Grande Shores Ocean Resort — Hotel in Myrtle Beach

Came to Myrtle Beach for a Family Reunion and Mother’s Day.

I chose this resort based on the location and cleanliness reviews.

I don’t need fancy but I do need clean. :-)

Upon checking in, I noticed the indoor pool was extremely cloudy and the kiddie pool wasn’t working. I let that go; sometimes these things happen….went to the main floor outdoor pool. The pool is supposed to be blue but the pool has been taken over by rust….so it is now brown

The water seemed clear, so I chucked it up that it’s an old pool and hopefully they would be painting it soon.

I received a text from the office asking about our stay so far. Giving them the benefit of the doubt in regards to the pools, the location of the beach and the friendly staff at check-in I did rate them at a 4/5 at that time.

4PM, Got into our room. Loved the newer kitchen counter tops and backsplash and the view - BUT - that’s where it ends

This condo had years of neglect. Every corner, baseboard, light fixture, furniture is covered in grim. Even dirt hanging from the ceiling, I couldn’t believe the hair still left in the bathroom and grim everywhere. The grout is covered in black soot - almost all over. I’m able to see that’s it’s supposed to be gray.

We gotten into our room at 4pm and had to be at dinner by 6. So not much time to do anything about the room conditions.

I did send a message once I arrived at the restaurant to let them know I wasn’t happy with the room condition.

They were to send someone right up to our room.

Got back to our room around 9:30pm…. Nothing had changed! I took pictures and sent them. See pictures I included here.

The next morning I received a response asking if anyone had come. I explained the pictures I sent at 9:30 the night before are what the condo still looked like and if they had come between 6-9pm the night before those are the current results of their work.

In a side note, We also heard scratching inside the wall ….hoping it’s not mice.

The next day I was contacted by the hotel manager and director of housekeeping who offered cleaning services. I did state that nothing had changed from their previous days work and didn’t see what another trip to do the same thing would help. I also stated several years of neglect was not going to be fixed in 1 afternoon.

The director and manager of HK came to my room for me to show them what I was referring to. I began to show the manager. She was very dismissive, but kind and apologetic. She did not want to see what I wanted to show her and did not give me time to tell her about the scratching inside the wall. She only said they would send 2 ladies to give us VIP cleaning services.

I agreed.

We again had to leave for another family event at that time.

A little after 6pm I received a message that our services were complete.

There was ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE in the room conditions other than the beds were made and new towels. Adding those pictures too. I also sent these to the manager.

I am grossed out at this point. I can’t relax, I don’t want to sit or lay on dirty furniture. I can’t take my shoes off afraid to walk on the carpets. I would just sit on the balcony and try to ignore it, but sadly it’s storming here this weekend.

No offer of a better room, only offering VIP cleaning services which obviously means nothing and finally the manager offered a $100 discount.

I’m traveling with my elderly mother, husband and 3 children. Our 3 bedroom, 2 bath beachfront condo was not cheap.

I want to move to an Airbnb but there’s no time in between events to also have to stress about finding a place and relocating.

I do not recommend...

The best thing about this "resort" is the location. We arrived a couple hours early for check-in (drove in from out of state) and while we assumed our room wouldn't be ready, we figured we could grab some food or a drink at one of the advertised restaurants/bar. We immediately noticed the building and lobby were much more worn looking than the online photos reveal. After checking in we headed to the onsite restaurant but were disappointed to learn they close from 11-4 daily. We moved on to the poolside bar which had a chalkboard sign saying "Open Friday-Sunday 11-4" but it was all closed up. As we walked around we noticed the indoor and outdoor pools and decks also looked quite a bit less appealing than the online photos. I went back to the lobby to ask about the bar and the girl working the desk "wasn't sure" if the pool bar would be opening. She said they had a bartender quit last week. How does the staff not know if one of the advertised amenities would be open or not? She suggested we go to another resort half a mile away and use their restaurant/bar ( I guess we should have booked at the Dunes). When we got up to our room (3 bedroom condo), we were pleased with the ocean view and the master bedroom/bathroom, the living room and kitchen were adequate, but the other two bedrooms (especially the one king bed) were terrible. The window was small, so the rooms seemed very dark and closed in. The beds and pillows were stiff. We dreaded going to sleep each night. We woke up the next morning and found a giant roach on the living room wall. I get it, it's the beach, but when we went looking for it we found more dead bugs along the wall. One of the managers asked how our stay was going via text, I responded with the above complaints and never got a response.

Despite all of the signs throughout the "resort" and the warnings online, there is a lot of smoking that takes place in and out of the rooms. We had a group of families staying at Grande Shores for a youth basketball tournament and everyone was talking about the overwhelming smell of marijuana coming from rooms, balconies, and the pool deck.

We seriously contemplated checking out a day early, knowing we wouldn't get a refund, but we still had things in Myrtle Beach that we wanted to do after our son's tournament.

On Sunday, I called the front desk to ask if the pool bar was open. The girl who I spoke with thought it was, asked a coworker for confirmation and he wasn't sure. She said it might not be, because of the weather (a light drizzle and some clouds earlier in the day) but didn't bother to confirm and let me know. We went down to find out it wasn't. After three nights of poor sleep and trying to avoid being in our room as much as possible, we checked out. The girl at the front asked how our stay was and I replied "ehh.. Not great". She said "aww." And then asked if she could email me my receipt. We will never stay at the Grande Shores again. I will say, in addition to the location, we enjoyed the nighttime server and bartender in the cafe. Both women were nice and attentive.

I considered sending this review to the resort in an email, but since I told them twice we weren't happy with our stay and no one seemed to care, when I was asked by Google to leave a review I decided to...

Great stay! Details: So we were down (like many others) for a baseball tournament at Youth Nationals. First off, the lobby/garage arrangement is a bit odd and not glamorous, but it is convenient to have the garage inside the hotel as many other hotels have offsite parking, especially since we were in and out most days. Check in was great- our room was actually ready early. The only slight disappointment was the package of free tickets that I was told I would get when I booked was actually tied to a promotional sales pitch about buying property… we just declined and moved on - no big deal. Anyway, we got a 2 bedroom suite and absolutely loved it! It was recently renovated, spacious, sparkling clean, and perfect for 4 of us (6 would also be fine on the pull out). Most hotels in MB, like this one, are older…the ocean front/view rooms seem generally more updated and better maintained. Not sure about the other rooms. Positives: Big kitchen and all appliances worked well, including the W/D. Screaming hot water, even at peak times, and pressure was fine to us. WiFi was good. The staff came in once in 6 days (we expected none) and we could always get fresh towels from staff. The staff was great and they worked tirelessly to keep the facility clean. Big bedrooms; Beds and sheets were very comfortable. Room noise was average for an older building- we were there over the rowdy 4th of July weekend….some noise to be expected! We had the ‘ocean side view’ but it was amazing…our 12th floor balcony was large with a high wall and had a high top table and barstools and more chairs. Our MBR had an incredible ocean view out of our own sliding door to the balcony- very efficient floor plan overall, with lots of closet space. I am not sure if one can make a request but if so, the view from the north side of the building is beautiful. Like most MB hotels, the pools and hot tubs are not huge and can get crowded especially over the weekends and evenings. The main pool was a nice size but it would be nice if the pool bar was open all day (Covid of course)! The beach was beautiful and very clean. You can rent an umbrella and 2 chairs for $45/day fronting the hotel (cheaper after 1pm). We really liked that there are only beach houses to the north so this whole area, especially the beach, is much less dense than the hotels to the south. Only one of us tried the cafe for one breakfast….not great…suggest going to Blueberry Grill up the block - fantastic! In fact, we found several excellent restaurants in the immediate area… I posted separate reviews for all of them. Bottom line: while the hotel feels older, the garage/lobby is somewhat odd, and the cafe needs improvement, the surrounding area is great, the staff worked hard to keep it clean, and the room and beach were perfect for our needs - we all really enjoyed our stay. Solid 4 stars among the aging fleet of Myrtle...