Have you ever seen the hilarious “Start The Car!!!” Ikea commercial? The one where the woman finishes shopping and thinks they made some kind of mistake on her receipt because the deal was just too good.
If you’ve not seen it, watch it below, laugh, and then continue reading.
My last trip to Jamaica was a very tight schedule of events. I was there for a short nine nights and it worked out that I had five different accommodations set up. Only a lunatic would create that tight of a schedule, I know.
My first review was at Sea Cliff Hotel in Portland and the owners graciously offered me two complimentary nights in order to write the review. Since Portland is so far away I had asked while arranging the review, if I could stay an additional night at my own expense in order to have an extra day to experience that end of the island. Of course they said yes, and pricing for the third night would be in accordance with the rates that their website reflected.
I was traveling with my Canadian friend, Carmen, as mentioned in this post about our first 24 hours on the island. Portland was our second stop for three nights in our journey.
What I didn’t mention in my review of Sea Cliff is that there were a couple of mishaps, which may or may not be the reasons for our “Start the car!!” moment on the day we checked out. We’ll never know the truth but it kept us laughing LONG after we left.
When Carmen and I checked into Sea Cliff, we were given a beautiful standard room with two beds. Before we got settled into that room Carmen turned on the air conditioning to cool it off a bit and soon after she did that we realized the AC unit wasn’t working properly. We let the owners know, they came to check on it, and sure enough there was a problem with the unit. So we were moved to a much nicer master suite on the top floor of the hotel. The ONLY downside of the master suite was that there was only one bed. A king bed that we would have to share. We had no problem with the upgrade but I wondered if we would be charged the rate for the master suite for our third night. I hoped not because the room switch wasn’t our fault.
The second thing that happened during our stay was the main water pump in the building broke and we went almost a full day with no water supply. Although water issues are somewhat normal in Jamaica they still aren’t pleasant because of the heat. But we made do and hung out in the pool on the property for a good part of the day while the pump was being repaired.
NOTE: Please don’t let those two mishaps reflect as negative feedback about Sea Cliff. They were both isolated incidents that unfortunately happened at the same time during my stay.
Our wonderful, three-night stay came and went, we paid cash or credit for everything while we were there, and upon the day of check-out we were only expecting to pay for our third night. Once we loaded our bags into the car we went to the front office to check out.
I asked the front office girl what we owed but she said we’re all good to go.
I was a little puzzled so I asked, “Are you sure we don’t owe anything?”
She replied, “Did you pay for all your meals while you were here?”
Me:Â “Yes”
Her:Â “Then you should be good to go”.
For a brief moment I wondered if maybe she didn’t know about my arrangement with the owners to pay for the third night so I just stood there looking at her. Then I looked at Carmen. Then back at the office girl. We all just stood there in a clueless triangle exchanging side-eye glances back and forth. It was one of the most awkward moments of my life.
She then said with a laugh, “Well if you want to leave me money you can. But you’re all clear here”.
I glanced one more time at Carmen and then we quickly agreed that we should leave. We said our thank-you’s and told her to say goodbye to the owners for us since they didn’t seem to be around that day, and we walked to our car…..very quietly.
The minute Carmen and I got into the car and shut the doors we both looked at each other and simultaneously yelled….“START THE CAR!!!” And off we went, in a blaze of laughing glory!
A couple days later I emailed the property owners to thank them for the wonderful experience and I was fully expecting to get a reply with a bill attached for our third night. But that never happened. They just replied that it was wonderful to have us and they were looking forward to reading my review.
To this day I have absolutely no idea what really happened there, or why. Was it because of the couple of mishaps? Was it just generosity? I have no clue but it was undoubtedly one of the funniest moments of that entire trip, along with our other “Start the car!!” moment starring the Portland police.
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