Nancy's Folly

[loverotties]

I'm still searching for villas or condos for our 2013 trip . We are looking to save $$$ this trip & came across this small villa ,Nancy's Folly , from Caribe Haven . I love the views & it looks almost too good to be true for the price . Has anyone stayed here or heard anything about this villa ? Last time we stayed in Great Cruz Bay & loved the location not sure where this villa is located compared to the last .

[Teresa_Rae]

We stayed there in August and I have some feedback, I can either PM or email you, let me know which you prefer.

[jimg20]

I think we'd all like to hear about it.

JIM

[Myheart'sinSTJ]

I think we'd all like to hear about it.

JIM

What Jim said

[bchbum82]

I would like to read some information on it too.

Thanks

[cocosmom]

I would like to hear also.

[cocosmom]

There is a positive review for summer 2011 on TA.

[happycanesfan]

My sister and her husband stayed at Nancy's Folly this past Dec. They liked it very much, especially considering the value... the view was fabulous, great outdoor space, a washer and dryer, and very clean. The bedrooms are not equal, but fine for one couple. Nancy actually lives below, but this did not bother my sister. If you follow the road past the Weston and head up the hill and take the very sharp left up toward Gift Hill, it is on the road that is the first right after the sharp turn. It is the last house on the road, passing two or three other houses. They will definitely stay here again.

[Teresa_Rae]

We had a very negative experience this summer at Nancy's Folly but I will try to keep this as diplomatic as possible. I don't like being negative online, which is why I didn't post a villa review.

First, I'll comment on the villa itself. It was an interesting experience, and something we've never dealt with in the 10 STJ villas we've rented. There were scads of personal items around the villa, including family pictures, stinky shoes in the master closet, and every toiletry item you can imagine in the bathroom. There were even rusty toenail clippers and tweezers in a basket on the top of the toilet. The owners simply leave their stuff there when they're gone, it was unusual. We just laughed about it. It was like we were staying with friends who were out of town for the week. Other than that weirdness, the villa itself was fine, no complaints. We would have likely stayed there again if our overall experience had been positive.

Caribe Havens is owned/run by a woman named Nancy. We had rented another property from her a few years ago, and our interaction with her was fine. She has a reputation of being rude with renters, but I did not experience that until this past year. We were interested in renting Nancy's Folly and I kindly inquired if there was a 1 bedroom/2 person rate because the rate listed online is for 2 bedrooms/4 people. She was quite rude with her response and told me that I should go rent a tent if I didn't like her prices. Before I'd heard back from her, we had decided that we were fine paying the 4 person rate even though there were only going to be 2 of us, however based on how she treated me, we decided to stay elsewhere.

In the meantime, my father in law had a heart attack so our villa planning went on the back burner for a few weeks...and the other rentals we were considering got rented for our dates, so we decided to go with Nancy's Folly after all.

Nancy's Folly is owned by and named after a different Nancy, not the Nancy who owns Caribe Havens...however, the Nancy who owns Caribe Havens is also a renter of the same property. She lives on the lower level of the home, and the upper level (Nancy's Folly) is available for vacation renters. When she gave us the standard villa tour, she warned us not to use the air conditioning too much because of the expense, but I thought nothing of it, as we are always extremely careful about the a/c when we're on STJ. She said it cost roughly $10 or $13 a day to run, I don't remember exactly. Like I said, we are always very respectful of electricity and water usage so I wasn't worried about it.

The night before we went on vacation my husband and I had gotten about 2 hours of sleep, and then the first night at the villa we were up extremely late and then up very early the next morning because of fiasco we were dealing with...my husband had left a bag on the car ferry...and my Canon DSLR was in it...so there was a lot of panic! So on our second night there, after almost no sleep the previous 2 nights, we slept in...for like 12 hours. We were on vacation and we needed our sleep!

So a few days later I was walking out of the villa and Nancy cornered me to yell at me for letting the air conditioning run for a long time that one night. We had done exactly as she had requested, which was to wait to turn on the a/c until we were going to bed and then turn it off as soon as we got up in the morning. She was of the opinion that we slept too long that second day and used the a/c for too long. Mind you, we were paying the 2 bedroom/4 person rate, so we could have had another couple with us and been using the a/c in both bedrooms and twice the water for the same amount of money. I was flabbergasted at how she was treating me. She was quite nasty and said some very inappropriate things; I mostly just stood there with my mouth agape. It wasn't just unprofessional, but it was downright mean.

So unfortunately we won't be renting from Caribe Havens ever again.

[Myheart'sinSTJ]

Thanks Teresa for posting your review, I'm sorry it wasn't a good experience, did you manage to get back your bag and camera?

[jimg20]

I keep a set of bookmarks for villas and villa agencies. I can assure you that neither Nancy's Folly or Caribe Havens will ever make those lists. That kind of behavior (leaving personal belongings in the villa and yelling at the customer) is niether consistant with the STJ culture nor consistant with my concept of a vacation.

Thanks for the candor.

JIM

[northerngal]

Thanks! We need to know this stuff, especially when we spend the kind of money we do when we visit stj.

[GotToGetAway]

Teresa-Rae, thank you so much for posting this! I am sorry that you had to experience such treatment, but your experience can at least be helpful to others.

I have looked at this villa before and almost booked it. I posted a topic about it on TA. I was emailing Nancy about and something about the tone of her emails was off putting, so I went elsewhere. But the price and view kept pulling me back. But, when I look at reviews of Caribe Houses, there are always very negative reviews of the company and villa. Now I get it

Again, thanks for your honesty!

[Teresa_Rae]

Yes, thankfully we did get our bag and camera back! The kindness of St. Johnians really showed during a time when I was really frazzled. It wasn't just my camera, but also a lens that is worth more than the camera itself. If the camera and lens had gone missing, we wouldn't have been able to afford replacements for quite some time. We realized around 10:30 pm that the bag was missing, so well after the car ferry had stopped running. We went to the car dock to see if the ferry we'd taken was docked on STJ, but unfortunately it was back at STT. So we went to the people ferry intending to take it back to STT so we could walk over to where the car ferry was docked to see if we could find anyone. The people working on the STJ side of the people ferry got on their phones and made several calls until they got a hold of someone who worked on the car ferry...our bag had been found and was locked on the barge.

So the next morning we got up early so my husband could take the first people ferry over to STT, and I waited on the STJ side in case he didn't get to STT before the car ferry left. It turned out that that particular car ferry was not running on it's usual schedule and my husband had to wait for a few hours for someone to arrive. Eventually he was able to get the bag back, much to our relief!

An interesting way to start a vacation, that's for sure...but I don't intend to repeat it!

[loverotties]

Thank you Teresa for such an honest review . I for one don't want to rent a villa with the owners personal belonging out in the open or deal with disrespectful people . Our search for a small place with great views continues !