Margaritaville Resort Cape Cod — Hotel in Barnstable

I’ll try and be as detailed as possible, as I know I appreciate that when considering a trip. We booked two nights for Easter night and the following night. I bought in advance, so it was relatively cheaper (around 950 for two nights and the water park passes for 4 people for two days). Checking in was easy and I had gotten a text as well that my room was ready earlier than the 4:00 check in time, which although we couldn’t make it earlier, I’m sure it would be appreciated by many. The rooms were really nice and I loved the decor. There was a mini fridge in each room and your typical appliances, no microwave, which was ok for us. The bathroom door didn’t have a lock, which probably would have been fine for just a couple, but with kids it was kind of a disaster if you can imagine lol. They had on their paperwork that they change linen every 3 days, but we found it odd we didn’t see the housekeeper at all. I don’t care about beds not being made, but we only had the one roll of toilet paper they gave us, and it felt kind of weird going to the front desk the second night looking for TP at what they call a resort. We also had no towels nor trash pick up. Luckily we had bags from going out we could throw our trash into. But again, for an advertised resort I found it a little weird. It wasn’t a deal breaker for us though, but something I did note was odd. The Landshark food was really good, but it was very overpriced for what it was. We spent a lot of money on average food. The decor was fun, but def not up the the standard of a typical Margaritaville experience to be charging that kind of money in my opinion. The server was really nice though and friendly. I don’t remember his name, but he mentioned he was former military if that helps. The water park we really enjoyed. It was perfect for what my family was looking for, as we have a ten year old and three year old, so needed something that would be good for both of them. I was able to be in the toddler area with my three year old, but also still see my Daughter on the two slides. It was cool to be able to hold my son in the lazy River too. I didn’t notice any problems with chlorine smell as others did. If you end up going, there are two sides!! I feel like a lot of people (including us the first day), had no idea there was a wave pool and two other slides on the other side of the park. The toddler area was really cold for some reason, and the outside air was freezing. We managed, but they really should look into warming the toddler section, a lot of littles were shivering. The pool water was ice cold. It was not overly crowded, especially for school vacation week, but there were a good amount of teenagers that may have been slightly underwhelmed after awhile. The lifeguards were really good at ensuring behavior stayed in line, which we appreciated. There was one life guard though that did take it to another level and I would say borderlined on being very rude. They didn’t want people to go too far back in the wave pool, they should consider signs or a rope or something. One of the lifeguards was pretty demeaning to be honest and seemed to embarrass a guest. It created a bit of an uncomfortable atmosphere. If you have older kids, like teenagers, it might not be the best option, but we loved it for us. Similarly, if you are looking for any sort of romantic get away, I would avoid school vacation week. We heard a lot of kids running around and yelling up until 11 at night. The arcade was expensive, but we noticed the claw machines actually were attainable to win. Similarly, some of the machines it was pretty easy to win a lot of tickets. So the kids did take home a lot of stuff which was great. We spent about $100 and left with a lot of stuff. In terms of service, everyone was fine, no one looked overly happy to be there, but also no one was rude to us and we didn’t...

Updated Review - Management called and addressed the concerns with my parents. They said they were working on updating the website and apologized for the inconvenience. Short version - Confirm room amenities before booking as company website does not accurately reflect what is available in-room (as of writing Jan 2025). Margaritaville Resort Perks do not apply at this property (as of writing Jan 2025) My parents, especially my mom, are huge Jimmy Buffett fans so for their anniversary I booked them a stay at one of the newest Margaritaville Resort properties: Cape Cod. I booked them in the Loft Suite because of course I would - It's their anniversary! The Loft Suite was advertised on the Margaritaville website as having an in-room fireplace as well as an in-room Jacuzzi. After check-in and upon visiting the suite, my parents were disappointed to find that the room included neither, and went back to the front desk to ask whether they had been given keys to the wrong room. The front desk manager (night of 1/27) informed them that yes, they were in the correct room, and that what they were expecting was a mistake. They were told that they must have been looking at a third-party website and not Margaritavilleresorts.com because none of the accommodations at this property had fireplaces or Jacuzzis. Okay, errors happen. It's disappointing but there's nothing to be done if none there are no accommodations with that in them. Except...

The next morning at check out my parents asked about the Margaritaville Perks since they've stayed at many brand properties and have a goal of visiting all of the various Margaritaville Resorts in their retirement: Front desk manager (different person than the previous night; this is morning of 1/28) told them that they don't honor perks in the first 90 days of the hotel's opening. Maybe this is brand policy, maybe it isn't; but in all of their Margaritaville Resort stays, including at newly-opened ones, they've never been told of this or experienced this policy being enforced. At this time they also showed the front desk manager the Margaritavilleresorts.com web page that shows the accommodations for the room (attached to this review - from the company's own webpage and not a third party). Now, after checking out, the front desk manager informs my parents that fireplace/Jacuzzi ARE available, but only in the "Apartments" and that the apartments are a two-night minimum.

Here's the bottom line - Hotel management had the opportunity to make a mutually beneficial decision here. My parents had flexible travel plans. Had they been informed the Apartments existed the night they checked in, and that the Apartments required a two-night stay, they would have happily extended their anniversary trip an extra day. The hotel would have also sold an extra night in the middle of January when things are slow. Perhaps as a make-up for the errors in listed room amenities, they could have offered the upgrade to the Apartments at half-rate for the second night as an apology - but that wouldn't have been necessary. They still would have come out 50% ahead and not left a bad taste in a brand fan's mouth. At the very least, recognizing their failing and letting the 90-day lock out on perks slide a little that one time could have smoothed things over too. There were multiple paths to remedy this but no staff member recognized them.

Disappointing experience for my parents on their anniversary, which didn't need to be that way and was easily remediable if the hospitality staff had been better trained. With a little more effort to care about the guests and with training on remedying circumstances, this could have been a win-win for all parties. This property is clearly still getting its feet under it and hopefully the staff learns from...

Solid 3 stars with room to improve.

First impression is that overall the rooms are bright, fresh, and clean. It does feel a bit rushed when it comes to the final room details from the renovation. Important details are missing but if added could really make a positive difference. I would really appreciate more information in the room. For example: how to call the front desk ( it’s not the “call guest services” button on the phone but actually you have DIAL 0 but, that isn’t indicated anywhere) or how to connect to the wifi, or the restaurant name, hours and/or menu, and information about amenities and the property. Of note: house keeping was observed working really hard to maintain these room.

We had 3 safety concerns during our visit.

Anyone can gain access to the hallways of the hotel from the exterior doors. While many entry points are convenient, we did not need our room key to gain entry, even late at night. They do however, have many security cameras in the corridors.

We had a close call when the two year old engaged the dead bolt of our rooms outside door and then a while later accidentally closed the door in-between the adjoining rooms, locking herself and everyone else out of the room. Even management was unable to override the deadbolt to access the room. Sophia from the front desk was very responsive and worked with 2 engineers (Dionde?) to gain access. It took over an hour but we just kept agonizing over what what have happened if there was child locked in the room. Dionde went above and beyond and took care to vacuum the debris. A contingency plan should be in place to deal with this situation as it’s a potential safety issue.

I encourage management to review the performance of staff members by viewing camera footage on 12/24/24 between 10:30-11am at the wave pool, and 11am-12pm at the lazy river. Life guards are paid to ensure the safety of guests. Rolling eyes at guests, and fellow life guards, being visibly annoyed for no apparent reason at guests, congregating and commiserating in lieu of preforming duties should not be tolerated. This poor morale negatively affects guests experience and their safety. I showed pictures to management and were able to help me identify two life guards; Austin and Nathan, they did such a fantastic job with their duties and were kind to the children and ensured their safety.

The Land and Shark had a good vibe and the food and portions are decent. You may not know but there is a kids menu! The children’s menu isn’t posted online so make sure to ask. We almost went off property to eat because we didn’t think it had any kid friendly options for our picky eater. The kids menu is great! We placed a take out order at the bar and enjoyed listening to the live music while we waited. We were charged incorrectly for two meals but the bar tender quickly fixed the error and we did in fact receive two meals even though it’s not what we ordered. However, the kids meal was not prepared as ordered so it was deemed inedible by the child it was intended for. So that was a loss. Not sure if it was the noise from the music but, I would recommend working on order accuracy.

WiFi worked great in all areas of the hotel. Very strong signal.

Bottom line, give this place a try. You should have reasonable expectations as they are still working out some kinks. Most of the staff genuinely seems to care about making guests comfortable...