The Sanderling Resort — Hotel in Duck

I will try to categorize this review to make it easier to read:||Property of the Sanderling Resort||Pros: Beautiful. The beach is amazing. Love the chairs all around. Love that they add plantings to the dunes to protect them. Love that they have fire pits. They have tesla parking chargers.||Cons: Please make sure your staff is informed of what is really available & what isn't. Updates and construction are in progress. The subfloor next to the elevator in North is rotten & sinks when you step on it. The fireplace didn't work in North. The gym was closed due to the construction work on the doors. Please send Confirmation emails upon booking. I had to call to confirm my booking was completed as I received nothing but a hit to my credit card.||Future ideas: It would be helpful if the front desk had a list of open restaurants in town & their hours. It would be even more helpful if that list was updated from the on-season to the off-season. Most resorts give a packet upon check-in that shows what events/spa treatments of which you are already signed up, we didn't get anything other than a map at check-in. Consider adding solar panels as parking coverage roofing, preferably setup in a way that would be okay during hurricane season. Please recycle & provide cans for such.||Please create an app for your resort; mimic the cruise apps. It would be helpful if there were a few features in the app such as a room key, resort calendar, guest calendar, map, property details, restaurants/menus, rentals, tours/excursions, and account. The room key could be in the app like most hotels, so then they do not have to keep up with the key card. That room key would be used for the building doors and gym doors. The guest calendar could show all the spa appts, rental appts, as well as letting guests add events from the resort calendar to their in-app calendar. Connect the in-app map to google & give walking directions in real time; for example, location of chairs to watch sunrise, adult-only pool, bocce ball court, spa, etc. Currently, all instructions given were verbal along with printed map. You could have each of the restaurant menus published in the app, including dietary restriction information. The app could have a spa menu listed that allows you to add to the guest calendar and charges the card saved. The spa check-in document could be in the app so then guests do not have to write the same exact information on paper each day they visit the spa. You could have an after-visit spa summary that shows the products used during the treatment(s) with a link to "buy now" so then your spa guest can buy what was used. Property details could include fire pit hours and number of seats, pool hours and age limits, animals found on the property with pictures, etc. There could even be a bingo games that lets guests mark off things done and things seen while at the Sanderling Resort. For example: Saw seagull, sat in dune chair, swam in pool, made smores at fire pit, received spa treatment, tried yummy food at restaurant, practiced yoga, etc. The app could have a rental section where the guests could book bike rentals, kayak rentals, etc. That rental section could include a receipt of the rental with the expected hours begin and end, maybe even an alarm that reminds them they are running out of time. Guests might want to book tours of Duck or the Atlantic, it would be helpful to have this booking available in the app. They may want to have a hiking excursion with a guide, it would be helpful if they could book those excursions. Each of these bookings could show in the guest calendar. The account section would show each purchase made, so then the guest could review receipts. When you check out at the spa, you do not actually see what items were charged you only get the total and tip amount. Also, it could be nice if the spa retail and spa product items for sale were listed in the app, then guests could order those, and it could feed into the inventory software in the spa. For example, a guest may be in their room at 9pm and realize they forgot their sunglasses and sunscreen, they could see that the spa has these items and make the purchase then pick them up at 9am when the spa opens so they can get going with their day. Then the guest knows they do not need to drive to town first thing in the morning. Make the app able to connect each guest on the reservation (if desired) so then guardians can keep track of items for children and see a big picture with their own items. We were told that the spa at Sanderling has sister locations, so if the account information were saved in the digital application, then “members” of Sanderling spa could carry over their information when visiting those sister spas. ||Hotel Room at the Sanderling resort||Pros: The bed is comfortable. The curtains overlap. The mini refrigerator is large enough to have several people put their leftovers and medications inside with space to not overlap. The balcony chairs were nice! There is a coffee maker in the room. There is a small table and 2 chairs to use.||Cons: The barn door for the bathroom would NOT stay shut. It did not block light, sounds, smells, water, or humidity. Not really sure what the point of the barn door was since it slid open immediately after pulling closed. The shower should have a door, the half wall allows water to splash all over the bathroom & it is very slippery/hazardous, as well as cold from the air drafting into the shower. The bathrooms should have another row of hooks on the wall next to the toilet. There is NOT enough room to hang wet swim items in addition to the wet towels. The shower should have a way to hang a dry towel, a washcloth, & a loofah without having to put them on the floor. Sound does travel between rooms. The room we had in North had a connector door on each side of the room so that we could connect to the room to the right and the room to the left.||Future Ideas: Please include seat cushions on each chair in the hotel room. Please add a channel guide to the TV so you don't need to request printed paper from the front desk. Please include laminated instructions for the dehumidifier so guests can know what to do when it alerts. Add instructions on where to find the ice maker and the water bottle fill-up station. Please have a tea tray in reception so you can make tea in the room; this would be in addition to the regular & decaf coffee that is accompanying the coffee maker in the room. Please get a QA tester to review your reconstruction plans as you work on the main building, preferably several mothers of multiple children as they will see what isn't intuitive/useful in each area. ||Restaurant: The Lifesaving Station||Pros: The ingredients are fresh. The restaurant is beautiful. The other people in my party said their dishes were very delicious and the fish was cooked perfectly.||Cons: The booking receptionist & front desk should not say there is a vegan menu when there isn't one; I was told on 3 different occasions that the chef creates a new menu per season & has a vegan dish. The restaurant should have a dietary limitation menu with ingredient identification for allergies; the wait staff should not have to return to the kitchen each time for an ingredient question & have the chance to forget & then not return with an answer. The wait staff in the restaurant haven’t tried the food & is unaware of dish details. For the price of the dishes, it is expected that the wait staff are knowledgeable about every item on every menu. Dietary restriction menus shouldn't be overlooked in a resort/spa complex. I wasn't expecting to leave the resort to get food. Having to adjust the schedule between sessions to leave the resort to drive to town to get food was frustrating to me & my party. The service in the restaurant shouldn't ignore patrons even if they are ordering less costly items. The hostess told me the kitchen can accommodate a vegan request, and we discussed the available vegetables and fruit. I am not sure if the hostess and the server did not have time to communicate, but by the time the server came to our table for the order, the veg/fruit list that I created with the hostess was not something she was able to offer. I could only pick from the sides, none of which I could have without modification. ||Future Ideas: Please have a chef tasting menu meeting with the wait staff each time the chef changes menus. Please publish the menus for the open resort restaurants.||The Spa at Sanderling||Pros: The staff are nice. The products used felt great. They had a vegan line of products. The resting rooms were lovely. The treatment rooms were comfortable. I liked that they provided sandals that are cleaned after each use. The locker room had easily accessible essentials. ||Cons: The spa should have privacy for the shower doors, not distorted clear doors. The spa should have hooks for towels & shower supplies. I wish that during the sugar scrub treatment we could have changed the sheets. The staff member did a great job rubbing in the exfoliation and then used a hot, wet towel to clean if off, but the product remained on the sheet under me. It would have been nice to have the sheet pulled off as one half of my body was cleaned, and then I roll onto the clean sheet, to have the other half of the body cleaned and the rest of the dirty sheet rolled off the bed. Getting up after the treatment was over, I was covered in the scrub. I did not feel comfortable showering with the clear shower doors, that had no way to cover me and nowhere to put my products. ||Future Ideas: Please have snacks for allergy/dietary restriction guests in the spa. Please have a sparkling juice/water in addition to champagne, that way those with allergies or restrictions can also enjoy the bubbly. Please add scalp cleansing treatments & hair moisturizing treatments to the menu. Please have a way to view the products used in treatments so then we know what we may want to purchase. Please include details on your payment receipts, I was trying to figure out exactly what was paid for and the receipt only says the...

The Sanderling does a great job at making you feel like you just stepped into a luxury resort and the longer you stay the illusion starts to fade away. ||||For memorial weekend we were excited to stay at the newly renovated luxury coastal resort. This resort is rated 4-stars (the same as The Biltmore Inn in Asheville) and we were looking forward to being pampered and spoiled at this luxury resort. The lobby and our King Ocean View room were decorated beautifully and that is where the luxury stopped. ||||Our toilet was not cleaned and still had pee and poop stains on the toilet ring and bottom of the toilet seat. Not a great first impression for a “4-star resort”. ||This is how our stay continued and by the time we left we felt bamboozled that we paid for a 4-star resort and instead got a motel experience with a hotel facelift. ||The screen to our patio was in pieces and separated from the metal piece, clearly this was not part of the renovation. Our carpet did not look like it was vacuumed prior to our stay, as there were random hair ties on the floor. Our sheets had red and black stains on them. ||||We then realized a lot of “amenities” that come with a 4-star resort were absent from our stay. Which to many, it is the little things that a resort provides that enhances the experience. ||||There was no complimentary coffee in the hotel lobby for breakfast, instead you got a tea kettle and a coffee sachet (no tea). Which is fine, but the cord to the tea kettle was so short we had to search for a place to plug it in. The cups provided were paper cups, and not ceramic mugs. There was no alarm clock provided, and no emergency exit plans on the door. Normally there are some bathroom amenities like a shower cap, sewing kit, facial soap – none of those were provided. Just your basic Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash, and some lotion. The TV guide never worked on our TV and would say “No Information Provided.” No booklet or brochure was provided in our room of what to do around the area, restaurants that were available, things to do, and services the hotel provides. Room service was not provided, no mini-bar, and our mini fridge was dissembled and had hardware sitting on top of it, like someone stopped halfway and forgot to finish. ||||The overall hotel is beautiful, but not clean. Our entire stay, the vending machine was dusty and piled with trash and salt-shakers (which you could see as you came down the stairs), or pizza boxes shoved under the machine. Vacuums were left out all day long with attachments left on the floor. Trash cans weren’t emptied and at one point the door handle was completely missing off the North Building beach access door. Bugs are also to be expected, anywhere we go. But layers of bugs on window and door sills should be unacceptable. Taking a moment to wipe those areas or hose them off in the morning goes a long way. The knitted chairs between the resort and the beach were COVERED in orb spiders, and we almost sat in one of the chairs before we noticed that 5 spiders were already occupying that space. The sign as you entered the beach which had the date, temperature, and sunrise/sunset was not updated once during our stay. No one was available to take the provided beach chairs and umbrellas out to the beach. We had reservations at the Life Saving restaurant and we were initially told it would be a 30 minute wait, we said we had a reservation and they apologized and immediately sat us. Both restrooms in the restaurant had no paper-towels, just a box of Kleenex, and the soap dispenser on the counter was empty. The Sandbar womens restroom stall was missing screws for the metal sliding lock and was hanging on by 1 screw. ||||All of these combined experiences were so frustrating because we booked a 4-star resort and the longer we stayed the more it felt like we were staying at a Ramada Inn. ||When we brought up a concern we were told that the staff was all new and training – which we understand can take time to get the staff trained to provide luxury accommodations – but in that case, don’t charge us full price for a luxury resort if you can’t yet promise a luxury experience. We paid for and expected a 4-star resort and what we received felt more like a training exercise for the staff. A soft open for the start of the season. It was very disappointing. ||||Pros: ||Staff at the lobby bar and the Life Saving restaurant were very nice. The décor is beautiful around the hotel. Wonderful beach access. Firepits. Although we didn’t use the pool, both pools looked nice and well maintained. The cornhole and bocci area was also a nice touch. The pastries at the Lobby Bar were...

A list of some of the 'issues' with this 'luxury resort': We prepaid for a sound view room in advance of our reservartion-a premium price-not as pricey as an 'ocean view'-but-ridiculously expensive. But we popped for it-had to stay fairly far north in Carolina to get to ORF early on our check out day. ($2400.00 for 3 nights). 'Sound view'-hmm-the Sanderling has the major highway along the isthmus there (NC Hwy 12 or Duck Rd) between it and Sound. Then they built their 'spa' across the highway-which blocks the view of the sound-except for a sliver of it kind of visible over the roof of the spa and through the trees-meanwhile-your view is mainly of the parking lot-and the stready stream of traffic on Duck Road. Don't opt for a 'Sound View'-it's just marketing smoke and mirrors to get more $$ for no view. The walls between the room are paper thin. In the bathroom-you could hear EVERY word and sound going on in the bathroom in the next room. The balconies (which overlook the parking lot)-you know, the 'Sound View' ones-are separated by a wall built of wood shutters-stepped out there but the family next door was out on theirs with their two kids playing and, seriously, it was kind of a vacation for us-but putting up with other people's noise is not a vacation for me. Step inside, close door, close curtains. The midge detritus is EVERYWHERE and I'm sorry-have they ever heard of 'power washers'? They have models that attach to hoses-and they should be washing dead midge bodies off everything every day - or between guest stays. It's just not that hard to do. I understand the COVID thing where they don't send anyone into your room to do anything unless you ask. So, be prepared to make your own bed, figure out the wet/damp towel thing - and put up with dirty carpet in your room while you stay-unless you want to call them and have someone come in and vacuum-but, at what point do you just throw up your hands and just put up with 3 days of accumluating grit-if we had stayed longer - maybe. Having said that about room cleanliness-there is NO EXCUXSE for filthy public areas.The carpet in the building where we stayed was never vacuumed the entire time we were there. Much less having someone treat stains on it the day the stains appeared (people leaving piles of take-out outside their doors, spilling drinks on it as they go to the rooms-and whatever else you can imagine). It was appalling. For the kind of money we spent-it is totally unacceptable and their 'housekeeping' management should be ashamed. Stair railings. Please. If you're going to advertise your post-COVID housekeeping policy on rooms-but not even be wiping down the stairway railings EVERY DAY-it's smoke and mirrors again. The railings are painted white. We're on the third floor-waiting for the elevator would consume the better part of our vacation. We used the stairs.But the railings - from our first day were FILTHY-I kept thinking they would be cleaned-but everyday-they did not disappoint in completely NOT CLEANING them. It's just not that hard to do. We got to the hotel early on check-in day. Had to wait a couple of hours. Did not want to get back in the car-after being in bumper-to-bumper traffic just to get there (for 3 hours). Went to the restaurant - something like the LifeSaving Station, I think-right on the cusp of lunch. No one in the restaurant-plenty of staff in there, which should have been a clue, I guess.(Never a good sign when a restaurant is empty at lunch time-esp on the OBX which is PACKED with people at that time of year). Ordered a cuppa chowda, two salads, iced tea, soda. $47.00. It is what it is. Ridiculously simple, hard-to-screw-up-a-salad-someone-else-makes-for-you - but I'm a cook-and I know cost and effort of that salad-and that was what we used to call 'highway robbery'. Don't go there unless for convenience sake - and don't expect much - and prepare to overpay for mediocre food and...