Comfort Suites Paradise Island
 

Anyone stayed at the Comfort Suites Paradise Island?

It says that...
The Comfort Suites® Paradise Island is located adjacent to the Atlantis Paradise Island and guests of the hotel can enjoy full use of all their facilities, including swimming pools, private beach, magnificent waterscapes, Lazy River Ride, water slides, health spa, tennis, and Kids Camp. Guests also have full signing privileges at Atlantis' restaurants and lounges.

Is this without an additional charge? Anyone tried it? It costs 25000 points or about $170 per nite seems like a decent use of points?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

The general consensus on TripAdvisor is that it's the real deal. Haven't stayed there myself but have been looking at the same idea as you for this winter; would also appreciate commentary from those in the know.

jt, I found a thread from earlier this year... good info. THX FTers

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choic...d-bahamas.html

Additional comments greatly appreciated.

yes this is a great property to stay at. def worth it for having access to atlantis.

What it doesnt tell you is there is a 40$ a day charge for housekeeping and also 10 dollars a day for each person in room for the wristband that gets you into atlantis.

According to the hotel website it's

"Must have one adult 21 years or older in each room. Children under 15yrs stay free if sharing room with parents. Children 12-15 years of age are charged a $4.50 per night housekeeping gratuity. Person 16 years and older are charged as adults. Third or fourth adult in room are charged $40 per night plus taxes and service charges per night. Energy surcharge: $ 9.95 per adult per night. Housekeeping gratuities: $4.50 per adult per night. These are additional charges that are not included in the estimated total and must be paid directly at the hotel. Five rooms or more is considered a group. For groups please contact 1-800-417-6738 Ext 24."

so if one goes with teenagers and you all pack into the same room the add-on charges could be quite significant.

I wrote a fairly comprehensive review earlier this year.... In short, it's no Atlantis, but you have full resort privs and save a boatload of coin ;-)

Thanks dave.

I had actually found and read your fine review already, great job.

Thanks for the review and the thread response.

Are all of these fees charged on award bookings as well?

Thanks!

Update
 

I have not seen much on this recently so I thought I would give a brief current update. In no particular order and with random commentary on Atlantis for flavor;

Hotel is typical Bahamas, shows some wear, laid back (type As like me have a struggle with this), very friendly staff.

Taxi from hotel to old town is about $20 for a family of five each way.

Taxi from airport was about $50 for family of 5 including stop at super saver to get food and water.

*** There is another nicer looking store on the Bay Street just up the way from Sandals. Looked much nicer and much easier to get to than the Super Saver. I guess our cabbie was paid to steer us that way but I forgot about this other store. Super Save prices were crazy high but still cheaper than buying food at the resort

*** IF you get a nice cabbie, we like Rev and Emerald, give them your left over water, food, fruit, etc... as a tip when you leave. They will appreciate it and I felt better about that than just leaving it in the room as I suspect he cabbies have a bit rougher gig than housekeepers IMHO

The rooms we had were smaller than a Hyatt place and although they say you can get four in a room it would drive me nuts

Consider getting your room charge card laminated AT the comfort suites, we did not but Atlantis desk told us they would do that.

March is a bit cool but once your in the water it is nice

We did not enjoy eating at Anthony's across the street. Expensive (as is everything on island) and not so great. Waitress was not friendly but everyone can have a tough day.

Dominos seems to be the value play for dinner. They only charged $1 to deliver and prices were not bad.

We did not find any other place to eat on island that was not in Atlantis. Having snacks and water in your room and beach bag will save you big money

Food in Atlantis is expensive but not too far off what you would pay at most resorts.

Beach has a lot of rocks in places, beach shoes a good idea as well as for walking around the resort. The paving was very worn in places and not very bare feet friendly. Side walls of the big lazy river are rough and when you push off with bare feet it can be rough.

Hotel had luggage room so they can lock up your bags if you have a late flight while you shop.

Safes are $2 a day and pretty good size, we got all our phones iPads and wallets in with room to spare for a laptop

Hotel has free Internet so with Vonage app we could call the states and check messages for free

I do think Atlantis is going to have to step up its game big time when the China resort opens but if you go to Atlantis I think the comfort suites is a solid value play.

Hope that helps

...
 

I looked into this on tripadvisor and it seems like a good base for using Atlantis amenities...it also seems they collect enough to cover those privileges with a variety of extra fees and charges which seem to vary from month to month....I too wonder, If you book using points, do you still get blasted with fees and surcharges?

I found a better use for my 100K+ stash of choice points that I was reserving for Barcelo' all inclusive resort stays, until the discontinued their partnership (and blocked the last 2 months of availability after announcing it)... I dont know if it was choice or Barcelo' that was being cheesy....anyway after looking at this (Bahamas) property on TA I found a better one for an island beach stay: Comfort Suites Seven Mile Beach Grand Cayman...the reviews on TA make this sound like a truely exceptional CS, with a free hot breakfast and point redemptions at 16k until april 15, then 20k...it seems like a better option.
The complaints about limited food options, high prices, and distant beach accesss for the paradise island location put me off. Not knowing what fees are included also irks me... Grand Cayman has taxes and fees but they ARE covered by the point redemption. The only other thing they charge is a $8.80/day energy surcharge which may or may not be covered...I will assume it's not and will be pleasantly surprized if it is. I was looking for a place to just get rid of my remaining points as USA choice hotels are bottom rung in my book. If this place is as good as TA makes it sound, I may have to consider buying more if I get the chance.

If anyone has stayed at Paradise Island lately, please post if points cover the fees.

We have use points twice at CS during cruises solely for Atlantis access. It works great. The property looks nice if a bit worn, but you are paying for Atlantis access. We did not go into the rooms.

I could not really get a straight answer on fees beforehand. I think perhaps they make it up as they go along. Once it was about $30 for two people and once about $43 for 2A and 2C. Still way cheaper than the cruiseline excursion price!

Miles vs Points

FYI - My profile on Choice was for miles so I never bothered telling the desk but they posted to points. This required me to follow up with CS to get it reversed. If you want miles, make sure the front desk knows that at check in

blah
 

used points for 8 nights at Grand Cayman CS...they tried to add in taxes and service charges of $30 per day on the award. I specifically asked Choice reservations about this and was assured they did not apply. Took 20 minutes talking to GM to get him to waive it. He came up with some fabricated confirmation letter (never sent to us) that contained a disclaimer on taxes, and multiple excuses before he finally relented. He even went as far as to blame choice rewards for not making it clear on their site that his hotel adds on taxes and multiple fees. (the only one they state, is a 8.80 energy surcharge, and it says it "may" apply) he cried that even though the hotel res was paid with points that they had to pay based on the value of those points $30 a day to the govenment for taxes and to the staff as service charge. I need to find someone to ask about this in the choice rewards department, I bet he pads his bottom line with 9 out of 10 guests using reward points. and if the 10th person complains like i did, he "does them a favor" and waives them.
I've had reward stays at many choice hotels in a few different countries and have never been charged anything except maybe a safe fee. Have any of you been charged taxes or fees on an award?

How was the hotel?