Orient Beach Hotel — Hotel in Saint Martin (France)

I've stayed at Orient Beach Hotel 3 times since 2021. I'm disappointed to say my third trip in August 2023 will be my last at the property. The customer service I received was the worst I've ever experienced in any hotel. As a returning guest, I was treated worse that a first time visitor. Upon arriving at the hotel and we were shown into our room, I could tell something was different. The rooms that were recently renovated when I first stayed in April 2021 were now shabby and drab. The room smelled stuffy and musty. When I pulled back the comforter, my bedsheets and the pillows had dust on them. It looks like the room had not been stayed in for a while and they just opened the doors to check us in. I had to ask for fresh sheets and change the bedsheets myself since the cleaning staff were done for the day. The bathroom sink was leaking so badly, they had to give us a bucket to collect the water that was falling on the ground. The signal for the wifi and the TV kept coming in and out. The phone in my room was not working so everytime I needed something from reception, I physically had to go downstairs to ask. All this happened immediately upon arrival. After 2 nights and no improvement with all the issues, they finally offered to move us to another room, which we accepted. My friend and I had to move ourselves to the new room, there was no offer of assistance from the hotel. After our room switch, we heard nothing from management, no one bothered to check on us to make sure everything was ok with our new room. And the new room was only moderately better than the old room. There were rust on hinges, towels were dingy, grey and thin, and the silverware was dull and dingy. On my previous visits to the hotel, I usually like to have hot tea in the morning on the balcony. This time I could not use the kettle in either room, the kettles were so rusty. I came to celebrate my birthday at the hotel and no acknowledgement of my birthday from the hotel whatsoever. I had mentioned in an email correspondence with Florence the manager before my arrival that I would be celebrating my birthday at the hotel. Florence the manager barely acknowledged my presence in the 6 days I stayed at the hotel and it's her and the other manager I had always dealt with every time I returned to the hotel. It wasn't like these were new members of management and that they didn't know me. I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong with this visit and why there was such a drastic difference between this trip experience and my previous trips. It occurred to me that on my previous two trips, there were small things that was not right with the hotel, but because I was so happy to be in Saint Martin and Orient beach, I overlooked the small things. The bad occurrences on this trip could not be overlooked. The final straw was when I was checking out of the hotel. I had to carry my 3 large luggage down 3 flights of stairs by myself. I was told there would be no one to help and that helping guests with luggage is a courtesy they provide and not an amenity. In summary my stay at Orient Beach Hotel left me frustrated, disappointed, and sad. Those are not the feeling I would want to leave with after a vacation. I WILL NOT BE RETURNING TO ORIENT BEACH HOTEL AND DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS HOTEL TO ANYONE ELSE.

PS. The owners response below shows how they are willing to put the blame on me the customer and not on their hotel staffs dereliction of duty. On all my visits to the hotel I was nothing but warm friendly and cordial to all the staff I interacted with. On the day of my room change, no offer was made to help us move. That statement is a lie along with the twisting of the facts with other statements. I’m so glad Orient Beach Hotel is finally showing me it’s true colors. I just wish I had seen it sooner before spending any of my money at...

My daughter and I spent a lovely 5 days at Orient Beach Hotel. I cannot say enough good things about this hotel and highly recommend it. We enjoyed our stay from beginning to end. The staff in the front office was very helpful and friendly. Junior assisted us in renting a car for the day by making one phone call and a car was brought to us within half an hour for the day. While it is not necessary to have a car at this hotel, it was nice to have for the day to go to the large supermarket and to tour the island. However, the Orient Bay Village is within walking distance of the hotel where there are many restaurants and a small supermarket.|The hotel itself is 3 stories, and we stayed in a room on the third floor. Junior assisted us with our luggage upon check in and check out. The room was lovely and quite large. The room had a stove, sink, microwave and refrigerator as well as a Nespresso and a tea kettle. We did not cook in the room but it was great to have the refrigerator to keep our drinks cold. The room was spotless, and the air conditioning worked great. The only complaint I had about the room was the bed was a bit hard and we could have used more pillows. The bathroom was quite lovely and there was plenty of hot water. There was a hair dryer affixed to the wall and the only issue was that you had to hold the handle in for it to work and it was quite difficult to blow dry my hair while holding down the handle with one hand while styling my hair with the other. We asked for additional towels to be left each day and they were. The room was cleaned each day which is necessary to get rid of trash particularly if you are cooking in the room as there really were no garbage pails around the hotel to dispose of garbage. |The best part of this hotel was the view and the beach!! The view of the ocean from our room was amazing. I tried to imprint it in my memory as photographs do not do it justice. While the water is quite rough on this side of the island, it is magnificent. Hotel guests are allowed access to 4 beach clubs. Cocoa Beach is currently closed which was disappointing as they are changing management there. We stayed at the KKO Beach Club every day which is directly in front of the hotel. It is a very quiet and relaxing beach club. There were always plenty of chairs with umbrellas. On Wednesday when many cruise ships are on the island, the beach was very crowded. However, the beach club had some blocked off areas for the cruise ship visitors. While they came to Orient Bay by bus by the dozens, they were all gone after lunch. While there is some concern about not having front row beach chairs, we sat in the third row but many times there were no chairs in front of us so our view of the water was unobstructed. The beach is not that large so even if you have to sit in the third row, it is not really an issue at KKO. The service was consistently good at KKO and we found no reason to go anywhere else. We also made use of the hotel pool every afternoon. Hardly anyone uses the small pool. It gets sunlight all day and there are chaise lounges on the deck of the pool It was lovely to sit by the pool in the afternoon and cool off in the water as the ocean was quite rough. The food at KKO is fair. Nothing great. The hotel provides a continental breakfast at KKO every morning. It is sufficient but not great. You can also order eggs for a small fee. They are definitely skimpy on juice and do provide a very sweet fruit juice. It would have been nice to have a selection of fruit juices. |Overall, we loved this hotel and look forward to returning...

We visited Orient Beach Hotel during late March - our first visit to the Friendly Island. We stayed entirely on Orient Beach, 4 nights, ventured out every day via rental car. Our expectations were greatly exceeded.

The hotel website provides an accurate description of the property and rooms - both in photos and narrative. Communication in-advance of our arrival was superior: timely, complete responses and generous offers of information and assistance very welcome. Special thanks to Sharon (Caribbean Resorts & Marketing) for providing outstanding customer service including recommendations for dining, entertainment, etc.

Our arrival at the hotel was top-notch. We were welcomed immediately by Junior and came to appreciate his attention to customer service - well done. Florence was outstanding with our check-in, patient answering questions and very friendly with her knowledge of the area.

The hotel and property are superior in location, upkeep, appearance and operation. The hotel is right on the beach and in very close proximity to the former Club Orient (if you know, you know). Casual dining and fine dining are within very easy walking distance. A true immersion in French culture. We over-indulged, Good Morning Cafe was our favorite for fresh bread, quiche and other fresh bakery treats - very close to the hotel.

The hotel provides a complimentary continental style breakfast which is very good and a full breakfast menu is provided for additional charge. The hotel also offers a passport type at participating beach bars and restaurants to conveniently charge to your room.

The room was clean, cool and comfortable. Absolutely no issues with furnishings or bedding. A quick trip to market and we were able to supply the mini-fridge with bottled drinking water, snacks and espresso pods for the espresso machine. A microwave and small 2 burner cooktop are also available with silverware, dishes and cups. (Don't drink tap water). Housekeeping service was timely and on-point - very friendly staff..

Ample hotel parking for our rental. Absolutely no issues at all on this visit. We visited the Dutch side of the Island and all of the Nude Beaches on the French side. We can say without hesitation that Orient Beach is the best beach on the Island. (There were cleaning crews on the beach in the morning raking the sand - sargassum during our stay was not an issue).

Just passing on some advice given to us: leave your "baggage" at home, smile, be polite - greet the Locals with "Hey", "How are you" and always be appreciative cause they bend over backwards to please. You'll not find any road rage here - blend in with the Local motion alway being considerate of other drivers - tap that horn as a thank you -...