A big disappointmwnt
Feb 4, 2025 ClaireMichelle312 London, United Kingdom
Unfortunately, I do echo so many of the other recent reviews. We were really looking forward to arriving in resort to a warm Caribbean welcome, but instead we just had to queue up whist one receptionist was checking other guests in already. No welcome smile, no music, no welcome drink, no concierge, nothing. And that was our first impression….…
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Unfortunately, I do echo so many of the other recent reviews. We were really looking forward to arriving in resort to a warm Caribbean welcome, but instead we just had to queue up whist one receptionist was checking other guests in already. No welcome smile, no music, no welcome drink, no concierge, nothing. And that was our first impression…. The receptionist clearly didn’t want to be there, and all the while she ‘processed us’ at check-in, she was answering the phone as well each time it rang. In fact her ‘attitude’ was not unusual, the staff in this hotel all really did not want to be there. This is the Caribbean, I was expecting a smiley, happy atmosphere, but far from it!
Every member of staff wherever we went was miserable, bordering on rude at times - with the exception of the lady behind the bar at the main pool (Cressida I think her name was), she was lovely! She deserves a bonus, she knows about customer service!
Our bedroom was spacious, but tired, the bathrooms need modernising - and they call this a 5* luxury resort, but the rooms are only cleaned/beds made every two days, and towels changed every three days.
The towels at the main pool wouldn’t arrive until about 10am, but the pool opens at 0830.
And the list goes on….. So, after two days I went to speak to Guest Relations. The lady listened, said how sorry she was to hear my comments, made a load of notes, but nothing seemed to change. The left hand really didn’t know what the right hand was doing.
The queues for the non-bookable restaurants were ridiculous, and there was not enough availability in the bookable restaurants. On our third evening, I thought I had booked a dinner table in the main restaurant, we requested 7pm. I made the reservation with reception, was told it was all fine, only to find out when we turned up at the restaurant that they NEVER offer a 7pm booking apparently, they are all on the half hour! So then we were told they were full and were turned away - disgusting service!
The service standards in the restaurants were just appalling, often having to wait 1hr+ for food, and that’s after queuing for a table. Then when the food/drinks did come, there was nearly always something forgotten, so frustrating.
I enquired about drinks service on the beach. I was told in no uncertain terms that ‘there’s a blue kart with a straw roof that drives along every hour, hadn’t I seen it?’ Well, no, I definitely hadn’t missed this…. It wasn’t until day 6 of our holiday that there it was, driving along the beach, offering drinks. I enquired as to its whereabouts for the past week, and the guy told me they’ve been short staffed so it’s not been out for a while, and only at 2.30 that day he was told to take it out.
As I said before, I did try and have a conversation about all these issues when we were there, as I didn’t want to just write all this upon returning home, but despite what the Guest Relations Manager said, the fundamental flaws are too engrained and it will need a strong operations manager to come in and make some changes.
Having read a number of other replies to other reviews, it does seem to get mentioned that the hotel has many repeat customers, but it’s worth noting that there are timeshare apartments within the resort which would result in repeat custom, but most of these are self catering.
It’s such a shame, this resort could be so much better, it really is not a ‘5 Star Luxury Resort’.
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