Tiamo Resorts vs. Mark & Cathy Sussman [1]

My wife and I went to Tiamo Resorts in the Bahamas on a vacation in March 2010. On our last night there, all of the cash in our luggage was stolen, amounting to $7600. We were told by the owners of the resort that his insurance would cover this loss, and he asked us to please be discreet. We were rushed off the resort and taken to the airport in Congo Town for our connecting flight to Nassau. While at the airport, we filed a report with the police. The police also took pictures of the luggage of our neighbors at the resort, who had their suitcase slashed into. Upon check-in at the resort, we had asked if the guest cottages had safes, and we were told that all was secure, and we could leave everything out. In other words, there were no in-room safes.

In the following months, we were discreet, but then we felt it was our responsibility to submit an honest review on TripAdvisor.com. (We also uncovered "visitor" reviews of the resort written by the resort's owner and reported this to the website.) We recently received a threatening letter from the law firm representing this resort. In this letter, the owners of the resort essentially call us liars and begin to twist the account of what happened. Included in this submission is a copy of that letter, and an ensuing letter where the resort asks us to remove ALL reviews. I've also included an email where the owner of the resort thanks us for being so cooperative and not making a scene the morning of our departure after we reported the theft.

There is a link to an article from the Nassau Guardian reporting on a separate theft at the resort that happened in April. The resort is attempting to bully us into removing our review from ALL travel sites, and we never agreed to do so. In fact, in the initial letter from their law firm, Tiamo states that they have no problem with people expressing their opinions, positive or otherwise. It seems that is not the case. They want to remove any negative reviews from the travel websites.