Royalton Antigua, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort — Hotel in Antigua

I booked the hotel for my 10th wedding anniversary and booked 5 days rather than the usual 3 days... I have never wanted to leave a resort to go back to reality before this experience... There is so much to say, I have to separate it into sections SERVICE Staff come off as rude and impolite. No one greets you with a smile and the ATTITUDE!!! I genuinely don't think anyone WANTS to work there. Their attitude is not even hidden. From our 5th floor room trying to relax, we heard an outburst from a staff member shouting from the ground floor. At times you have to beg to be served; for a glass of water; for a cup of coffee. My husband even had a dessert staff member "steups" (suck teeth) at him when he asked for service. There was hardly anyone to assist near buffet areas. Service staff OBVIOUSLY serve those who they think may tip them which turns out the European/Caucasian type. They get the quicker and more efficient and friendly service. While patiently waiting to be seated for our reservation at one of the restaurants, a staff member even brought a group and placed them in front of us in the line, asking no questions. Staff serving at the beach gave looks when you asked for an order...and were even caught serving vendors on the beach who were not part of the hotel and should not be there. The woman at the gift shop never looked up from her phone or ended her conversation to greet or assist us. The men at the baggage area don't ask if you need to be assisted, just carry on with their conversations.

FOOD This is BY FAR the WORST food I have had at a resort...food was salty, not cooked well, there were flies on food and NO VARIETY...every night was practically the same thing. There was also nothing cultural served but catered to a more European palette. Food was not correctly labelled. My husband is vegetarian and took what was labelled VEGETABLE STIR FRIED RICE…turns out it was CHICKEN STIR FRIED RICE…thankfully he doesn’t have an allergy because that could have been worse. He did get a rash and there is a possibility that it is from this situation. Desserts were dry and gluten free desserts were often mush. Drinks ran out and were not restocked hours before closing time which defeats the purpose of being ALL INCLUSIVE. Juices were not mixed before poured and were watery...Sodas were flat. Drinks that were requested at the bar and even at the café did not have the ingredients to make them.

ROOM When we booked I selected a BAY VIEW ROOM. The room we were assigned was facing the bay but the entire view that was paid for was blocked by the SPA building. The room itself too had a STRONG smoky odor. We asked to be relocated. We had to wait until the following day and were told to check out at 12 and that there might be a possibility that we may not have a room until 5pm! We were told that not one BAY VIEW room was available and had to settle for a MOUNTAIN VIEW room. In this room, our bar was not stocked and the shower leaked PROFUSELY.

ENTERTAINMENT The VIBE crew needs a lesson on what vibes are. Extremely boring entertainment, hardly anything cultural especially during their own Carnival season. One vibe member specifically seemed quite unprofessional especially considering children were present at the nighttime events and made a sexual gesture to the fire dancers when introduced.

FURNITURE Every chair and table on this compound is sticky. It has to be that they aren't wiped and cleaned properly. My husband even got a rash while here and nothing like that has happened to him before.

COMMUNICATION I communicated with the hotel since March informing them that it was our anniversary and again one day before our arrival...they promised to make our stay extra special with decor etc...on arrival to our room, NOTHING...we even had to change rooms mid-stay where again we were promised celebratory decor and once again. NOTHING. Other guests were treated to their decor however.

Will NOT be visiting again and this experience was so bad it has even turned us off from Royalton Resorts on a whole, having stayed...

We visited in May and unfortunately the service at this resort was disappointing. They only provide 2 washcloths and towels each day. We found this to be pretty bizarre because one would think a beach resort where guests are in and out of the ocean and pools multiple times a day, would automatically provide plenty of such a basic necessity. On the day of the wedding, we came in from the beach around 3pm and wanted to shower prior to the ceremony, we called to the front desk to request 2 sets of towels and washcloths, we were told “there are no more”. I walked down to the front desk to make sure I understood what the front desk agent meant when he said “there are no more”. The agent explained that we would have to wait until the morning because the washcloths were locked away, and no one had the key to the room. Of course, I did not accept this foolish answer. After asking the agent what he would do if there was a fire in the room where the linens are stored, how would he get in, and he replied “I would find a manager with a key”. BINGO, you just solved the problem!!!!! After about a minute phone conversation, a person appeared and the wash cloths and towels were provided. (Why did we have to go through all that for something so basic?) Room service was available 24 hours. Staff only retrieves the dirty dishes once a day. So there was always dirty dishes lining the halls all day long. Pretty disgusting when you leave your room and you see bugs snacking on leftover food that has been left in the halls. During breakfast they didn’t have many protein options for guest who didn’t eat pork or beef. I often settled for a cup of coffee and a muffin for breakfast, but after repeatedly seeing flies trapped in the pastry display in Scoops Caffe, that put an end to that. 8 Restaurants? Not quite! Some of the “restaurants” didn’t even have signs. I.E. the Beach Front Grill. You will never see a sign that says “Beach Front Grill”. You will see just a random set of 4 tables set up, and that’s the restaurant. Grazie Italian Trattoria and Caribbean Restaurant and Grill, literally 2 “restaurants” in the same room. It’s a total joke. During our entire stay, the Grazie Italian Trattoria was out of Caesar Dressing, however the Gourmet Marché Buffet had plenty of it. How in the world does the restaurant that is 50 yards away on the property have Caesar Dressing and you don’t? A major turnoff for my wife and I, is you cannot food from the pool or beachside. Actually leaving the comfort of the pool or beach to go stand in a long restaurant line to grab lunch, was an extreme mood killer. There were probably 3 of the staff members who actually appeared to actually enjoy their job and focus on making sure the guest enjoyed their stay. Unfortunately, I did not get their names to shine a positive light on them in this review. At times it appeared the staff was miserable, and their intent was to let you know they aren’t concerned about you having a good time. They had no issue walking past you without a good morning, good evening, hello etc. Even if you spoke to them first, you may or may not get a response. Excursion staff was the absolute worst. If you rent a kayak or a paddle board, they never get up from their seats. They have you complete the waiver on the iPad, hand you a life jacket, then point to the kayak or paddle board they want you to take. Not sure why I would expect them to get up and help guests drag anything to the water’s edge. I went on the 1 hour Wave Runner “Tour”. This was the worst experience ever. The first time I heard the “tour guides” voice was when he was pointing me to the wave runner. The next words I heard from him 1 hour later was, “you can hang your life jacket right here”. So much for a tour!! It was one hour of speeding around the ocean trying to keep up with the guide, not being told of any landmarks or pointing out any items of interest. Total waste of money. Conclusion – We would not suggest this property anytime soon. Marriott still has a lot of work to do to get this up to...

I recently attended a business vacation to the Royalton Antigua. I will say at first I saw the reviews and wasn’t to sure. I will say from the time we got there we were greeted by a very nice lady at the front desk. She helped us get checked in and even explained what we had to do the next day to re check in as we had 2 reservations due to weather and had to get to the resort a day early. We got all checked in and they took our luggage and gave us a little tour of the resort. (Showing us the restaurants, pool area, game area, and entertainment venue). The man that brought us and our luggage to the room was very polite and helpful.

The room we were in was a diamond club room, which I will say I was impressed. Seeing all the reviews of mold and this and that I can’t say that our room had any of that. The room was spotless and was one of the cleanest rooms I’ve stayed at. Everyday they cleaned the room and the room service was great. The view from the room was breathtaking.

The Restaurants: buffet and the Italian place were probably the most decent. None of the restaurants are great but they do the trick. I do wish they would offer better food for sure but there is something for everyone that will work. The chicken parm at the Italian restaurant was good and the NY steak at the steakhouse was also good. Closest foods to American food that that you can get that is about the same. It’s no 5 star resort if you ask me as far as the eating goes the food is below average but like I said you will find something that does the trick during the stay not that that is ideal.

The workers of the swim up bar and martini bar at first didn’t say too much. But when you engage with them they come around and can be a fun time. We enjoyed some of them, and then some of them eh not so much. The two guys we did come across were great and knew what we wanted throughout our stay.

The beach view is beautiful as well as the pools. The pool areas were clean and even the cabana pools were also very clean. As our trip was with a pool chemical company that we are apart of and they had 400+ of us staying at the Royalton for the week. So I’ve seen lots of reviews saying the pools are dirty, but 400+ of us all said they are spotless. The view from the pool is also beautiful as it over looks the beach and we had a fun time at the swim up bar with the servers there!

We did have a slight issue with our AC, as it would kick off and say the door to the balcony was open. I had an employee help us first thing the first night and it did work and kicked off after a few hours. The next morning I went to the front desk and they assured someone would take a look and fix the issue. They did fix the issue and didn’t have that problem anymore and the room stayed at a comfortable 65°. They were great to listen to the issue and proceeded to fix it right away thank you.

I would recommend the Royalton for a place to stay and if I went to Antigua I would stay there again myself. The food could be way better and that’s my reason for a 4 star review as the restaurants lack that, and sometimes based on the servers you get they aren’t so well, but there are good ones as well experienced that too. After seeing the reviews I wasn’t expecting much, but I can say for myself that I believe a lot of them maybe false and that our experience was good for our first time visiting the Royalton and the island of Antigua.

One other note is we did win a room credit of $250 from our group and wanted to do the Spa, they would only offer us $25 to use toward the spa as part of our room credit, and we could only use it at the spa, excursions, or wine, and they would only let us use $25 on each so our room credit did go to waste. They could work on that for sure.

Overall I would give it 4 stars based on the views, cleanliness, beach and pool area, and the overall atmosphere of the resort. It is also only a 20-30 minute transport from V.C. Bird Intl. Airport and transportation was included for us so that was great and the location felt safe on the island...