My Beachfront Rental Cabin in Jamaica Is Knee-Deep in Hurricane Floods

This as-told-to essay is based on a Wednesday evening conversation with Jordan Senior, 36, a rental-property owner and operator in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m family with most people in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. I’ve lived here for years, and I work in the hospitality industry, running short-term rentals.

As a Jamaican local, I’m no stranger to hurricanes. I was here during Hurricane Ivan. I was here for Beryl in 2024. I lost the roof on my home during Beryl.

We were stressed about Hurricane Melissa. Authorities told us it would be a Category Five hurricane.

They said, “We’ve never had a hurricane like this before. It’s going to wreck the place. Prepare, prepare, prepare.”

When it finally arrived, it wasn’t the worst I’ve lived through, but it was rough. I sheltered at home with my wife, and the wind and rain were so strong that we couldn’t see anything.

Outside our window, it was all just white — a white spray of water everywhere.

When it died down, I took stock of the rental cabin that is my primary source of income. It is just a short distance from my home, and the flooding around it was the worst I’ve ever seen.

Cashaw Cabin

I built Cashaw Cabin, a one-bedroom A-frame cabin with a private pool five minutes from Treasure Beach, in 2022 and opened it for business in 2023. I invested about $40,000 in the property.

It has a small kitchenette, a full bathroom, a patio, a back garden, and a plunge pool, and is perfect for two people.

Across the year, it’s booked about 15 to 20 nights a month, but from mid-November to May, it’s booked out almost every night.

I rent it for about $115 to $150 per night, depending on the time of the year, on platforms like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia. Apart from my photography gig, it’s my primary source of income, and I earn around $30,000 yearly from it.

Guests have described it as rustic chic and said they felt like they were on an island by themselves in the cabin.

Hurricane damage

After Hurricane Melissa, it looks like it’s been submerged in the sea.

The flooding is up to my knee, and it’s impossible to enter the cabin. The landscaping has been wiped clean.

The water is slowly going down, so I just have to wait and see. But I don’t think I will be in a position to reopen it to guests for at least a month and a half, maybe even January.

Airbnb has canceled my bookings. I understand, that’s no problem, they have to look after people.

But at the same time, maybe the host needs some help, too. If you’re canceling bookings months after a storm, that doesn’t really work out for the hosts because we don’t have anything to look forward to in terms of earnings.

I’m trying to get this thing ready so I can host again as soon as possible.

A new property that’s set back by months

I was using the earnings from Cashaw Cabin to partially fund another construction project, a two-bedroom villa. It was almost ready to start operations. If not for the hurricane, it would have been up in a couple of weeks.

This villa and two other properties I’m building have cost me about $60,000, which I’ve funded from my savings and with a family investor.

The unit is largely destroyed. The frame is still there, but the roof is gone, and something hit the wall and smashed it up. So that has to be repaired again, because all the work that’s already been done has been annihilated.

The money I was going to spend on the final touches on the property and its launch will now have to be used for repair work. I’ll have to dip even further into my savings now.

Physically, I’m OK. Mentally, I’m exhausted.

Representatives for Airbnb, Booking.com, and Expedia did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Airbnb has a major disruptive events policy that guides how it handles cancellations and refunds. Hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea are in its list of “most common foreseeable weather events.” Affected Airbnb hosts in the region can cancel reservations without paying fees, per Airbnb’s website.

In a press release on Wednesday, Airbnb said it would offer free emergency housing for Hurricane Melissa first responders in affected Caribbean countries, including Jamaica.