Sands Ocean Club Resort — Hotel in Myrtle Beach

It's almost impressive how bad the Sands Ocean Club Resort is.

If one didn't know any better, the unit, amenities, and service were so subpar, so laughably inferior to what their website presented, you could mistakenly assume that this shoddiness was deliberate.

However, that is not the case. Despair ye, all who stay at the Sands Ocean Club. I wish my family and I took heed to those words.

For starters, the unit itself was almost Golgothian in its upkeep. The floor was dusty, hairy, and filthy. Walking on the beach felt cleaner. If you wear socks when attending here: maybe don't. In addition, some areas of the room were completely ignored. I found a used wash cloth behind my bed. The beds themselves had grains of sand beneath the covers.

Finally, there were splotches of blood on the top bunk, stained into the bottom of the mattress. God knows from what. Not exactly sweet dreams with me sleeping on the lower bed.

Fortunately, we called the lobby on the first day upon soon arriving, to relay the poor state of the room. They said they would send cleaners immediately.

The website, secondly, also displayed a wide variety of amenities. Free lunches, pools, and an accessible bar were among those listed. The latter, I'll concede, was quite nice actually. Drinks were sweet, the music relaxing, and the atmosphere pleasing.

But on the actual inside, within the hotel, the pleasantries quickly evaporate.

Like the rooms, the extra bonuses were far different from what the website displayed. The free lunches constituted to soggy hot dogs and hamburgers. No condiments, cheeses, sides, or anything. I can confidently state that there are death row prisoners who have more enjoyable lunches than the ones at Sands Ocean Club.

On that note, allow me to transition into my final point, the services provided by the employees. I write services, but the word "observing" might be more apt, as that is what they did.

Whenever we asked a question or for help, we received glazed looks and tired expressions. More often then not, they would suggest asking another employee for assistance, and the cycle would repeat. The majority of workers seemed bored, rude, and completely apathetic.

To provide a brief example, my brother and I made the trek to get our free lunches, the meager hot dogs and burgers.

While waiting for our food to be prepared, we noticed an employee struggle to place a frank within a bun. He fumbled to do this, and the bun collapsed and fell off the counter.

The man, paradoxical to what one would expect, did nothing. His face was blank, hands motionless, eyes devoid of that divine spark all men are imbued with. The other employee literally asked if he was okay, and urged him to get back to work.

That's just one example of the disastrous service we received at the Sands Ocean Club. Remember that cleaning for our room I mentioned earlier? Apparently, the custodians didn't, as they never cleaned it. And if they did, it was so miniscule and haphazard that it was practically unnoticeable.

We had to make due ourselves, with our own mop and bucket, our own Clorox wipes, and our own dusting. Probably more cleaning that room received in it's entire existence.

In short, the Sands Ocean Club was a true disappointment. I know I have been exaggerating throughout this review, but I urge you to not dismiss these points as fictitious. The other numerous reviews recounting similar experiences should be means enough to convince you of my truthfulness.

This was an especially hard vacation to stomach, since my family and I have spent numerous trips at other resorts in the northern Myrtle Beach area. And for similar prices to what the Sands Ocean Club offered, might I add. But for that price itself? Ignore it. Avoid it. You may be willing to pay a pretty penny to obtain that coveted beach view room, but at the Sands Ocean Club, no amount of money will make it worth it.

No matter what reason you're going to Myrtle Beach, no matter how many people you're staying with, let me be abundantly clear.

Do not go to...

I normally don't do reviews, but this one needed to be said. We took our first beach trip in 33 years with high hopes of a nice hotel and fun experience but that was not what we got at the Sands Ocean Club Resort we got a nightmare. We booked our hotel through Priceline and from the description, photos, and somewhat decent reviews, and a price we could afford without going a dump (So we thought) we picked this place. It was supposed to be a view of the ocean, clean room, family friendly, full bathroom with extra vanity, mini fridge, housekeeping (limited it says, I will get to that) we walked in the room and it smelled of mold and mildew (which recked havoc on my sinus) and water in the floor from the mini fridge that apparently defrosted and the water was coming out of the fridge. When then saw a door right beside the bed that connected to a joining room (which we did not know about it was not in the room description nor in any pictures) There was air on the bed sheets, so we slept on top of the beds not in them. We then went to look outside on the balcony to see the ocean view we paid for, and it was a view of the top the Ocean Annies Bar and the observation deck, you could see a few waves if you stood on your toes. Now to housekeeping, we never had anyone come to our room to ask if we needed towels or anything, we had to go to the front desk to ask for more towels, they said they should have knocked on our door, but no one did. When I saw a housekeeper outside our door, I asked her for some clean towels and she asked me if I was a time share or with the hotel (We didn't know they even had time share rooms, was not in hotel info) she said we could get charged for the towels if we were not supposed to have any. She then said the hotel is run by multiple owners, different parts of the hotel had different owners (This also wasn't something told to hotel guest) I also asked her for trash bags, I got one! and we had to take out our trash. I know the paper we got said limited housekeeping, but this was ridiculous. The room that joined our rooms together had a man staying on there and he blasted vulgar music several nights waking us up at 3:45 a.m. and the smell of pot coming in under the door, we had to put their precious towels under the door to help with the odor (Very common smell from most of the employees BTW) We were afraid to complain because they might make us leave, we didn't have the money to stay somewhere else, so we had to just stick out, but I don't want ANYONE else to have to do that like us, I want to give everyone a heads up about this place. We had 10 year old with us and they had to listen to that vulgar music and smell that, not a family environment at all! |The day we checked out we also found out they stuck us in a different room then we were supposed to be in, when I called to talk to a manager (Not sure if they were though) she said they did do that, because an owner or something needed that room and they have the right to move you to a different room, I keep telling her that's false advertising and that's not what we paid for. The room we were supposed to get would have been on the 18th floor and that would have had our ocean view. instead, we were on the 2nd floor, and we got the bar view and at nice the view on our balcony was rocks with many, many roaches crawling on them...lovely!||She said she couldn't give me a refund because I went through a third-party site to book the hotel (Priceline) I also told her I was calling the BBB and she said something along the lines of "Good you can do that" so I did even though they probably won't respond to the BBB. I also saw a complaint from someone else who said when they complained at the front desk that they made them leave...CRAZY||So please don't stay at The Sands Ocean Club take your family to someplace nicer and check the BBB and AAA for a good hotel and don't rely on the...

I see a lot of reviews that are either amazing or terrible (usually from one specific bad thing that happened). So I thought I'd write an honest, unbiased review from a six-time Sands guest. Based on others' reviews, I should begin by saying - if you are looking for a quiet, relaxing getaway, DON'T stay here. If you want an exciting, lively family vacation/couple's trip, this is the place for you. There are two bars - one indoors that has karaoke every night, and one outside that has a cover band playing - yes - every night. People WILL shoot fireworks on the beach; the hotel is not responsible for that (those people might not even be staying there). The rooms are great, but could be a little cleaner. Please keep in mind, the decor, furniture, dishes, etc. can vary from room to room, as the condos are independently owned. We've had everything from a beautifully decorated room to a completely empty, bare-essential room. But who cares, we're on the beach all day anyway! As far as the cleanliness, almost every year I've found hair in the shower, the tubs or sink won't drain, sometimes the inside of toilets aren't that clean, and some of the carpets are dated. But it's nothing that ruins our stay by any means. I've never personally experienced bed bugs, so can't confirm or deny that one. There are what looks like roaches crawling around the ground, but please note, they are just palmetto bugs. They are common in all oceanfront properties. One year we had a one bedroom suite on the ground floor and there was a (dead) palmetto bug (and the air conditioning didn't work). The staff immediately upgraded our room to a two bedroom suite on the fifth floor instead. That being said, some years the staff hasn't been fantastic. Our last trip was two weeks ago and we were blessed [sarcasm] with a room that had one of those doors connecting to the room next to you. We had just about the most unpleasant neighbors, where a drunk man was screaming at his kids and yelling "WOO" every five minutes in the middle of the night. I called to complain (the "quiet time" begins at 11PM); she said she would take care of it, but the neighbors were still unpleasant for the next two nights. Pick your battles, I guess. However, the bell boys are the best! So friendly and funny, one gave our toddler a toy on the way in - he has a whole bag full for kids. The maintenance guys are helpful and quick, we've had issues with TV remotes, hot water, light bulbs, etc. They always get it taken care of. The perks and amenities are great, you get free lunch Sun-Thurs and free water park tickets to Wild Water and Wheels (during the regular season). The pools, lazy river and hot tubs are fun and clean. If you enjoy the live music at night, one of the pools is front and center to Ocean Annie's Beach Bar. A very nice man runs the convenient store and gift shop downstairs. He has everything you may have forgotten, dish soap, paper towels, condiments, etc. along with ice cream! All in all, I personally give Sands 5 stars - it's our home away from home. But in light of an unbiased review, I'll give 4 stars, for the lack of room cleanliness. I hope this review has been...