Royalton Antigua, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort

One of the worst trips I have ever had. It started with a smelly damp room that nothing ever dried out in, to having to call the restaurant manager in the Steak House because they had no steak. Thankfully Sharon was the manager that night and she is the ONLY reason the rest of the week was enjoyable. The food was very hit and miss and usually cold and it took an average of 45-60 minutes to receive it. To top it off the staff had a strike the week we were there and that didn't help the situation. Your staff is not happy, do something! I have never been to a place that was so poorly run, in such a beautiful location and management doesn't seem to care. I will tell everyone that asks not to go there. People are just doing their job, there's not many that are happy to be there and bringing in new people won't help until management gets their head of out their butts and takes a good look at the problems. Overall the only thing that place has going for it is the beautiful beach. Read less

Let me start by saying we had an amazing holiday and have made some fantastic memories in this beautiful country. I had read the recent reviews a few days before arriving at the Royalton and was worried. I would say a lot of these reviews are unfortunately true which I will get to however there are lots of positive things about this hotel and I do think some of the reviews are exaggerated slightly. What we liked/loved: Antigua is a beautiful country and the people are genuinely so welcoming and friendly. When we arrived at the hotel, the staff who greeted us were so warm and inviting, as well as the staff at the front desk. We were seen to promptly, given refreshments on arrival and didn’t have to wait long at all before being transported to our room via golf buggy along with our bags. We had picked a bay view room which did not disappoint.. this hotel is in a stunning location and everywhere you look, the views are beautiful. Large bed which was comfortable. Room was always very clean. The bathroom not so much… I will get to this later. We stayed at this hotel the first week of December. The hotel was decorated for Christmas and there was Christmas music playing throughout which was lovely. The beach is absolutely gorgeous.. no seaweed, clean, soft sand. Just perfect really. We never struggled for beds and beds with shade although perhaps this is due to the time of year. The food in the buffet restaurant was lovely - great selection, lots of healthy options, one of the nicest hotel buffet restaurant I’ve experienced. Also, lots of options for my baby to eat and plenty of highchairs. The staff at this hotel are a credit to this organisation. Apart from one or two, they were very friendly and took the time to chat and get to know us, not just the staff serving us at the restaurants/bars but even while we were walking around the grounds, staff from different departments would say hello and stop to speak to us. This again gives the hotel such a warm, welcoming atmosphere and we got to know some really lovely people at this hotel. Scoops/coffee shop was a highlight for us which opens daily at 06.30am and closes at 10pm serving delicious drinks, ice cream, pastries, cakes and sandwiches. We loved being able to grab a take out coffee early on a morning and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, as well as enjoying a late night hot chocolate! Now for the areas for improvement.. We noticed a couple of days into our holiday that the bathroom wasn’t getting cleaned properly, particularly the floor and the shower. By the end of week, the bathroom had an awful funky smell which I can only assume is due to the shower and floor having never been cleaned. One of the taps didn’t work properly in the bathroom and when it was turned on, it would release an awful foul smell of drains. There are no baths in the hotel which concerned me initially due to having a baby, however we just bought an inflatable infant bath and this worked fine. I had read some reviews saying the bedrooms had an unpleasant smell. I would say this is true and we noticed the unpleasant smell upon arrival. The mini bar is supposed to be restocked daily. There were two occasions where we had to phone and ask for the fridge to be replenished as it had not been done. A main theme across the negative reviews is the issue of the restaurants/bars running out of things. This was very true and so frustrating. Avoid the beach restaurant. We waited ages to be seated at lunchtime only to be told half the menu was unavailable. We decided to order nachos in the end and were given tortilla chips and melted cheese.. no guacamole, no salsa, nothing (despite having these in the sports bar the night before which had all the toppings you’d expect). Not the standard and quality you’d expect from a 5 star hotel. We also gave up on the sports bar in the end which also constantly ran out of things on the menu. What didn’t make sense was that the restaurants would say they had ran out of things like burgers for example, but then if you went into the buffet restaurant, you could help yourself to a burger?! Why couldn’t the food be distributed equally across the different restaurants? We visited the steak restaurant on two occasions. The first time, we ordered onion rings and were given breaded onion rings that you’d find in the freezer aisle of a supermarket. The second time we visited, we asked for onion rings again and were given delicious, fresh, restaurant style onion rings. Clearly that first night, they had ran out of the good stuff so were using basic frozen food as back up! Again, not 5 star standard. We visited the Italian restaurant twice. First time was faultless, the second time we arrived and were told on arrival that a butler had cancelled our reservation (even though we weren’t Diamond Club and had had no communication with a butler). It seems that a butler had cancelled our reservation to make room for another party! Luckily the hostess was accommodating and seated us regardless. Pizza in the Italian restaurant was worse than in the buffet restaurant. Otherwise, the food was really nice. On our last day, we woke up to hear chanting and protesting from the staff at the front of the hotel repeatedly shouting “no work today”. We later discovered a strike was taking place and management had to step in and help out on the shop floor. The coffee shop was chained up and didn’t open until the afternoon which was disappointing and the pool bar was unoccupied for a few hours, resulting in guests going behind the bar in the end and scavenging for drinks. What a calamity, I have never seen anything like it. Thankfully it was our last day but I wouldn’t have been very happy if we had just arrived and had to witness the chaos that took place. There was such an awkward atmosphere throughout the hotel that day, I am relieved we were going home anyway! I was sitting by the bar in the main lobby waiting to go to the airport and had to listen to one member of staff in particular swearing and shouting while restocking the bar. I overheard the group being told to quieten down as guests would be able to hear them…yes I could hear and it was uncomfortable to listen to. Very unprofessional of this certain member of staff to be swearing in front of guests. I did however feel really sorry for those who were still working that day and having to rush around trying to keep on top of everything and keep things running as smoothly as possible. Would I give this hotel 5 stars? Probably not mainly due to the ongoing issues of the restaurants and bars running out of things. I had an amazing holiday with my family, most of the staff are fantastic and the location is perfect but unless the hotel addresses the problems mentioned time and time again, I wouldn’t return here or recommend it. Read less

Restaurants were very badly stocked. We visited 3 after struggling to book earlier times. Each restaurant had bad issues of "out of stock" items/ drinks. We gave up booking after that & stuck to the Gourmet Marchè (buffet). As a five star hotel, you would expect it to be well stocked with everything on menues etc. Couldn't fault any of the staff. They were fantastic & felt sorry for them having to tell people that food is out of stock! On the day of our departure, we tried to get a bottle of water from the cocktail bar by the reception & got told they hadn't got any as it was "out of stock!" Not a great experience. Expected better! My partner also got locked in one of the toilets by Grazie! After reading a few reviews on our return home, we found this has been an ongoing problem for quite a while. Whoever is in charge of these problems either needs firing, or pull their finger out & put it right. We also watched one of the guys strimming the huge lawn in front of the hotel. He said the lawnmower was broken! It was 30 degrees & it took him 3 days! For the price you pay for the holiday, you would expect them to be able to afford a couple of lawn mowers! Unfortunately we will not be staying again & definitely will not be recommending to anyone. Cheaper hotels have been 100% better than this one. Such a shame because it's in a lovely setting! Read less

The resort is on a beautiful white sugar sand beach with really clear blue water. This was the best part. Also the staff were ALL very nice and friendly and were accommodating to the extent possible. So why rate it a 2? For a few reasons. The first day we woke up and the service staff ALL went on strike. All restaurants AND bars except the buffet were closed. Management stepped in to keep the buffet open for breakfast and lunch. Went to the beach, the beach bar was also closed so couldn’t even get a water. We would have been happy to do self service but they locked the access door so we couldn’t even serve ourselves. The gift shop was open but they wanted to sell us water!! At an all inclusive this was offensive really. Then there is the issue with the food. It is honestly not very good food here. For an all inclusive you expect decent food, not gourmet food but really so far it’s been a big disappointment. I travel a lot and have stayed at middle of the road all inclusive resorts as well as extremely high end resorts. I know you get what you pay for but in this case I think you could do better going someplace else if you expect to eat even half decent food. We asked which restaurant was the best and it was repeatedly the Caribbean. We got reservations and expected it to be better than the buffet. How do you ruin a red snapper by overcooking it till it is worse than shoe leather and cannot be cut with a fork? Not just one person but 3 people all said the same thing. At the buffet, how do you serve meat that is so tough you can’t hardly chew it? Another couple meantime told us that after waiting 2 days to get into the steak restaurant, they actually “ran out of steak” and then the staff finally went and got them the good steak filets they want to sell at extra cost, because the couple got upset with the situation? I saw mixed reviews of this place. Don’t do what I did and ignore the bad reviews. It’s not just people that are never satisfied that write bad reviews. Read less