Good dives, bad services, terrible food in Peleliu Storyboard Beach Resort.

[jeremygreen]

We will soon post a complete trip report, but I just wanted to convey our experience at Storyboard Beach Resort on Peleliu. We were there for a week in the middle of February 2004 (so NOT 2 years ago, like scubashooter). We had seen their web site, but also made sure to get as good a picture of what it would be like there from reading/posting on this board. Remember, a business advertises in a way to make itself look as good as possible. While their web site might not have conveyed the atomsphere at SBR, there is nothing on there that claims to be something they're not. It was obvious from all that people told us who had been there, that these would not be 5-star accommodations. We knew that there would be no phones or TVs in the rooms. The place is very small, and so we were prepared for it to be more like a bed & breakfast than a "resort", which it was.

We arrived to find a very simple but CLEAN cabin (save the geckos that poop everywhere, but not much can be done about that!). Our rooms were cleaned every day while we were out diving, and we got fresh towels (and a fresh bath mat) every day. Our bed linens were clean, and we certainly had pillowcases. Our biggest complaints were about the roosters crowing back and forth all night some nights and the coconuts that would occasionally fall on our roof, but I am assuming these are problems that are not specific to SBR.

My wife is a vegetarian, and we informed Mayumi as soon as we arrived. So when they say that their food is "made-to-order", it is, in the sense that if you have a special request, they are accommodating. All of my wife's meals were meat-free. And our food was often waiting for us when we arrived at dinner, and never an ant or any other bug in sight. I certainly would not say the food there was delicious, but it was very edible and we were never hungry. We did not feel the need to go to the "corner store" even once.

We found the prices at SBR to be very reasonable. We paid $135 per day per person for the room, 3 meals and 2 dives. Since most places charge $90 just for the 2 dives, we thought this was more than reasonable.

On top of it all, Godwin was probably the best underwater tour guide we had ever had. The diving was fabulous and he made sure we were well taken care of and happy.

After a week at SBR, we went to Palau Pacific Resort for a few days before heading home. And I can honestly tell you that my wife and I both felt that we didn't want to leave SBR. We could have stayed another week and been very happy. Obviously, we had a very different experience from Jennefer. I am in no way trying to say that she was wrong and that she has not accurately conveyed her experience. But I do want to be fair to SBR and post our recent positive experience so that others know that there's another side to every story.

 

[Jennefer]

Hi, I am back. I sincerely thank you, Pisces, Zippsy, Albion, Swisstrav, etc. Even though I never met you, I can feel your understanding, consideration, and passionate.

I am glad that Jeremygreen had a nice stay in SBR, Peleliu. My stay in Peleliu SBR was in late January, and my message regarding the SBR first came out in the middle of February and his nice stay as he claimed started right at that time. SBR might have improved its services as soon as my message posted. That is nice if it’s the truth, and that is my purpose.

But since Scubashooter questioned my credibility and I promised that I would provide the entire details after my return from Carribean, I am hereby providing the details. You will see the information I provided is totally credible.

Please note that Scubashooter mentioned the owners’ names but I had never done. Also, I did not have any complaint against Godwin; but the opposite, I have given Godwin ultimate credit for his diving guide. I also did not complain that the island did not have medical treatment, what I said was that SBR failed to provide orientation and/or pre-cautious guidance to people, including to that old and neat lady who got serious skin rush from fire coral. Also, Mayumi can perfectly defend herself. She runs the entire business on the internet and does not need a travel agent, why do you claim that they cannot defend themselves? Please do not twist my points. I observe and pay attention to details. My points are always supported by details. Your intention of twisting my points will not make you stand up.

When I was contacting SBR for the trip, I asked that if a non-diver could come with the boat upon the boat’s availability or not. Mayumi responded no, unless paying $65.00. I then mentioned that anywhere else, such as Caribbean, charged much less, she punched me back to say no again. I felt that the woman was strongly money minded, but I still went ahead to take the trip since Palau had been my dream place of diving.

The first day of my arrival, Godwin offered, “Non-divers are welcome to go together, it’s free.” Through the entire diving around Angaur that day, I felt that Godwin was such a nice, easy going, and dive knowledgeable guy. We descended into a blue hole down to 65’, then at the bottom of the blue hole, we came out from the middle of the reef, merging into schools of sharks, rays, turtles, fish, etc. The room was clean on the first day of my arrival. I was so happy that I told myself that I would like to spend all the money I brought with me to stay as longer as possible for diving in a wonderful diving paradise. Any other places, for which I already paid a deposit, I would not care anymore.

That day, we ate lunch on the boat around 12:30pm, came back from diving around 2:00pm. Dinner started at 6:00pm. It’s some local vegetable sautéed with bacon, another dish, a big bowl of egg flower soup, and rice. I mixed the egg flower soup with rice, so I had enough to eat at the first dinner.

The second day, the breakfast was at 7:30am. After I arrived at the table, food was already there, but I found a few ants were crawling in the food. I thoroughly picked the ants out from my plate, with understanding that it’s a common problem in an island, but I suggested the waiter that late-on please do not bring the food to the table before my arrival. During the chatting in the dinning room, someone asked if the soda cans that threw in our refrigerates would be included in the meals or additionally charged. Some others in the dinning room responded that we should not ask Mayumi about that question; otherwise, she would always say “charge” because she charges every thing and every penny. Lunch was on the boat and was the same as the first lunch. Dinner was at 6:00pm, more than 10 hours after the breakfast, and nothing was in the middle of the day, nothing at all after we came out from the diving.

The second day, I found that the room was cleaned but bathroom mat was un-changed and shower booth was un-touched.

The next day, the dinner was local vegetable sautéed with bacon, a few pieces of deep fried un-marinated Tuna, a big bowl of smashed potato, and big bowl of rice. I only ate the rice and the vegetable because the other two had no taste. I asked the waiter if there was more food, he appeared to be unable to understand what I was asking for. I was also trying to find who the housekeeper was because I wanted to have the bathroom cleaned and the mat changed. I did not want to bring the issue to the boss at the first beginning because it could cause the housekeeper’s hard time. Someone in the dinning room told me that the waiter probably was the housekeeper. So, I communicated with the waiter with English and sign language that please change the bathroom mat and clean the shower bath for me. I presumed that he understood everything because he sounded speak good English. But it’s in the evening, I hoped things would changed the next day.

The third day, on the boat, during a diving brief, Godwin gave me a little rope, which was a little bit bigger than a shoelace, about 5’ long, and had a hook on each end. He said, “You will need this, it’s for the safety stop in currents.” Even though I had the rope in my gear bag, I did not want to bend over to pick it up, because he offered me one. We had a wonderful drift diving that day.

The third day, after I came back from diving, the room was cleaned but the mat in the bathroom was still unchanged and the increasing molt was still untouched. I went nuts. But after took off the wetsuit, I was wearing a bedding suit and did not want to walk around in the compound in a bedding suit, so I took a nap but then found that the pillow was smelly and did not have a pillowcase. About 4:35 in the afternoon, I put my cloth on and decided to talk with Mayumi about the problems. I went to the shop, saw someone sitting there, and soon an old lady came to also look for Mayumi. I stood in front of the counter, Mayumi was not there. Her daughter Mai was riding bikes. I then asked Mai to notify her mother that someone looking for her. Mai went to inside, I then saw Mayumi appeared behind the curtains and peaked at outside but then disappeared. I waited, thought she would have to put on her cloth. But after a long time, she did not come out. I asked Mai to notify her again, Mai went to inside then came out to say that her mother was sleep. After sitting there for a long time, I stood up and went to the mini-market next door to spend my time. After a quite while, the old lady also came into the mini-market to say that she would like to borrow the phone in the mini-market to call Mayumi. But eventually, I was unable to reach her on that day about the unable to inhabitant matters.

If the event had stopped there, I would not have complained, because I believed it could be miscommunication or misunderstanding, etc. However, the fuel was lighted on the forth day by Mayumi. (It's continued to the next message.)

 

[Jennefer]

With nothing to do besides diving, with three light meals divided among 10 hours on a heavy diving day, I did not feel that I could continue that much longer. In the evening, with a hungry stomach, I was laying in the bed, smelling the dirty and dusty pillow, being bothered by the mosquito ceil, and bothered by the bathroom mat, I just could not sleep. I decided to end the trip the next morning.

In the morning of the fourth day, at about 8:00am, I went to the shop to tell Mayumi that I would like to leave, to check out. Usually, business people would ask how your stay was or why you would want to leave. If she had given me a chance like that, I would have silently told her the problems of the cottage housekeeping and thought through if to stay longer. However, Mayumi did nothing but asked me to come to the chop later and then walked to the kitchen directly. I was puzzled, didn‘t know what she was doing and why she did not check me out then.

One hour later, I went to her shop to ask for checking out again, she asked if I rented any gear, I said no. She said, “You used the drift rope, right? It’s a rental item. The charge is three dollars.” I was puzzled again and saying that I did not rent it but Godwin offered to me. But she stuck the bill to me with a non-negotiable tone. At that time, I had 500 x $3.00 in cash in my pocket, but there was always a huge difference between able to pay and willing to pay. I felt that the way Mayumi was doing was not rational.

Before my anger even barely started, she said that I ordered lunch for that day and therefore, there was a charge also. I then realized that at 8:00am she walked directly to the kitchen was to find if I ordered lunch for that day or not. I was very provoked by the way he was treating her customers. Why didn’t she ask me instead of asking the kitchen that if I ordered lunch? She thought I would not tell her the truth that I ordered lunch? Why didn’t she just give her customer some considerations to say that she would take a look that if lunch was not cooked, I would have the chance to cancel?

I left SBR at about 9:20am. My shoulders hung bags, one hand was pulling my luggage, and the other hand was holding the lunch box. It’s very inconvenient and it‘s awful. The lunch, AGAIN, was the same, a few pieces tuna sautéed with a few pieces green beans. But I did not want to throw away since it’s money.

After arriving at the boat dock, I got out a plastic bag from my luggage to tie the lunch box and placed it on a passenger bench. The boat charged me only $3.00 for a two hour riding to Korror. (Maymi’s charge was $35.00 for a 50 minutes express boat riding.) Boat crew were all local people, who thoroughly registered my luggage and loaded them in place. I felt that they were so naïve and humble. I gave them a good tip, which was twice of the boat charge. They were happy and appreciated, and I was happy to be among them.

After about 15 minutes, some passengers wanted to sit at the bench where I placed my lunch. I then found that ants had formed a big army crawling inside and outside the plastic bag and lunch box, I had to threw them to the garbage can. That was the lunch that Mayumi charged for.

After I returned to America, I contact Mayumi to say that I believed the charge was somewhat wrong. She had quoted that $135.00 per diver for a two-dive day and $55.00 for a non-diver per day, including meals, but she charged me $120.00 plus $90.00 for two dives per day. But she, again, punched me back to say that it was the charge and said that, “You just never want to lose your money,” sounded that I should have prepared that I would lose money. Who would like to lose money?

I started to post my complaint on the Scubaboard in the middle of February, providing the all details, to warn divers that do not let anyone take you as granted.

If my complaint becames a stimulation to have dive operators, including SBR, to improve their service and give respect and consideration to their customers, I will be happily to say that I am realizing my purposes.