Sheraton Samoa Beach Resort — Hotel in Upolu

I am disappointed that I can not write a good review of your hotel. We have just returned after a night at your resort. We had a stressful week visiting a sick family member in Apia and booked a night with your resort and were so looking forward to our time there.

I hope my feedback can provide some insight into how you can improve service on many levels. I think there is a systematic failure in keeping staff trained to an acceptable standard at your resort in Apia, especially when representing the Sheraton chain. Sheraton is a well known chain around the world. Peoples expectations are often built on the experiences they have had at other hotels. I have stayed with your chain in other locations and never experienced the same level of disappointment. i have come away feeling like I wasted my money and definitely didn't get what I paid for.

Unfortunately your service let us down on a number of factors. Our overall impression has been a negative one and for the cost of our stay and your reputation as a highly recommended hotel chain, this hotel is letting down the team!

Firstly on arrival the staff member that checked me in was not forthcoming on your facilities or what was available to me as a guest. I provided my SPG membership number and if I hadn't seen a sign briefly which was showing various messages beside the reception I would not have known that SPG members received 15% off food at the resort. This would have been one of the things the staff could tell guests upon check in. I had to push the staff member with various questions including how do we get our bags to the room, where is the restaurants etc. There was no mention of when check-out was the next day or some basic information for our stay. The staff seemed tired and unenthusiastic. Everyone can have a bad day so I just shrugged this off and we went to our room.

We arrived and our room was on the second floor. We had a young 5 month old baby and a stroller. The lady who checked us in was aware of this and it proved to be really inconvenient as we had to carry the stroller up and down the stairs several times during our stay. Positioning families with strollers in a ground floor room would be more convenient.

Once we arrived in our room the bathroom had not been cleaned properly. There was hair all over the bathroom floor which was quite disconcerting as we had just arrived so we knew this was from previous guests.

As we only had one night with you and because I didn't want to spend my time complaining I ignored this again and we went down to have a drink at the lobby bar.

We went to order drinks and food and the staff seemed disorganised and frantic. I looked around and although it was busy it was also not at complete capacity and I counted at least 4-5 staff member including staff behind the bar. This seemed like a good ratio to the people that they were serving.

We ordered our drinks, again having to go up to the bar and having no table service. I had a joke with the waiter as I was having to help him with the order and pressing the items on the till screen when we were ordering. He only showed us one menu for food which was an all-day menu and failed to show us the lunch menu. I had seen other patrons with pizzas so naturally ordered the pizzas on the menu he showed us. We waited 20-25 minutes to even receive our drinks and when our food came it was tiny pizzas. I then asked if there was a different menu as this wasn't what I expected and they showed me the lunch menu. A small thing but again an experience impacting on our time with you .The time it took to receive our drinks which was a beer in a bottle and a glass of wine was disappointing.

The evening came and we wanted to go for a swim. I could see that there were many people using towels, again reception had not told us about how to get these and we had been using our own towels. Just a small thing but all impacting on our experience. I understand that it is up to patrons to use their own initiative, but i feel that it is also up to staff to educate and give information so that customers can enjoy the full experience.

Before dinner we sat in the lobby and had a drink. When I went up to order the drinks, staff members were aloof and could hardly muster a 'hello'. I smiled and said my order and thank you and this was returned with a stone faced look. The female bar member was rude and unfriendly and lacking in customer service skills. Not the right person to have behind a bar at a busy hotel.

We choose to eat from your buffet restaurant and the food was luke warm and most dishes by 8pm when we were dining had run out. For over $60WST each it was very disappointing. No one came and asked if we wanted to order a drink and there was such limited staff in the restaurant that we could have sat down without anyone being aware of us and eaten for free.

On Saturday evening we requested a 1pm checkout. I did this in person at reception. This was granted to us (check out is usually 12noon), and entered into the system by reception. We then received a call from your staff on Sunday asking us why we hadn't checked out yet at 12.20pm. Again, not a major issue but when you have communicated with staff its disappointing that the system doesn't work.

At breakfast on Sunday morning we ordered from a staff member two coffees. I said I wanted one expresso with 3 shots and 1 flat white with 3 shots. I repeated my order and she said she understood and said only one size was available. She showed me the cup and I said that was fine. After 10 minutes she showed up with 6 coffees in various takeaway cups. My order had clearly been lost in translation. My husband who speaks samoan explained to her what we wanted and she still looked confused. Common sense is that we are two people and there were 6 coffees but she still wasn't understanding. In the end after 5 minutes of discussion we said we didn't want to pay for 6 coffees at $10 each as we had only ordered 2 coffees.

I understand that language can be a barrier, but I think teaching staff to always come back so they are 100% sure and understand would be helpful. Even with us speaking in Samoan, the staff member was struggling.

We only had one night with you but it wasn't what we expected. It was disappointing given we paid over $300NZD to stay with you.

The one positive from your hotel were the male staff members who took our bags to and from our room and to our car. The concierge service was excellent and friendly. This team represent your hotel well.

My husband and I have both worked in hospitality, and do not give this feedback lightly. We think that these issues could be easily rectified with some good and ongoing staff training. At the moment the staff are not reaching a good standard and this is reflecting poorly on you as a...

We are traveling a lot and our stay at Sheraton Aegis Beach Resort should have been a time to enjoy and relax. Booking this particular Hotel was a result of our great experience at Sheraton Miramar Hotel in Vina del Mar, Chile. We booked the Sheraton in Samoa while our stay at this Hotel - because of the excellent experience and great service there.

As we arrived we thought: WOW, looks great. But it started with the check in - which needed a very long time and we had to come back to reception because they forgot something we had to sign.

The room was nice and clean so far, but the windows where dirty. We asked for cleaning them, but we had to catch the maid after some days to get the windows cleaned. Since we are a party of 3 we asked for a 3rd chair at the terrace - which worked perfect, it arrived within one hour. The problem - all of the chairs where all over full with bird fecal and they where never ever cleaned during our stay (more than 14 days!!).

The garden was well maintained but between the terrace and the garden was an about 1 meter broad area where we found sharp stones, broken parts of tiles and a lot of other things which should not be there. The beach looks perfect during flood and on the pictures which are available for the hotel brochures, but there where a lot of small sharp stones. During low tide they lie around and it would have be easy to catch them up - but nobody take care….

Of course the swimming pool looks beautiful but the water was getting more and more dirty (according to somebody working there, they had a technical problem and ignored it for at least 4-5 days). As the pool was so green and dirty - you where not able to see more than 20-30cm! - they closed it „for maintenance“. After 2-3 days the offered a „free shuttle“ to the other Sheraton Hotel in Apia City - a 45 to 60 Minutes drive - at 10am to Apia and 2pm back from Apia. So this would mean that we should sit for 1:30 to 2:00 hours in a shuttle to be able to use a pool during lunch time and during the hottest time of the day?! The pool was closed for 5 or 6 days during our stay…

The service - or should I call it the „no service?“: Yes, it is Samoa. Yes, we heard that they all have time there… but the service was the worst I ever had in any hotel! Several time we waited 30-45 Minutes in the bar area before we where acknowledged and could place our orders. Mostly - not always - they came back with the bill to be signed before they even started preparing our order! Cleaning up dishes or glasses while the customer is still around seems to be forbidden. Especially during breakfast it was a mess. If you are not coming for breakfast before 8 am you have to sit on dirty tables (because somebody else was eating already) - with food parts all over. Catching somebody to get a coffee was not so easy, except you try to catch your coffee yourself - in this case somebody appears suddenly and offers to help you. If I compare this with the perfect service at Sheraton in Chile it is like service does not exist at Sheraton in Samoa!

Since the Resort is far away from anything else you have to eat lunch and dinner there. Sometimes the service during dinner (not lunch) was OK and next day it was the same mess as usual. It looks like: if there is a manager around, they are working as expected, but if not…

That this kind of „slow“ service is not usual in Samoa, we learned during our trips and tours. Everywhere - even in much cheaper resorts (where we ate during our trips) - the service was much, much better!

There is a childcare available in the resort and they do have a perfect air conditioner. I do not know how cold it was, but when I brought our son there, it felt like arctic. Of course our son catched a cold after his 2 hour visit… There is also a „Games Room“ (you see the „s“). Well it is a room equipped with a pool table (and nothing else) which looks like it was there since 1900. The billiard balls looks like small moons (a lot of craters) and the billiard cue where all without the top (the white part was there, but not the blue/green top).

Again: The resort is beautiful. If somebody will take care (cleaning up in front of the terraces, removing the sharp stones at beach once in a while, ensure the service stuff is doing it´s job), it would be a perfect vacation resort. The only thing which works more or less as expected where the maids - if you catch them and explain what you need/expect.

PS: We tried to give feedback during our stay but the SPG homepage "feedback" was not working. We tried to find an alternate eMail address...

This is long because it's "in-house", presumably in lieu of those old paper forms left in the rooms!

This hotel continues to set the bar in Samoa. Our 4th visit, 3rd to Aggie's (sorry, old habits die hard!).

So, now sanitised Starwood meets Pasifika. The best advice I can offer is not to compare and to enjoy the experience. I appreciate that it is great to walk into any hotel in the world and know what to expect within a brand, but I want to know I'm in Samoa, and if that means accepting a few imperfections then I'm happy. Don't come to the islands if you want perfection. It's a poor country with a lot of poverty and people not used to your demanding nature or high standards but what you will get is genuine warmth, people trying their very best, and a great sense of honour, humility, respect and humour.

We had a few issues, but each one was actioned and resolved immediately.

I was glad to see glassware (apart from bottles) no longer in the pool area - this concern was included in my survey from my last visit.

As per other comments, I do wonder if the pool water is checked, and we seemed to be the only two people who showered before entering the pool, and used the toilets very close by (maybe some signage would be appropriate?).

It's hard to single out any one member of staff for good customer service. We left something in the room for the housekeeping staff and I know it's not the Sheraton way but it would have been good to leave a generous tip for the remaining staff (in a bottle for example, for lack of other ideas) maybe towards a staff Christmas savings scheme/club or similar if they have such a thing, and shared out twice a year for holidays and Christmas to help with the extra costs families face at those times. We don't like including it in the bills because we never know where it's going and is impersonal. When we saw the "adopt-a-turtle" scheme, we thought it was for a rescue centre or something, not just to buy a small toy to gain membership points - I'd far rather give the cash to the staff!

Re airport shuttle, I tried to book the day before but the(big) guy (the boss?) said to get the money and then come back. We got the exact change and went back 5 times but kept missing him. Reception tried to get hold of them and someone told them there was no shuttle the next morning. The next morning the shuttle did arrive but we only had 20 tala. The (same) man made no effort whatsoever at the airport to get change, leaving us without any cash at all. This company also left us stranded in Apia, having told us to just turn up at the allocated time, when the driver should have told us to confirm our return journey. I'm relaxed to a point!

In a place where the minimum wage is (all approximate) less than £1 and an average very good monthly salary would be around £250, it is hard to justify the cost of the trip we enquired about (with that same company) at around £50. In Apia, they were asking approximately £7 for a sandwich at a cafe - more than Aggie's Apia!

Good: We loved our stay and can't wait to go back.

Not-so-good: For some reason, these poor islands do not offer value for money on tour, food and accommodation prices.

Tip: Use local transport if you can - cheap and fun!

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