Unexceptional hotel/resort with too many accommodation and service shortcomings, and currently undergoing unannounced refurbishment.

We booked this resort hotel many months ahead on the basis of what turned out to be overgenerous reviews on TA. Notwithstanding the well manicured lawns and impressive-looking foyer-cum-dining area and swimming pool area shown on the hotel's website and in publicity photos, unfortunately, we encountered problems within minutes; others emerged repeatedly throughout our 7-night stay.

Let’s start with the positives.

The view of the Caribbean from our first floor room was impressive, especially at night. The swimming pool area is pleasant with comfortably loungers and the guard is obliging in finding cushions for guests. During our stay, there were no more than a handful of other guests. There are other hotels and restaurants nearby, and some of their restaurants (notably French Vernadah) are very good. Since the hotel is on the Windward Highway, there is easy access from the new Argyle international airport as well as to Kingstown, where you can take the ferry to Bequia. You can also swim in the sea or lie on the narrow beach, both of which are pretty clean despite the black sand from volcanic rocks.

The hotel restaurant does very good lunches, especially its seafood au gratin and the Saturday night BBQ, and has good bar and restaurant staff, but its menu is very limited menu on which you should definitely avoid the rubber chicken.

Unfortunately, in our experience, these pluses were dwarfed by some serious problems.

Problem 1: Poor communication/some unprofessional staff/serious staff training problem

Not receiving any communication from the hotel until one day before our arrival, and not knowing St Vincent, and specifically whether or not taxis were available from the new Argyle international airport, I used the hotel’s website to ascertain this information. (This is the same website on which we mae our reservations). By the day before our arrival, I had not received any response. So, I had to make an international call for this information. I got through to a receptionist, asked her for the information I needed, and informed her I was calling international. Amazingly, she put me on hold to answer another call!

Subsequently, the hotel manager told me the website on which I made my reservation was NOT their website. It’s a website they use to take reservations! Er? Confusingly and despite all appearances to the contrary, it’s actually the hotel’s website where we booked our stay, and the only email address for the hotel I could find is on this website! So, I should not have expected a reply. The hotel/resort’s publicity clearly seeks to foster a 4 or 5 star image. Serious communication and professionalism issues, however, barely make it a 3-star.

This was not the end of it. At check-in, we encountered a condescending/surly staff member with a smile-bypass and barely concealed attitude; clearly, since she seemed more concerned with preening herself she is in the wrong business. Hello! We are guests at your hotel – and you are the hotel’s front person! Fortunately, her colleague helped with our luggage even to the extent of manoeuvring heavy luggage over hosepipes in the corridor to our room (on which, more later).

Oh, but the lack of professionalism did not end with one front desk person. We needed to visit the local grocery store. Another front desk person told my wife that Randy’s Supermarket was 5 minutes down the road. Well, it was not. It was 20-25 minutes and, as luck would have it, we were soaked in a heavy shower on the way back. The staff person giggled to her mate, schoolgirl style, when my drenched wife complained about the misleading information she had been given.

Thankfully, the bar, restaurant staff, as well a number of managers we encountered, were friendly, efficient, helpful and gracious.

Clearly, however, the management needs to address some serious training/personal appraisal issues in respect of the offending front desk staff members. These folks are those whom guests encounter first at the hotel.

They also need to address the needs of tourists. St. Vincent is supposedly now in the business of encouraging tourism. Well, on the basis of our experience, good luck with that. The resort has no concierge and the front desk staff gave us blank looks when we asked about tours and travel guidance. Only subsequently did we learn that the island’s Fantaseatours is located next door. They could not be bothered to tell us.

Problem 2: maintenance issues

The hotel was built in the 1980s and is not only showing signs of its age but also poor workmanship and maintenance. Indeed, as we learned from one of the hotel's managers, the refurbishment work that we had to contend with was a direct consequence of poor structural work when the hotel was extended. We soon reached the conclusion that Sunset Shores is Fawlty Towers on wheels.

First, we could not get the key into our room door lock, and when we managed to insert it, we could not extract it. A call to the reception with a request for some WD40 yielded the friendly, helpful, maintenance guy who fixed the problem. Did the hotel not know we would want to use the key to the door? While waiting for the guy to arrive, however, we discovered some other problems: the picture on every TV channel was grossly distorted, and the hairdryer did not work. At this point, we learned that the hose pipes on the floor of the corridor were clues to substantial, unannounced, renovation work affecting our corridor and our room: the cables affecting TV reception had been disturbed making it impossible to watch any channel; the supply of electricity to our room had also been compromised by the same work with the consequence that the built-in hairdryer had no power supply. Our room had patio doors on two sides overlooking the public beach, which were great for allowing the cool trade winds to pass through but worn locks on these doors made locking and unlocking them extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible.

But, there was more. Basil Fawlty had been at work. The top retaining notch of the folding doors to the corridor had come out of its runner so that I had to force it back myself in order to open the closet. Did no one notice or bother to fix this before our arrival? A socket in which we plugged in a power strip to use our electronic devices also did not work until the maintenance guy told us we had to turn on a light switch to make it work! So, a socket that could be used for a 13-amp devise had been wired to a light switch that is wired to carry only 5 amp lights! Dangerous. Oh, and one of the other power sockets in the room was hanging off the wall.

Problem 3: Unannounced refurbishment in adjacent rooms

It turns out that the hose pipes we encountered en route to our room on the first day was evidence of serious refurbishment work in adjacent rooms, as a result of which every time we left or returned to our room we had to negotiate construction work obstacles as well as plasterers, tilers, electricians, plumbers, etc. going about their business regularly working in the corridor until 8pm, as well as some fairly toxic smells, e.g. from tiling grout. And, had the hotel notified of this renovation work before we arrived? Of course not: recall, they do not believe in communicating with guests.

Problem 4: flooded bathroom

We returned from a day trip at about 8pm to find the washbasin taps full on and our bathroom flooded. Apparently, the hotel water has been cut off and not thinking of the consequences the housekeepers had left the taps full on and not returned to prevent flooding. Commendably, a manager came with bucket and mop and cleaned up the bathroom. But, we could not help thinking that this problem could have – and should have - been avoided.

Well, by our third day, we were fed up with these problems and spoke with the manager, a professional person who acknowledge what she called “a comedy of errors”, apologized repeatedly, told us she would speak with the front desk staff as a group, and comped us a night. Our sense is that where they existed these attitude problems among staff should be raised in personal appraisal/performance one-to-ones, not in group meetings.

The upshot was that by our last day we were glad to leave. Our stay had been disappointing. Besides the communications, maintenance, refurbishment, and other issues, we also noticed that the hotel has a conference centre. Judging by the number of times the manager spent time with visiting groups of potential corporate or wedding clients, we think this is where they see their market rather than with individual visitors. We have stayed at hotels with this kind of focus in other countries and seen there too the negative consequences for guests who are individual families or travellers. So, if you are a local attending a conference or planning a wedding, the experience might be good, but for individual travellers it is not.

Location

Arnos Vale, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, West Indies

Overall

Concierge

No concierge. No help with travel or tours