TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Saba Rock

I realize this topic was covered on a similar thread recently, however it seemed to get get off topic near the end. Like VirginGordaResident, during all my years visiting the BVi, I don't recall ever bad mouthing any particular establishment, but I feel very strongly about our recent visit to Saba Rock.

I have loved Saba Rock from our first visit to Pirate's Pub in '91 and chatting with Bert. I was a bit concerned about the 'Resort' built in the late 90's however it still had a great feel to the place, on occasion we would still run into Bert once in a while and I think David managed the place well.

After the hurricanes, we were pleased to know Saba Rock was going to be revived. Late in 2020 Saba Rock were promoting their New Resort with an on-line promotion ... buy a t-shirt, wear it to the bar next visit and receive a free drink. I bought my wife a shirt to build excitement towards our next visit and to support Saba Rock. Interestingly - March 17th, same day VirginGordaResident made his res - our small group dinghied over to Saba after leaving BEYC, having a great time and dressed in our St. Patti's paraphernalia.
We made our way to the bar, my wife donning her new Saba Rock shirt excitedly asked the bartender what her 'free drink' would be that comes with the shirt. The bartender, very unenthusiastically, said he had no idea what she was talking about ... new bartender, understandable. I explained the promotion to the bartender and he said he had never heard of the promotion. So i asked to speak with the bar manager and Ciro eventually made his way out to the bar. I explained the situation to Ciro who also was not familiar with the promotion - it wasn't so much that he wasn't familiar with the situation but the way he told me there would be no free drink. I asked how long he had held the F&B manager job, to which he replied approx. 8 months. I asked if there was a GM on island, to which he said there was. I said we would go ahead and order a round of drinks but that he may want to check with the GM about the promo. Ciro eventually returned to the bar to inform me the GM also was unaware of the promo and that their hands were tied.

It would have been pretty obvious to most people - let alone two levels of management - at this point, this was not about a house vodka and Cran that may have cost them $3 to make, but the principal. And if Ciro had have paid any attn. while we were discussing this at the bar, he would have noticed two of us had already ordered high end tequilas - this was not going to be an inexpensive bar tab we had started running.

To top it off the gals were walking around the top side of the bar looking at all that was new. They asked if they could have a look at the inside of one of the rooms for future accommodation consideration ... they were told that would not be possible as all rooms were occupied. Huh, it was pretty clear - looking at the outside of all the room doors - that probably none of them were occupied, let alone all of them.

We had seen enough, closed out our tab and went back to BEYC. I'm Sure Bert Kilbride must be rolling over ...

Side note - BEYC gets it! The old character and charm has been retained. You can see this is still a family run resort, not run by a large conglomerate. Yes, they too are short staffed, but we don't mind waiting a bit when you see the staff hustle with a smile. Oh, and they were more than happy to show off their beautiful new waterfront cabins.

Email dated 9/18/2020

lol welcome to Saba Rock being run by Alain Prion and Ciro Gentile. Such a beautiful property, such terrible management

Disgraceful..and downright stupid..what bad PR when you are trying to bring back guests. Talk about "BVI Love"..again!

Glad to read your post on Saba. Disappointed in the way you were treated. Been tp Saba Rock every time we go to BVI. Scheduled to go 15 May after two years of postponements dur to the virus. Will glance at Saba as we go to BEYC

Thank you for posting the original promo xraymen67 (Adrian). There is a part of me that feels I should send that to Saba Rock management ... but then the smarter part of me realizes that I shouldn't give them them another second of my time.

You're welcome! I remember almost buying a shirt myself, but thankfully they were out of my size, lol.