Scott Dunn

NEGRIL, Westmoreland:

With the highly anticipated annual staging of Negril's Dream Weekend parties approaching in August, would-be patrons who have not yet secured hotel accommodations are being asked to be careful about how they attempt to book places to stay for the event.

Over the years, unscrupulous persons within the Negril area have been advertising late booking rooms and have been collecting deposits from unsuspecting persons, via money transfer agencies on rooms that either do not exist or were already booked. On arrival in Negril, persons are then made to face the unpleasant realisation that they have been scammed.

In light of this, Daniel Grizzle, proprietor of Charella Inn Resort, wants patrons to know that by November to December, most properties had already been booked.

"January is about the latest you should book a room. After that, your chances are gonna be very very slim," he said.

"If it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't," added Keith Dehaney, general manager of the Westender Inn, located on Negril's West End. "Right now, everybody is pretty much fully booked. Gullible people got to have some common sense. I wouldn't send anybody money via a transfer agency, if you're gonna send a deposit make sure it's going to a bank account."

When contacted, Scott Dunn, director of finance for dream Weekend Entertainment, said he is urging persons to book their accommodation via registered properties.

"People booking at non-registered properties are looking for trouble and they tend to get burn if they book with random persons to stay at random places. It's the same advice I would give for tickets, there are several legitimate ticket outlets all over the island, persons are advised to purchase their tickets through these agents and not from random people on the streets," he said.

Usually, it is the West End of Negril that is targeted by the scammers. Reports reaching The Star are that in addition to hotels, private homes are also advertised for rent during Dream Weekend.

Assistant superintendent in charge of the Negril Police Station, Ryan Gayle, told The Star that in many cases, when persons go and stay at those rooms, because they are not registered hotels, they have no security and usually a robbery is orchestrated.

"My advice to persons who intend to book rooms for the weekend is, don't deposit on rooms without verification that the property is a registered property. Registered properties offer insurance and security that the unregulated properties do not offe. for verification of the properties that are legitimate, persons should contact the JHTA, TPDCO or the JTA.

"Persons are free to exercise free will on unregistered properties, but if they find that they have been scammed, they should report it to the police so we can take action immediately. Coupled with that, there are three tourism liaison officers at the Negril Police Station who can assist them in terms of guiding them to properties which are legitimate," he added.