Meet Patrina

Patrina Mesquita is the marketing manager, and daughter of the owners, of the Marine View Hotel on James Avenue.

The Marine View is a family run business — please introduce us to y’all!

My hard working parents established the hotel in 1988 and continue running it to this day. It has become my function to run the marketing and internet side of the business as well as handle customer services. I am in Florida some of the time but still fulfil all of my Ochi duties.

Have you lived in Ochi all your life?

Yes, apart that is from my Florida time. I was raised in this hotel so this is my childhood home!

Patrina, what do you find most rewarding about your role in the business?

To help my parents to run this and make it grow, in the knowledge that everything we do is towards the family cause. Also, when I’m in my ‘Jamaican overseas’ mode, my lifelong hotel experience means I have great insight into what visitors want which gives me a warm glow.

Tell us about a typical day if such a thing exists…

I leap out of bed early, and after I get washed and dressed and fill mi belly :-) I check in with the office, deal with any issues, communications and emails, perform all ongoing marketing tasks, check online customer reviews, and just generally make myself useful!

What qualities do you like most about Marine View?

What qualities do I most like… first off is how we take pride in welcoming our customers. As ‘guest relation officer’ I put a lot of effort in to making sure they are happy and their needs are fulfilled.

Secondly, well I would say our location — what is cool is that, though we are in a quiet corner of town, our proximity to the central bars, restaurants, shopping areas and beaches means all is within handy walking distance for our guests — local Jamaican life is just around the corner!

So Marine View is pleasantly tucked away along leafy James Avenue — how do guests discover you?

The usual channels! Marketing, word of mouth… and of course the majority of bookings nowadays take place on the internet so we have a strong online presence.

We are delighted in that a lot of our guests from all over the world have stayed with us before and make a point of staying with us whenever they come back. They become almost a part of the family — so whatever we do to spread the word we must be getting it right!

Describe a perfect day in Ocho Rios, that you would recommend to guests?

My favourite recommendations are the Blue Hole and White River Rafting/Tubing. I guess you’ve already covered the main attractions on your own Cool Places To Visit page. But visitors must try out the jerk chicken at the Ocho Rios Jerk Centre or, heading a little further out of town, Scotchies.

We love a bit of juicy gossip at Guava Jelly Guide… any amusing guest stories you want to dish out?

Mmm hmmm... well you know we’ve been here for over 30 years and we want people to continue to put their trust in us, so my lips are sealed lol. Of course we do witness the usual relationship dramas from time to time, but that’s just life so there’s nothing particularly juicy to report… ;-)

If fortune smiled on you and you won squillions of dollars in the lottery, how would you spend it?

I love this island so much, so I’d definitely look into and act upon enhancing a lot of people’s lives. I’d like to assist schools and churches, communities and so on, and to help alleviate poverty in any way I could.

If you could upgrade Ochi in whatever way, what would be your priority?

Two issues I would address first would be to fix the roads and improve garbage collection for a cleaner environment — we need to make these things better and maintain standards in a town that attracts tourists.

Do carrots scream when you chop them?

Lol… I would say yes to the carrot question! But, while any carrot who checked into the Marine View would receive the warmest of carroty welcomes during its stay, there are a lot of eager chefs in Ochi so I would not like to imagine what goes on outside of our care.