Regent Star Hotel

Location Not as advertised

The lobby is pretty ( although it has the same stench the rest of the hotel does). The shuttle service from the airport was fast because it is adjacent to the airport. It has a lot of potential as the hotel boasts many unique but everything appears to have been poorly kept and deteriorating. I stayed at the Regent Star for Carnival Monday and Tuesday 2016. I booked online last minute and paid $450/ night since the hotel stated they only had 1 room available. All of the other hotels were sold out and had no availability so although Regent Star was not my first choice, I did not think I had other options. The Regent Star's advertisement of only having 1 room available was a scam. The hotel was mostly vacant. By day 2 I knew I was the foreign fool who fell for a trick. There were actually approximately less than 10 guests total, I only saw three other guests both days and they were business travelers and one other masquerader. The hotel is NOT in Port of Spain as was advertised and is about a 30 minute commute away. Additionally for $450, the hotel did not provide anything but towels. The shuttle to POS left at 9am and stated that it was only able to come back at 2pm! I was the only person on the shuttle since no one else really was in the hotel. They told me I would have to catch a cab back if I was not ready by 2pm and I would have to call them by 1pm to even secure the shuttle. Anyone tourist who has been to carnival knows that 1) you will miss out on the heart of the parade if you leave at 2pm and 2) making calls during this time is virtually impossible. A few ladies at the front desk were actually kind, however the staff was overwhelmingly unhelpful and some were downright rude. Customer service is not of any standard here. No one even uttered a single "good morning", "good evening" or "welcome" during my stay. The food in the restaurant was extremely overpriced. The top floor was chained off and scary looking. Most of the shrubbery and foliage surrounding the property was dead (minus the ones highlighted in the pictures). I actually looked out my window and viewed a plant graveyard. How do you kill all of those plants in beautiful tropical Trinidad? I think that overall, this hotel just takes advantage of any unwitting tourist or the tired business traveler who is not familiar with Trinidad. On the third day I checked out and went to the Hyatt, I was finally treated decently. As a last insult the hotel located one of the cab services they used to take me to the Hyatt. The cab charged $240TT ($40 USD), I soon learned the going rate for that trip is $180 TT; some drivers will charge you a "local rate" and you wont even have to pay that much.