I stayed at Crane Ridge for 4 days in January 2008 with my fiancé. I had briefly visited the grounds for dinner several years earlier, but had never stayed here. Crane Ridge has lovely grounds, beautiful flowers, and a great view of the sea. It's on a rather steep hill, so if you're not up for a climb you might want to ask a driver.
As much as I really wanted to love this place, the rooms were disappointing... The first room we were placed in was on the ground floor and had black marks on the bathroom tiles (looked like muddy water, but wasn't wet), rust around the edges of the refridgerator and looked run-down. The staff was very nice and quickly moved us upon request.
The second room was on the second floor with a balcony overlooking the restaurant with a view of the pool and also the ocean. Again, it was not in top shape, with peeling paint, missing grout, a shower that wet the entire bathroom, but you could tell how lovely the room could've been with some simple repairs and a fresh coat of paint. I loved that our room had a living room with couch and twin bed, as well as a kitchenette with sink and refridgerator. The balcony was also lovely- we had doors opening onto it from the living room and bedroom.
We swam in the pool, dipped in the hot tub, ate breakfast at the resort, and generally spent most of the day away from the hotel. The staff was very friendly, and I enjoyed chatting with the bartender and trying to understand the rules of cricket. I felt safe on the grounds, and loved listening to the tree frogs from the balcony at night. I enjoyed my time at Crane Ridge overall, but it would've been so much better if the rooms were given some attention.

The hotel needs updating it looks great on the website which I think is misleading. The staff are friendly and that's the only good thing I have to say about this place

My husband and family stayed for only 1 week (thankfully) We stayed on the second floor so there is no-way anyone can get in, only via the front door, yet we had a very expensive camera stolen and the fact that it had some old family pictures which are irreplaceable, made it worse.

We reported it the manager and he did absolutely nothing in fact he made us feel like we had stolen our own camera. As far as he was concerned no one had ever reported stolen property before, which I find very hard to believe.
Having read the reviews I now know it is not true

My husband who was born in Jamaica feels very angry that tourist who go on holiday here and spend their hard earned cash are being let down by this hotel and the management.

We shouldn't have ignored the negative reviews. It's true "The rooms are in much need of upgrades and repairs." This used to be a great location for the money, but with the new ownership and management the place seems to be falling apart. We initially negotiated a two bedroom suite with an ocean view. However, upon our arrival we were informed that the staff needed a few more hours to prepare our suite. Three hours later management informed us that the suite was actually under construction.

So, the staff then escorted us to a substitute suite that was dark, damp and secluded with no view. After a review of our booking information and itinerary the staff apologized and moved us to a THIRD suite with a semi ocean view. It sucks to be the 'complaining couple' so we decided to work with what we had. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out as well as we had hoped. Repairmen visited our suite so many times we lost count.
PROBLEM #1: Three of the four electric stove tops did not work and the one range top that did work was temperamental.

PROBLEM #2: The Jacuzzi leaked into the bathroom downstairs (even though the Jacuzzi was empty).
PROBLEM #3: Ants were all over the kitchenette.

PROBLEM #4: Management claimed to have called us to apologize for the inconveniences but we never received those calls because the phones in our suite weren't working.
PROBLEM #5: Service was unusually slow and not one of these issues were ever repaired or resolved.

This all happened within 4 days! They then offered to move us to a fourth suite but we decided to check out early and eat the bill as management made no realistic effort to compensate us, other than redundant apologies.
A FEW GOOD THINGS:

If you plan to walk into the market and interact with the real people of Ocho Rios, attend reggae concerts, visit Dolphin Cove, hang at Margaritaville and climb Dunn's River Falls then you will find the location ideal. But you could probably find better accommodations nearby.

If you should stay there try not to take your frustrations out on the staff as most of them are GOOD PEOPLE with lively spirits and great attitudes. The continental breakfast was decent as well.

Me and my 2 colleagues arrived at Crane Ridge on 7 November 2007, where we booked to stay for 2 weeks, as we had come over for a colleagues wedding. Now where do I begin, the room we had allocted had 2 double beds and the room itself looked great, but looks can be decieving. I proceeded into bedroom to unpack suitcase only to find a trail of ants coming out of Air Conditioning unit, on the bed head and all over the bed. There was know way I was sleeping in there mate. We complained and they moved us to a much nicer room on the ground near the pool. However whilst in the room we had problems with the sink plug constantly breaking and the staff who repair things do so in their own sweet time. Lets just say they knew our room number of by heart as we were always ringing to complain about something for example Air conditioning unit in living room started leaking water big time, hey it was near plugs etc, dangerous yeah, but did they come along swiftly, like hell mate, we had to make several calls before they finally came to deal with it. Hey we could have had electric shock and by the time they arrive we would have been dead (slow is not the word) a snail would be faster at dealing with things. The first couple of days at the hotel was ok, the restaurant had a good supply of food (well that is for at least 3 days) then when you wanted to order something on menu they only had some of the items as others food items were not available, what a joke. Lets just say when you first arrive they have everything on menu to draw you in but after the 3rd day, you would be lucky to get jelly (AKA Jam) for your bread. It seems that they only put out stock when you first arrive then it dissapears. Their were some nice staff in the resturant but there was also some donuts who did not have a clue, take for instance I ordered starters and my main meal. I did not expect both to be brought to me at the same time, by the time I finished my starters my bloody main meal was cold, what a joke. The girl who took our order got the strop even though she took the order wrong she tried to make out it was our fault, non customer friendly.

The walk down and up to the hotel was via a steep slope, people if you are not fit you best rely on taking a cab up the slope because it is a killer man. You legs may well give out on you. For those of you who want a work out go for it the slope will do it for you if you dont collapse half way up. This was in no way disability friendly. In fact I could not see any real access points for wheel chair users (not good).

The security is so lax, as we had stalkers yes stalkers trying to get access to our room. On calling the security when the so called security turned up it was the security guard hiding at the back of his supervisor (what a joke) the supervisor was not really interested in where the stalkers had gone but was busy chatting up my mate. Trust to say we did not call security again. What we could not understand is that they have security at the gate down the slope who stop you when you arrive in a cab to ask who you are although they saw us every bloody day, I think they were trying to be difficult or were just idiots, yet they allowed guys to walk in off the road to stalk us, messed up or what.

Now let me get onto the sheer madness that transpired during our last days, first the jacuzzi on site overheated and how did we know this, my friend was going to step into the bloody thing but because she saw the heat coming out she decided to put her foot in to test it. Wait for it, you ready she had to pull her foot out quick time or it would have her cooked foot. The bloody jacuzzi was well over heated and know one had tested it to make sure it was safe. On reporting the fault what do you think happened next wait for it, a maintenance man came knocking on our door thinking we had complained about the bloody sink what a dumbo. My mate had to explain it was the jacuzzi so he went to deal with that, lets say by the time we left we did not know if it had been sorted or not all we knew we were not going to attempt getting in there to be boiled alive.

The toilet overflowed and the stupid maintenance man instead of checking the ball cock which we pointed out he arrived with 2 bottles of acid to unblock the thing. We had to point out that it was not acid that was needed like say a rat was in there or something idiot. All he needed to do was fix up the ball cock, I am sure he felt like an idiot.

Now for the ultimate madness on the last day yes last day in the morning before we were scheduled to check out, we received a call from the reception stating that we had to vacate room as emergency works needed to be undertaken. We would be moved to another room and porters would be sent to help move us. On asking what works know one could say what emergency works was to be carried out. We eventually packed up and moved to another room. Went to breakfast and when we came back the bedroom was riddled with bloody ants that bite your ass. My suitcases were not yet zipped up so I had to unpack everything as the ants had crawled all over my things. I was pissed mate, and when we complained someone finally arrived to spray the place to little to bloody late mate. I still think they put us in that room knowing it had an ant problem to get us back for complaining so much about there cock ups.

Another thing you best bring your own iron and hair dryer because although the rooms should come with them we had to ask for both items and they had the bloody cheek to telephone to ask if they could come and pick back up hair dryer, as the impression was they only had one for the whole damn hotel. Did we give it back, hell no, not until the day we checked out.

Crane Ridge will I ever stay there again like hell mate. I would have licked my head and have brain damage before I venture there again. I AIN'T GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT MATE.

For all you who venture there good climbing you were warned.