The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: A word of caution....

Last March we rented a villa for two weeks for our most recent trip. It was located in the hills of St. Jean. When we arrived, we were very pleasantly surprised by the entrance, the size of the villa, and the furnishings. The view was spectacular! As with all of the villas we have rented, the pics didn't do it justice. In the following days, were also very happy to learn that everything in the villa was in working order and as advertised......villa was clean and comfortable, water so hot it could scald if we weren't careful, AC worked perfectly, internet would come and go but with a little patience it mostly worked fine. But that first day as we walked down the steps to the very unsightly pool deck , we could see major construction going on below us next door (thinking back this was most likely the reason that the pool deck had been let go to the dogs entirely...not a flower or flower pot in site, broken furniture and umbrella, mildew stained chair pads that didn't match, just extremely uninviting). So, next door we noticed there was a large, expansive villa being constructed and it was so close we could almost reach out and touch it. Since we arrived late on a Friday afternoon, I do not remember there being much noise that first day and it stayed the same throughout the weekend, only a little bit of hammering on Saturday. However Monday morning we awoke at 7:00 am to bulldozers, saws, hammering, drilling and it was this way for the entire two weeks (except for Sunday). It didn't seem these construction workers were on island time.....they really made some progress in the time we were there! We could barely carry on a conversation in the living room it was so loud. And forget about sittting out on the pool deck and listening to music or relaxing while reading. One of the few days we did try to sit by the pool, my husband looked up to see a construction worker standing on the roof of the villa catching a peek. Larry made a loud comment and the gawker quickly disappeared (we actually laughed about his later as we tried to keep our sense of humor about us). Anyway, we visited the rental company 3 times and requested to be moved. The agent even came and visited and agreed that the noise was unbearable. However, this being high season, all they had to offer us was a villa over twice the price and when we asked about a discount for our troubles, the agent just shook her head and said non. The agent did tell us she was going to contact our villa owner and request a discount on our villa, but we never heard back and we decided we weren't going to invest any further time in dilly dallying around with it. We don't feel it was handled properly at all but we decided we weren't going to ruin our vacation over it. Instead we visited friends' villas and the beaches way more (as we had in the past when we stayed at hotels). So, this is just a word of warning.......ALWAYS ASK ABOUT CONSTRUCTION WHEN RENTING A VILLA. We will be sure to next time! (If anyone wants the name of the villa and/or villa rental company, pm me)