Just returned from this property after fully paying for a 5 night stay as a Platinum guest for our 20th wedding anniversary. I will share a few things below to help fellow flyer-talkers.

Transportation: We did not rent a car after reading the horrible road conditions from others.

Airport Transfers: The hotel is located about 1:15 hour away from the airport. We hired a transportation company (Liberia Airport Shuttle Service) for round trip private transfers for $80 each way. They were reliable and on-time.

Hotel Check-in: Arrived at the hotel around 3:30 pm. The person that handled our check in (Dennis) lacked basic customer service skills. He started his “welcome” by saying he would try to find us a pool view room since I was Platinum​​​​​​. He had an envelope filled with coupons to different events at the hotel which we did not use a single one. After listening for about 15 minutes, I told him that Marriott reservations told me hotel was basically empty and we would appreciate an ocean view room upgrade. After wasting another 10 minutes, I asked to speak with the GM. The GM seemed like a nice person and they found a partial ocean view (?) suite on the lowest floor.

The room: We couldn’t see the ocean or the pool from anywhere in our room, instead there was a tiny spa and a grassy area outside. Went out to the patio to sit down on the lounger, noticed a black widow spider on the cushion! Asked for a room change on a higher floor, took them over 2 days to change our room with only 16% occupancy with a pool/distant ocean view. The second room shower was stuck in scolding hot setting, but was fixed to a semi-acceptable level on day 4.

The restaurants: They have 4 very expensive restaurants on the property, but only 2 open due to the rainy/low season. The breakfast was good, but dinners were average at best. Their “catch of the day” was red snapper every day for 5 nights. Our last night, the snapper was served barely lukewarm on a heated plate.. They obviously pre-cooked the fish and served after microwaving even though there was only 2 couples having dinner including us.. When mentioned, the chef came to the table and offered free desert which we declined. The service was very amateurish, most of the waiters lacked very basic skills.

Pool area: Hotel had a group of young employees from a company staying as a reward. They started drinking around 9am and were drunk and loud before noon invading our personal space, so we ended up moving around to find a semi quiet spot to relax. The pool staff couldn’t care less and kept serving them alcohol even after I mentioned the issue.

The beach: can’t swim, full of lava rocks and strong waves and rip currents. Nice to walk on, but be careful if you walk too far, as the high tide will prevent you from returning back to the hotel. Looked like a good place to surf about 2 miles to the south. But a surfer caught a baby salt water crocodile across the river opening. Obviously, they are common in the area and a couple of people were attacked by them in the last 3 years.

Overall, this hotel is very far from a typical JW Marriott I experienced all over the world. Even though Marriott reservations made a note about our wedding anniversary, there was absolutely nothing special done by the hotel. The service, room and food quality were well below average. The location is far from any civilization and the hotel takes advantage of it by overcharging for everything.

We will not be going back to this location again and will reconsider my loyalty to Marriott after this experience. Hope this review helps you all.