Samawi — Hotel in Saint Andrew

AVOID THIS HOTEL. Particularly if you are a family with a young baby. This hotel rates are extremely high for the service you get. Very basic facilities with poor service throughout. Not worth the money.

Every interaction with members of staff was painful. From day 1, every request we made was met with a big 'not possible, don't know or it can't be done" We asked for a pot we could use to sterilise our baby's bottles, and we were asked to "speak to the chef directly because we don't know" We questioned a stain on the bedsheet and asked for it to be changed. Was told to go look for the cleaning lady outside the room and ask her to change it. I explained I was unable to do so as was busy feeding baby. Only then I was told someone would try and make the request. On checkout day, we asked if it was possible to get a coffee at the pool bar. We were told we would need to go upstairs and ask ourselves. The laundry service was extremely poor. Clothing was left smelling as bad as it was before the wash, and it was folded so poorly into the laundry bag that everything came out creased. The fridge is not supplied with water and beverage options that you can pay for at checkout like you would expect from a 4-5 star hotel. You're greeted with 2 tiny bottles of tepid water and with an empty fridge to fill up yourself. The shower tap which was found broken on day 1, got temporarily repaired and then remained broken throughout our stay. Room and shower cleanliness were very poor. Room tiles felt slippery and shower room was covered in the same hair we left on the floor before room cleaning. Dinner service is a very poor experience in contrast with the breakfast buffet. Entering the dinner buffet felt like going into a homeless shelter. The hotel would be better off not offering dinner altogether. We had a twin room with partial seaviews which we were aware of. However the windows are completely sealed shut so they can't be opened. This makes the room feel claustrophobic and cabin fever like.

Just round the corner from this hotel is the all inclusive Grand Sirenis Hotel which we would have rather spent...

We went here because we needed to extend our stay and the nearby Aquamare was sold out (great hotel by the way). ||Check I was at 3 but our room wasn’t ready. We left the bags with the reception desk and went to eat. Came back at 4:30 and the room still wasn’t ready so we asked for our bags while we waited and that’s when they asked for the claim ticket. We told them that they had not given us one and they said that it was impossible because they always did that. The outright told my wife that she was lying. Finally we went to look for the bags and guess what? No tickets were on our bags but not a single apology from them. ||When the room was finally ready they handed us the remote for the AC, the tv remote, room key and towel cards. Very sternly they informed us that during check out we had to return the items exactly the same. We asked for a second room key and they said no. ||We asked the reception lady to change a bill for us and you’d think that we had asked for a huge favor. ||The room was not nice and in disrepair. The hotel is only a few years old and the bathroom door looked like it had been chewed on by rats. Nice balcony is the only nice thing I can say about the room. ||The common areas were surprisingly nice. Breakfast was not spectacular but decent. My wife loved the banana cake/bread until she found a hair in it. || Checkout was another way to show their incompetence. Since we had prepaid they said the bill was only for a meal that was charged to the room. When we informed them that we hadn’t ordered anything they said that was impossible because they had the check. We showed them that the signature wasn’t ours and that the name of that signature didn’t match either of our names. That should have been the end of the discussion but the guy said he had to talk to his manager. So instead of apologizing and letting us go on our way we had to wait while they unscrewed their own mistake. ||A cab driver told us that this hotel has a horrible reputation for service and that lots of people complain that they get charged for things they didn’t order. ||Stay the heck out...

The room was nicely decorated and felt spacious. We had a balcony room with a double aspect view of the Caribbean Sea. The pool area was nice and by exception one of the female serving staff at the poolside was really friendly and attentive. ||Pretty disappointed though with this hotel. Very strict on a 3pm check in even though it wasn’t that busy and so many rooms on each floor. Only two lifts in the hotel serving 11 floors so at times it was a long wait to go up or down the building. The hotel offered insurance which is a first, and also made us sign for the TV remote control, air conditioning control and even the room key for safe return on check out. We were only given one room key - I guess they didn’t want anyone using a second one to keep the air conditioning running when the room was empty?. The front desk staff were generally not very friendly. English hardly spoken - so we had to rely on Google Translate to ask for things. The room window had a large crack in it which hadn’t been picked up by anyone else including cleaners beforehand - perhaps that’s why we needed the insurance? The wifi in our room was non existent - no evidence of WiFi routers anywhere on the floor - we had intermittent coverage on the balcony only from the pool area 5 floors below. The breakfast wasn’t great. Very basic food options - not very substantial or appetizing for a 4 star hotel. The breakfast was served in a conference room with no natural light which seemed a waste given the hotel had amazing views of the sea elsewhere. It isn’t cheap to stay here - so we expected more compared to service from similar hotels we’ve...