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trying to decide between Home Sweet Home and the Castle which would you go with and why
Like that the castle seem unique, has rave reviews but the furniture looks tired, hoping I'm wrong (only considering the A/C rooms)
HSH looks more modern but did read a review that talked about theft of a personal item (considering penthouse and new rooms15&16)
Is there space to park a vehicle at both
Thanks in advance!
Wasn't much parking space at HSH when we were there but that could have changed.Also HSH has a pool but the Castle does not.
Both have their positives and negatives of course. The rooms you speak of at HSH are going to run more expensive than BCC. We stayed in the standard room #4 at the castle. We liked it but there is very, very little shade at BCC. Rooms 15 and 16 are pretty sweet at HSH. They are the newest and freshest. HSH has a pool and the staff is more involved over there. Mostly because of the layout and the restaurant not being a separate entity. There was enough room for about 5 or 6 cars at HSH. I don't believe any of the staff drive, so only one car would be their driver that stays on site most of the time. In my opinion if you are going to be out and about a lot I'd go with BCC. I think in high season HSH has one of the better values on the cliffs. Low season they don't drop their prices aggressively enough.
Thanks!
I concur with both Billndonna and SandT. I give HSH a bit of an edge because of the pool and even the most basic rooms have A/C and a great sea view. This past November, we stayed in room 16, and it is pretty sweet. We've also stayed in a regular Seaview Deluxe and the Penthouse. All are good, but you may find that the furniture in the Seaview deluxe rooms is tired, as well. However, the rooms are freshly painted with new linens and other furnishings. I wouldn't go by the rates on the HSH website. Contact Charlie directly (his email and Phone # are on the website) and you can get a great off-season rate. I'm not aware of any thievery that has recently occurred there. Not saying that it didn't occur, but it is likely an isolated incident. HSH has staff that lives on site and keeps an eye on the property, all hours of the night. We felt very safe there.
I started this thread a little while ago to get opinions about the Castle. We ultimately decided to book somewhere else but it is still on my short list of places to stay.
http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...ht=fans+castle
ETA: Very few guests at HSH rent a car, so there should be enough room for parking. Last time we stayed, there were actually 2 different guests that had rental cars. There was plenty of room for them to park, in addition to the in-house driver (Chris) and any other taxis that might be coming or going.
GOOD stuff Mike_D. How does the penthouse compare to room 16?
Although the penthouse and room 16 have similar amenities, I would say that we prefer the penthouse. The Penthouse is further away from the restaurant and the front gate and the balcony is bigger. While the furnishings in the room 16 are somewhat simple (bamboo bed, table and sofa), the penthouse is decorated nicer. Both have an awesome panoramic view of the sea, but the penthouse's balcony just feels more comfortable. I believe it also has hammock.
If you are deciding between room 16 and 15, "Room 16 is the one you want" - as Charlie told me. Room 15 is actually slightly smaller and doesn't have as good a view as the 2nd floor. However, room 15 has use of a little grassy knoll in front of its patio.
Below are a couple pictures of the Penthouse. Please note - these pics are are a couple years old, before the property was updated. However, the room is essentially the same except for some new reading lamps and a few other nice touches. I have some pics of room 16, but they are not on this computer. (You can see room 16 under construction in the 2nd to the last picture).
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I stayed a HSH in July. My wife and i stayed in the penthouse at first. We thought the views were nice but the room was very dated and older. We moved to the new building behind the restaurant. Stayed in the ground level room which we liked a lot. Very clean with a full kitchen and a great area to look out at the ocean! All the staff where very nice and would go out go their way to help with any of our needs. I always felt safe on their property. It was very convenient at HSH because its not way up the west end so you are close to a lot more. We stayed at HSH for like 7 days and only planned on staying for a couple days before we moved up to Catcha. Ive stayed at most all of the hotels on the west end(as I go to Jamaica a few times a year for sometimes a month at a time) and i would go back to HSH for Location and Staff but i would only stay in the new building. Just my preference!
Great insight thank so much really appreciate you guys taking the time to share your opinions.
I just checked out HSH a few days ago thinking it looks so great in pics etc. First off, the gate is left wide open in the day and security was sitting in the shade and waved us in. No problem to tour the grounds. I prefer a closed and locked gate day and night. There were building materials laying haphazardly on the lawn (assume they are doing some work on the place) and the pool looks like it needs to be refurbished, there was paint peeling and it looked dirty. Plus they filled in the hot tub with concrete so the pool looks really small. The bar/restaurant area looked very nice as did the swimming platform. Also lots of rooms so if the place was full there wouldn't be much privacy.
The penthouse balcony looked extremely awesome though!
Just my opinion but I've scratched it off my list of potential places to stay.
We stayed in the penthouse suite for five nights a few weeks ago and loved it. The gates were shut each night.
Just one comment on the HSH pool - I often hear that the pool is small, especially on Trip Advisor. In reality, it is bigger than a backyard pool and a decent size for a small hotel with 14 rooms. The deep end is actually 10 feet deep. I did notice that some of the paint in the pool was peeling, which can make those spots look dirty. They will probably have to drain the pool during the slow season and repaint the inside. The water was always crystal clear every time I went swimming. However, the pool is never crowded as most people prefer to hang on the cliffs and swim in the sea.
Thanks, I appreciate all of the great info.
When we were at HSH,we were the only ones using the pool.Of coarse we were also the only couple at the bar after 9pm and sometimes until 1 or 2 am,hate to waste time on sleep when we are on vacation:cool:
We have not stayed at The Castle but have seen the rooms and it is not bad. We have stayed at HSH five years now and have really enjoyed it. We really liked room 14 which has an awesome balcony it is huge and great view. The last two years we have stayed in 15 and16 which both are similar,but 16 really had a better view since it is higher and gives a little more privacy. The staff there is great and the food is better now. We have been through three different people running the kitchen over the years but so far Monty has the best staff and cooks. We personally have never had any problems with theft or security at night. We have been there during February and even when full always had room to just chill. Like MikeD says call Charlie to make reservations he always has given us a much better rate than thier website or any of the booking rates. He also will give an additional break by paying by check instead of credit card.
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HSH penthouse in January