WARNING: Don’t book through Marielle Tichelaar of Bonaireoceanfrontvillas.com. We booked the Villa Oasis through her in September 2012 for February 2013. When we arrived she was 30 minutes late but then took us to our accommodation. As she gave us a tour we noted several features that weren’t consistent with her website description. She shrugged it off and told us we were mistaken. After she left we looked up the description and pictures and determined that we were at the Villa Fleur, not the Villa Oasis. It may seem odd that we didn’t notice it right away but the person who made the booking hadn’t arrived yet and we were both travel tired and excited to be there).
We called Marielle assuming she had just taken us to the wrong place. Nope. Despite the fact that we had booked Villa Oasis, she delivered us to Villa Fleur. That’s when all the lies really started to roll. She claimed there had been a double booking but fortunately Villa Fleur hadn’t been booked (probably a lie), said she had emailed the person who booked it the day before (lie), it is the same cost as Villa Oasis (lie), Villa Oasis was already filled with people who arrived the day before (lie). How do we know some of these were lies? The person who booked the Villa Oasis for us was sitting beside the other person who booked it on the flight from Atlanta to Bonaire! We told Marielle she owed us a significant refund. She came back later offering less than the price differential of the two properties and a meal cooked by a private chef. Eventually she agreed to a refund of the price difference plus the private chef meal. (Would highly recommend Norca as a private cook)
We did require 2 cots because Villa Fleur was not large enough to fit our family. She brought in 1 that was rock hard and 1 that wasn’t good enough for a cheap motel. Eventually she brought in 2 extra matresse for the cots that were workable.
We do know that the people who did end up in Villa Oasis booked (at least a month*) after us and did pay more than us. So we suspect that we and others were bumped to maximize the income of Marielle Tichelaar and others. Marielle did not tell us beforehand so we would have no choice to accept the place we were in. Trying to negotiate a refund and find another place wasn't realistic. And we were already wasting vacation time dealing with Marielle's lies.
We did correspond with the owner of Villa Fleur and learned that Marielle Tichelaar had told them a whole different set of lies (everyone agreed to being moved around). We're reasonably sure someone else got bumped out of Villa Fleur to a lesser accommodation.
Note that Villa Fleur is a wonderful place to stay and we would be happy to recommend it. But it wasn’t what we booked and paid for, and the continual dishonesty of Marielle Tichelaar means we recommend you stay away from her and Bonaireoceanfrontvillas.com.
We called Marielle assuming she had just taken us to the wrong place. Nope. Despite the fact that we had booked Villa Oasis, she delivered us to Villa Fleur. That’s when all the lies really started to roll. She claimed there had been a double booking but fortunately Villa Fleur hadn’t been booked (probably a lie), said she had emailed the person who booked it the day before (lie), it is the same cost as Villa Oasis (lie), Villa Oasis was already filled with people who arrived the day before (lie). How do we know some of these were lies? The person who booked the Villa Oasis for us was sitting beside the other person who booked it on the flight from Atlanta to Bonaire! We told Marielle she owed us a significant refund. She came back later offering less than the price differential of the two properties and a meal cooked by a private chef. Eventually she agreed to a refund of the price difference plus the private chef meal. (Would highly recommend Norca as a private cook)
We did require 2 cots because Villa Fleur was not large enough to fit our family. She brought in 1 that was rock hard and 1 that wasn’t good enough for a cheap motel. Eventually she brought in 2 extra matresse for the cots that were workable.
We do know that the people who did end up in Villa Oasis booked (at least a month*) after us and did pay more than us. So we suspect that we and others were bumped to maximize the income of Marielle Tichelaar and others. Marielle did not tell us beforehand so we would have no choice to accept the place we were in. Trying to negotiate a refund and find another place wasn't realistic. And we were already wasting vacation time dealing with Marielle's lies.
We did correspond with the owner of Villa Fleur and learned that Marielle Tichelaar had told them a whole different set of lies (everyone agreed to being moved around). We're reasonably sure someone else got bumped out of Villa Fleur to a lesser accommodation.
Note that Villa Fleur is a wonderful place to stay and we would be happy to recommend it. But it wasn’t what we booked and paid for, and the continual dishonesty of Marielle Tichelaar means we recommend you stay away from her and Bonaireoceanfrontvillas.com.
