property which, if we had known about, would have resulted in us cancelling our booking. As a result of the changes there are now many villas that are superior and Hemingway is now significantly overpriced. When we complained the owner was dismissive and offered an insulting refund. Key changes are a new huge storm drain next to the house that now collects all the very dirty water from the neighbourhood. After heavy rain (which we all know is pretty often in Barbados) the drain disgorges stagnant water (that has been sitting in the drain and smelling dreadful because as the staff say it has been incorrectly built) and pollutes the beach. You are advised not to swim for days after it rains. We know there are storm drains along the coast but having one next to your villa means that the impact is much more significant. The yellow torrent looks and smells like sewage although we were told that it is not. The other main issue is that some very ugly sea defences have been built in front of the villa, including a ghastly wall and as a result there are now boulders and rocks instead of the lovely sandy beach. We were told just before we arrived that there had been work done and "eventually " the beach would return but the effect of all these rocks seems to result in the beach being eroded. This has been a problem at Mullins before but the new work makes it worse and makes the beach unusable as impossible to wade over the rocks unless you have shoes on. We also asked specifically whether there was any construction work going on and assured there was not .Unfortunately this was not true and we had construction work one side and spotlights pointing into our bedrooms. Unfortunately Hemingway says this neighbour is difficult and doesn't let them know what they are doing so always a risk of this. We have never bothered to write a review before but the failure of the owner to be transparent about significant changes to the villa to us as repeat guests and dismissive response to legitimate concerns has been very upsetting.

2 years ago

I’ve been here twice on holiday with my boyfriend and unfortunately this year the villa has changed a lot in a negative way. A new smelly storm drain, eroded beach and construction made it challenging to relax.

a year ago

NICELY TUCKED AWAY AND INTIMATE

3 years ago

Very quite place to relax