Do not rent the Shell House or Beach House on Great Guana Cay, Bahamas.
Update 1/15/10
This warning is in reference to the following VRBO listings:
In late September 2008, a group of 6 of us rented the Shell House on Great Guana Cay in the Abacos Islands, Bahamas. We rented the property from Paul C. Alberte who committed false advertising, lied to us, and refused to make things right. Below is the entire story...
We found the listing for the Shell House on VRBO.com and got in touch with the owner Paul C. Alberte about the property approximately 3 months before our departure. In our first phone conversation, I confirmed that the house had A/C and high-speed internet as those 2 things were very important to our group. After speaking with Paul, we promptly sent out the first half of the payment as required. We were instructed to take the 2nd half of the payment to the island and give it to the caretaker.
Fast-forward to 2 days before our departure to the Bahamas. I called Paul to get some instructions as to how to get to the house and he drops the bomb on us that the A/C is broken. We are a laid back bunch, and although we were not happy about this news, we understood that these things happen and decided to make the best of it. Paul said that the house had plenty of ceiling fans and we should be fine. He also said that we could use the smaller Beach House next door which had working A/C.
When we arrived at Great Guana Cay, we were met by our caretaker, Frances. We discussed the A/C situation with her and she told us that it hadn't been working for at least 3 months and Paul knew this. Paul also knew this when he accepted our first payment and didn't tell us until 2 days before the trip because he knew we would have rented elsewhere. He made it sound like it had just broken. This was only the beginning of the lies and disappointments.
- We were there in the low season and it was very hot. The ceiling fans were not enough and it was miserable at times. It was too hot to sleep there.
- There is absolutely no internet connection at the house as the VRBO listing and Paul said. His new VRBO listing does not claim that the house offers this.
- The original VRBO listing said that there was a washer and drier. The closet to get into this was locked and the caretaker told us that Paul doesn't want people to use them because of the water usage. We took the doors off to get to it as we had packed our clothes with the idea that we would have access to a washer and drier.
- The master bedroom and bathroom smelled like urine. We later discovered that the matress had disgusting yellow stains all over it.
- The aluminum screen doors were so bent out of shape that they couldn't keep any bugs out. The house was swarming with cockroaches, mosquitos, sand fleas, and many other types of bugs. We had to leave the sliding glass doors open because we didn't have any A/C and we regularly had to sweep the whole house to get all of the bugs off the floor. We eventually hammered the screens back into shape with a meat pounder.
- The ice-maker in the freezer was broken.
- The TV would only turn on occasionally. Most of the time when you hit the power button, nothing happened.
- The BBQ was completely rusted out. Nobody in their right mind would cook on that.
- The house was in general disrepair and didn't look nearly as nice as the pictures we saw on VRBO.
Remember that Paul gave us the Beach House next door as well. When we went over there to check it out, the A/C didn't work there either. Fortunately, one of the people in our party was able to fix it. It was too hot to sleep in the Shell House, so we all had to sleep at the Beach House. Unfortunately, this house only has 2 bedrooms, is much smaller, and isn't nearly as nice as the Shell House (despite its disrepair). 2 of us had to sleep on the futons in the Living Room. We could have possibly just used this house, however, the stove didn't work. The gas was turned off and when we turned it on, the house filled with gas. Because of this, we still had to go to the Shell House to cook.
We talked to the locals about Paul and they said that he used to take good care of the properties and visited them a lot, but hadn't been around in a very long time. They said that 90% of the complaints they heard from tourists were from people renting his properties.
About half-way through our trip, I emailed Paul and listed all of our grievances with the places and told him that it was unacceptable that he lied to us. He never emailed me back. He did, however, get in touch with the caretaker and proceded to blame all of these problems on her. This, despite the fact that she has no control over the A/C repairs and isn't financially liable for them. Not to mention that Paul was WAY behind in paying her for her services. She told us that it was getting to the point where it might not be worth it to work for Paul anymore as she was tired of being yelled at by the people staying at the property.
When we got home, I called Paul and left a message which he never returned. I later emailed him and told him that he needed to make this right. Paul completely ignored all of my attempts at reconciliation.
We had no intentions of being unreasonable. We simply didn't get the $5,000 worth of accomodations that we paid for. We would have been willing to pay the amount of the Beach House since that is where we had to stay. We should not have had to pay for the much more expensive Shell House which was nearly unusable. This would have been a more than fair settlement, however, Paul refused to return any of our attempts to contact him.
I would recommend that nobody rent either of his properties or engage in any sort of business relationship with Paul C. Alberte. He has clearly demonstrated that his moral compass is broken.
Update 3/11/09
Wow, this is getting hilarious and the lies continue. Here is what happened. Before I put up this website, I noticed on their website that Paul had a partner named Erin Noyes. I decided it was only fair to let the partner know that I planned to disrupt their business before doing so. Afterall, this person could have been completely out of the loop on this ordeal and it would have been unfair to do anything without first making sure this person was aware of the situation. I found that Erin has a website for her staffing business (Hatch Staffing) and I used the contact form on the site on January 12th, 2009. She responded by asking what I wanted and I sent her this email. Surprisingly, she responded by calling and leaving a message on our home phone. I later called the number she left and received an answering machine with Paul's voice. I left a message and sent this email on the 15th of January. I was hopeful from the fact that Erin had called that we could come to a fair resolution, but I never heard from her again.
Fast forward to now (3/11/09). Apparently, this website and our links to it from our company's new travel website are working. A couple of days ago, I got an email from somebody named Brian that was interested in renting their place and had read our story. Brian contacted me and wanted to verify that the place in our story was the same place he was considering renting and it was in fact the Shell House. He emailed his concerns about the property to Erin and Paul and here is Erin's response. Apparently, Erin is a bigger liar than Paul. Almost everything in her email was a flat-out lie as follows (Erin's comments in blue):
Not according to their caretaker Frances.
Absolutely false! The only discussion I ever had about rebooking was with Paul and that was a hypothetical discussion in case of a hurricane. We never rescheduled. I did call 2 days prior to arriving to get last minute details such as how to get to the house, but to this day, I have never spoken on the phone with Erin. As I said before, I didn't even know Paul had a partner until January of this year.
More lies. An A/C unit was installed in the master bedroom ONLY and this didn't occur until after I sent our complaints to Paul via email halfway into our trip.
Your ad on VRBO specifically stated that you had high-speed internet. When I talked to Paul the very first time, he said that the house had internet. When I talked to Paul 2 days before arriving, he said that the internet was really slow at the house. The truth is that there is NO internet at the house. They do not have the necessary antenna to make it work. It was obviously too late for us to find a different house and we had already payed half the amount due.
We saw the caretaker a total of 3 times. The first day when she picked us up at the dock, the last day when she took us back to the dock, and once in the middle when we called her to the house before I sent a list of our grievances to Paul. At this meeting, we talked to her for about an hour and expressed our extreme displeasure with the circumstances. This is when she told us that she was tired of the guests constantly complaining about the house and that she wasn't sure if it was worth it to continue working for Paul. This is the time that she told us that he was way behind in paying her. It was at this time that she confirmed what she told us the first day at the dock - that the AC had been out for months and Paul new it. Frances never checked on us and we never told her we were happy.
We told the caretaker about the screens when we had her to the house and I believe I included that in my email to Paul from the island. I did not see any replacement screens around the house and nobody did anything about it.
Not according to the people on the island and not according to her own words.
Again, I never had any contact with Erin. I did not know Paul had a partner, so how could I have threatened her? I never threatened physical harm to anyone, nor would I ever. I don't need to when there are perfectly legal methods such as this to deal with deadbeats like Paul and Erin. Yes, I did threaten to go after Paul's business, but apparently he misunderstood or I wasn't very clear. I did also say that I would involve their family, but I was referring to making sure that they knew what type of person Paul is - if they don't already. I figured nothing would be worse than Paul's relatives knowing that he is a shady businessman. Clearly the police found their complaints unwarranted because I am not in jail and I will continue to use all legal means available to disrupt Paul and Erin's businesses and lives. My goal is to make sure that they think twice before ever behaving like this again and ensure that others know what they might be getting into before doing business with these people.
This is the biggest lie of all. To this day, I have never spoken to Erin on the phone and I never called her at work - EVER! We never requested a full refund and the link above that shows my email to Erin proves that. Neither she, nor Paul offered us a free week which we would have declined anyway. We most certainly did complain to the caretaker and via email to Paul while we were there. According to the caretaker, after receiving our email, Paul got all over her case and blamed everything on her. Horrible lies.
I guess I still have a little faith in humanity in believing that normal people do not behave in this way, nor tell blatant lies in order to make money. I believe that normal people tell the truth, admit when they are wrong, and try to make it right. These people are far from normal in my opinion.
Update 1/15/10
The owners no longer list the properties as "Shell House" and "Beach House" on VRBO. I am guessing that they think it will prevent people from making the connection that this site is talking about their properties. It also looks like the owners' original VRBO pages have been removed and a new one for the Beach House has been put up. The Shell House does not seem to have a new one yet. We'll post a link to the listing at the top of this article when that happens.
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