Christie Caronis

Review of Sonesta Resorts - St. Maarten

Just returned from a week at this hotel. I d like ...

Just returned from a week at this hotel. I d like to give them the benefit of the doubt as they are clearly still trying to get their act together, but there was a lot that went wrong. AND a lot of bad service/attitudes which has nothing to do with their reopening.

Check-in: They did bring us the cold towels and Champagne, so that was nice as lobby is HOT and wait is LONG. We arrived about 2:00 and were told our room wasn t ready. It was FINALLY ready at 3:45 (check-in is at 3:00). The woman who checked us in acted like this wasn t the hotel s fault and made no offer to do anything. After I complained, they sent us a bottle of wine and a small plate of dessert the next day. Elevators broke several times, are hot and open at every floor sometimes.

Room: Our room had clearly just been cleaned as the floor was still wet. Our stocked mini fridge was dirty and empty. Ice machine is on 4th floor, but it was broken on day 2 of our trip, so we had to go to front desk for ice! Overall, we thought the room was fine great view except you can t see the sunset (we had premier ocean view). We did have to ask FIVE times over two days for extra pillows (finally got ONE). Took forever to get warm/hot water in the shower if it actually got warm. Had to run A/C and fan to drown out the coughing next door and music at night. There was a slight sewage smell in the hallway at times.

Amenities: We only went to pool and the beach area by the Palms Grill. Didn t go down to actual beach and get chairs as that got crowded early. Most of the time, we got two loungers under an umbrella by the pool. You usually want to claim your chair(s) early like when you go to breakfast. Only one day was it totally packed without any chair available. They do close the pool pretty early to clean it it might have been 7:00 pm? Wi-FI SUCKED it was so slow that the TV would hang for 1-3 seconds constantly as you watched shows.

Activities: They did have a lot of activities at the pool including water aerobics, daily games like trivia and bingo, etc. Didn t go to fitness center nor the casino area. My son is almost 13, so he didn t go to the kids club, and the teens club still isn t open. They had a beach dinner party one night that was nice. Live music every night until 10 or later (NOT nice when you re trying to sleep, so run the A/C fan to drown it out). On their website, they mention nightly theme parties, live entertainment and outdoor movies other than the beach dinner party and nightly music, I don t recall theme parties nor outdoor movies happening.

Food/Drink: The drinks typically came in small, plastic cups (nothing like the big drinks they show in the video on their home page, lol!). Recommend bringing your own Yeti or something! As for the food the Ascot Pub was closed. Jing s Kitchen is HORRIBLE food and a joke as a buffet. The front desk will tell you that you don t need a reservation to go there, but they are totally rude and roll their eyes if you show up without one! The Point probably had the best food, so make your reservations there as soon as you arrive took us three days to get in! We mostly ate lunch at the Palms Grill and breakfast at the Ocean Terrace (buffet was just okay). We did the Palms for dinner once but thought the sides were horrible, and it really wasn t fun cooking our own meat. They do run out of stuff on a regular basis, too. When all else failed, we got pizza from Napoli. Most of the time, you were waiting for pizza, though.

Overall, I d say the place has potential maybe once everything is working and open. But they really need to sit down most of their staff and talk about CUSTOMER SERVICE and attitudes. Holy cow, it was pretty bad at times with how we were ignored or talked to or even looked at (until you pulled out some cash, lol). The best service we had was by a woman named Dorian at the Palms Grill she definitely stood out from the rest as she was actually NICE to us and didn t act like we were a huge inconvenience! I have mixed feelings about staying there again or recommending.