Ocean Reef Resort — Hotel in Myrtle Beach

We have stayed at Ocean Reef probably close to 10 times over the last 10+ years. We have always considered this to be our destination in MB. We are willing to overlook minor imperfections. We just left after a week long stay and it saddens me to say we are considering if we should look for a new resort for future trips.

The positives: the location is perfect. It's in a safe part of town, with plenty of parking, and everything is easily accessible. The oceanfront rooms cannot be beaten. The recent improvements were nice and desperately needed. Additionally, their breakfast buffets are easily worth the money. Great food and service.

We always book directly through the hotel. This time we were assigned an "owner's room" which should have been no big deal. We couldn't get into the room until nearly 5:00 (check-in is supposed to be 4:00). We noticed right away that we had no remote control for the TV. We don't come on vacation to watch tv, but since there was a massive 65" TV on the wall, we figured it'd be nice to be able to use. Called the front desk, who said they would get maintenance. Waited a few hours and nothing happened, so called again. A guy was sent, who looked at it and said we were in an "owners" room with a Roku tv, and they didn't have a remote for it. He was going to check on bringing up a spare tv with a working remote. Never saw him again. (Keep in mind we never asked for an "owners" room and booked right through the hotel. A working tv was something we never thought we'd have to worry about.) The second day there was still no response so we called again. A different guy came and told us we were in an "owner's room" and there was no remote for the tv, as people steal them for their homes. He told us he notified the front desk that they needed to do something. We went the rest of the trip with no response and no tv. The lack of follow-up and blaming an "owner's room" that we didn't ask for was frustrating. The second maintenance guy that came up was helpful, but there was nothing he could do. He told us that with those owner's rooms, even if a fridge breaks, they are not allowed to replace or fix anything, because it's all up to the owner's. If you are booking the rooms directly through the hotel, this is unacceptable in my opinion.

My other huge issue is for the last 3-4 years, the booking price on the website does not match what you actually pay for the trip. It's usually less than 100 off, but it always ends up being more than what's promised at booking. The first couple times it happened, it adjusted by the time we actually stayed. This time it did not, and I just chose not to say anything as it wasn't worth the stress. I don't understand how one can book through the hotel, and then still have the deposit amount and overall cost change in the few minutes it takes to get the confirmation e-mail. If booking through a third-party it would maybe make sense, but that's not what happened here. If this happens to everyone, how much extra are they making? FYI - the amount it's off by does not equal any resort fees or anything either. I made sure to read all the fine print. There appears to be no logical explanation.

Some other minor negatives: the elevator situation is still horrible at best. I would have thought those would be upgraded. There's even missing buttons in them. Additionally, the gift shop was closed the duration of our trip. It's small anyways, but that was kind of a bummer. The pool could also use some more frequent cleaning as there are always hairs, bandaids, etc. floating around. I get it's super busy this time of year, but having someone cleaning it more frequently or at least fishing out the disgusting stuff would be my suggestion.

Overall, we will still reconsider staying at Ocean Reef in the future since we are that comfortable with the resort. It's just a little frustrating that there's no follow-through with issues and some things don't seem to be correcting. This has the potential of being a 5-star resort with a little more dedication from management...

We did not book directly through the resort so we shared all of our concerns mentioned with our "hosts" Debra and Vanessa.

I have 3 small children. On Wed, my 5 year old daughter had an elevator door close on her hand. It was the elevator towards the back of the resort, not the two by the pool. There was construction going on everywhere in the resort and the rear elevator area was roped off and funneled you down a narrow hallway while people were jackhammering feet from guests with a thin sheet of plastic closing off the construction.

People were getting off the elevator and my daughter entered. The elevator started to close and my wife attempted to stop the elevator by putting her hand in it. It continued to close despite this. As my daughter was also attempting to stop the doors, it closed on her hand and would not reopen. She was in pain the entire night and terrified to go on the elevators after this. I had to pry it open with all my strength. Had someone called the elevator from another floor, it would have probably went to that floor with her hands in the door and injured her even worse.

We told our "host" about this immediately but there was no further communication other than she would let the resort know. No follow up on this. We also told the person at the front desk but they seemed to care less. We had no other contact info for the resort until after we left.

The elevator was still open and operating and still broken when we left. We finally got an email back about our concerns the final day of the trip and this was not even mentioned.

The biggest issue of all with this resort is the rampant weed usage that goes on here. We could barely walk the hallway without getting a contact high. I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say that nearly every time you left your room you smelled it and it was strong. In the hallway, in the elevator, at the pool, in the parking lot, on the balcony. You couldn't even open the balcony door without the odor filling the living room.

It's pretty bad that little kids can't go to the pool or leave their condo to go to the beach without saying "why does it smell like smoke?" And "what is that awful smell." This is a resort targeted towards families with young children (or so I'd think with a spray park.) To allow this to go on is completely unacceptable. We again reported this to our "hosts" within the first night or two. It even reeks at the pool. It's clear they could care less and completely turn a blind eye to this drug usage that makes stays miserable for others.

The little spray park was off and closed half the week and the water slide (one of the main reasons we stayed here) was closed all week, despite being on and running. Construction was everywhere. Jackhammering all day so loud you couldn't even talk in the main lobby and you could hear it in your room.

The whole elevator situation, on top of the earlier mentioned issues, is a mess. There are 3 small elevators for the entire resort. It's not unusual during busy times to wait 10+ minutes to get an elevator. Many times, elevators going down would arrive so full that you couldn't even get on it.

People from the resort shot off fireworks on the beach at 11pm one night and 1am-1:30am another. There's cameras pointed that direction and we watched the people walk back to our resort. So either they don't work or they don't care.

People threw beer cans off the balconies on several occasions. The resort said they knocked on the door but they didn't answer.

The day we were leaving (this past Saturday), as I was packing the car, an EMPLOYEE was BLASTING a bluetooth speaker. When you have little kids you don't want blasting music where every other word is pssy and fck.

To sum up this review, this resort is completely out of control for what you pay. I'd say if you are looking to party and get wild and out of control, this might be a good resort for you. If you want a safe, clean, quiet, drug free vacation stay far away...

By previous other reviews, you can tell I'm a frequent visitor here. I've been staying here for at least 7 years now. The hotel just made major renovations in the millions of dollars. While it did improve the overall ebb and flow of the place. I was very discouraged by the mattresses they chose in the various rooms. They are very thin and are worse than a camper mattress. I mean I am not the heaviest person in the world and they gave me zero support. Also in some of the deluxe King rooms. Oceanfront they put the sofa right in front of the air conditioning unit. This left no air flow whatsoever. They did away with most of the refrigerators that had ice makers. I know there's an ice maker out in the hall, but it was nice to have your own ice in your rooms. The couch was comfortable but the bed was not. Overall cleanliness was above average which has always been a strong suit of this hotel. Food down in the breakfast buffet seemed a little off this time. They did not refresh the fruit in a timely manner when it got busy. The main egg chef who does the omelettes did very well. Maggie, as always was top notch. Hot tubs are still leaking very frequently. Thank God. I met a guy named Dominic who is on the maintenance squad that kept filling them up for me at night. Had he not been there it would have been a very bad experience. I think they ought to have a schedule to make sure the hot tubs are full everyday like at 3:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 pm. I felt like they closed the slide a little early during the day. It was usually only open from about 10:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. I think with the amount of staff they had here in August they could have left it open at least till 7:30 p.m. They also cut off the water buckets and lazy River a couple of times right at 9:00 when the pool stays open till 11:00 p.m. I felt like that was a little early to be cutting off the lazy river. It's one of the attractions that gives people something to do at night. Grill staff seem very accommodating. Food was not as good as in the past though. I think they have different grill cooks and its food was not as appetizing as usual. I mean you pay a lot of money for this food and they've gave me very little chips in my platters and seem to be a little short-handed on the fries. This is the first time I remember having food not as good out of the cafe. Even breakfast did not seem as good as it used to be. Overall the guests were pretty laid-back and friendly. This wasn't the case in May. When I visited. I purposely came here between Tuesday and Friday during the week. It seems like the weekends at this place get a little crazy with bad clientele. However, during the week, mostly families and older golfers are having a good time enjoying vacation. I was happy not to smell the pot on the balcony this time. In previous times it was everywhere in May. Overall, quiet hours were in place from 10:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. and most of the guests honored this Quite time. In May it was not honored at all. Unfortunately, even though some of the above sounds positive. The comfort of the mattress, which is the main thing you do in these small rooms brought the rating down considerably. I mean this was supposed to be a very high dollar remodel. I think they would have been better off going with a BeautyRest mattress. I mean these memory foam mattresses are not made for extreme hotel use. I miss the BeautyRest firm mattresses that were in most of the rooms. I've got a little tip if you go through a third party most of these units don't totally remodel everything that Ocean Reef required. As it goes with the mattresses that was a smart move on third parties. Yes, third parties are like Airbnb and many others. Unfortunately due to the hot tubs leaking and having to acquire my own individual to fill them up is not up to four star review status. I was expecting more with a million dollar...