Carambola Beach Resort St. Croix, US Virgin Islands — Hotel in Saint Croix

Just returned from 5 days at the Carambola with my husband celebrating our 25th anniversary...|I will start out by saying we are Titanium Marriott members, and yes, I did read reviews prior to our arrival. While they were 50/50, I knew not to expect it to be exceptional. We also shot an email to Marriott prior to arriving expressing our concerns and asking some questions. We received a response from the Hotel General Manager, who cited lack of staff and rolling renovations and that they were a work in progress. He upgraded our room (but still deducted upgrade certificates!) This is going to be lengthy, so please read!||STX specific...I contacted the resort ahead of time regarding transportation and was told to take taxis. At the airport, there's a taxi stand right by baggage claim. Their sign said $40 for 2 people to go to the Carambola, but we ended up being charged $70. Arguing got us no where and the lines for car rentals were a little long. We decided to just do it and our driver did stop at the grocery store for us.||Arrival at the resort was underwhelming. What was once probably beautiful is in desperate need of updating. I understand storm damage from the last Hurricane is what the management keeps referring to, but what we saw was just lack of maintenance and cleaning. The tiles in the entryway were always slippery, more from dirt than water...|The pathways to rooms are majorly damaged, difficult for walking and for the golf carts they use to help transport you. |In a nutshell my first word to describe this hotel is DIRTY. We passed a balled up paper towel at the top of the main stairs to the restaurants and bar, and it remained there the entirety of our trip! 5 days! Windows were dirty, tables needed to be wiped down every time we attempted to sit down. Floors were literally gross. The public ladies room in the main building was maybe cleaned once while we were there-constantly toilet paper all over the floor. |Most of the beach chairs were newer, but the beach was cleaned once in 5 days. The showers when you get off the beach do not work. |Trash cans are always over flowing.|The grass needed mowing and all landscaping was not maintained. Did not see a lawn mower or leaf blower entire visit. Dried grass clippings and leaves were covering many walkways. |To get a towel for the pool or beach you need to go to the front desk. Have never seen that before. |Walked through the pool area which was dirty and in need of updating. The pool was cleaned, but not the patio area. Did not spend any time at the pool. We could see plastic cups under a chair every day we walked by.|We stayed in a beachfront room and were excited about the view. The view was OK. There was a damaged umbrella thrown in the bushes right in front of our room that took multiple requests and a couple days to remove. The room was much cleaner than every other part of the resort-thank goodness. The balcony looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a bit. Dried leaves and bugs everywhere. When we did sit out there, I used beach towels to sit on instead of the chair and cushions. The doors to outside are hinged, not sliders, and do not seal well on the bottom. As a result, we did end up with a little lizard in the room and it still let in the humidity and some bugs. A large dead tree was smack in the middle of what should have been a great view of the beach.|The gym: DON'T expect much. One of multiple cardio machines worked. 5 other just sat there. Missing 1/2 the weights. One leg machine. Very dark and not very welcoming.|We had appetizers and dinner at the casual restaurant Flamboyant, on the first evening there. The food is not great. Pizza was like frozen pizza they burned around the edges, and cold in the middle. Tacos were mostly lettuce with a bit of fish in the middle.|Service is slow. They are understaffed-it is very obvious. When they finally come up to you they are friendly but not very attentive. Rarely check on you. Takes multiple times to get their attention. |Daily breakfast at Saman was fine. Food was okay. The omelet station was the best option and fresh fruit every day..||Staff doesn't really want to go out of their way and aren't very service oriented. Asked front desk for change of a larger bill and they said "check the bar."||POSITIVES: Location is amazing. Beach and water were beautiful. and our beach chairs were newer and worked great. Drinks and drink selection were fantastic. Wine selection was great and surprising. Air conditioning in the room was new and worked wonderfully and was very quiet. Room was large and mostly updated. ||We ended up renting a car after battling with Marriott and the hotel over the condition of the Resort. We spent the rest of the time exploring the island, hitting other beaches and eating outside of the resort.||Marriott is missing the mark on this one. Prime location and amazing beach on what could be a great property. They should take their name off of this one or dump some money into the property and staff. We have never stayed in such a disappointing...

Started off as Couple vacation, but almost anything but that. We booked the Oceanfront Suite with balcony access. Thought we booked with kitchenette, but when we got there, it wasn't. Booked Through Expedia. Property had no Wifi and no internet entire stay, and staff have no idea when it's coming back on and didn't really seem to care. Never were we told the property lost access for a few days/weeks at this point, and no one bother to inform future customers of this situation that if wish to change, they would honor no charge cancellation, but inform you, nor at check-in. Figured it out after they were unable to use credit card machines for the security deposit. Then special event party, music was louder than outdoor concert event for 20000 people. No noise ordinance and extremely loud until midnight for the event. At this point, we've decided we needed to change locations. Unfortunately, no one working from the front desk after 9pm. Couldn't reach anyone, contacted Expedia, not helpful the first night, unable to locate very much 11pm PST. Location about 25 mins from civilization, no lights on streets, and potholes everywhere on the island, no safe to travel after hours, so you sorta stuck at this location, and with no access the wifi/internet, safety hazard. In the room, the opening balcony doors, gap under the open for critters to come in at will. While staying, we had 2 geckos, spider, baby sand crab, and a bee as guest. Wife frighten of critters probably like most women. Had several spider webs outside on the balcony. Staff cleared them first evening, and while they were there, we just figured trying to cut on the TV, nothing works, no telephones in the room, so everything is all Roaming if you have Verizon or T-Mobile, any other carrier, you're not in luck. TVs are not smart TVs, so you can't even add your acct to Netflix/Prime to watch at least something. The bar Tender, Mark, good bartender and probably the only thing nice to say about this location. Notified in person the front deck the next day, and express to cut our trip short and cancel our last night, which is more than 48 hours in advance, Expedia is aware 72 hours in advance, and we were just denied a credit for our last night stay. under the current circumstances, the professional courtesy should have been credit for half the stay due to all the non-operational amenities. Extremely disappointed our vacation turned out as horrible experience. The rental car agency didn't charge for the last day, and we had to pay airline change fees leaving a day sooner. Had the accommodations been adequate, we could have sucked it up for a day, but it was terrible starting the first night. Island is not as hospitable. Speaking with a few locals, not happy to be part of US territory and it showed in their services in various locations. We tried to switch to a different hotel, The Buccaneer, but unfortunately the rooms they had available were $1200 more due to last minute for the remainder of stay. This property unwilling to refund/credit the remaining stay, we weren't paying for this hotel stay + another $1200. This property absolutely didn't set the proper expectations and fail to notify incoming customers of their situation. I read reviews, and not a lot of good reviews, but sometimes, you have to take that with a grain of salt, and I wish I had followed other folks' comments. I would have booked the Buccaneer far in advance with a better rate and probably had more pleasant experience. Expedia not being as helpful in the refund department because I'm sure they don't want to give up any money despite the situation even though notified in sufficient time. Expedia didn't step up in handling the refund fairly. Sometimes, probably better to pay more, book directly, cut out the middleman, if you have any trip bad experience, they will be more than glad to help accommodate you. Very frustrating when your experience is not what you expected, you try and salvage the situation, but circumstance do not cooperate after spending good money after planning. Had some from the property or Expedia notified us on the property current mishaps, we could have made other arrangements or postpone to a later date. Stay away from...

PLEASE READ THE REVIEWS - THIS IS NOT A RESORT AND MARRIOTT SHOUL BE ASHAMED TO INCLUDE THIS HOTEL IN THEIR RENAISSANCE BRAND. I am shocked that it is getting such high overall reviews. We are down to earth people but we depended on the MARRIOTT brand (especially renaissance level) and were very disappointed. I feel bad having to write this. I never write bad reviews on hotels because we have realistic expectations. I feel I have to so people are warned and maybe your expectations are prepared so it doesn’t ruin your vacation. We made the best of this vacation despite our bad experience with the service/quality of the room and grounds at Carambola and had a descent stay in St Croix. Not ranting at all, just want to prepare others coming to stay here. Do not think you are coming to a renaissance level hotel. Cons definitely outweighed the pros and, as a result, we changed flight tickets to come home early. We found ourselves talking to other guests with the same experiences as ours so we were not the only ones. One couple told us they were counting down the days and were happy to be going home. If you are at the hotel wondering why this Marriott property is so poorly managed and that you feel deceived by the brand and now you’re reading reviews and finding you are not alone my BEST ADVICE is to rent a car. With a car you can get to better food and go to better beaches and experience better customer service! The beach here is nice to look at but there are definitely better beaches on the island. For the cost of a one way taxi ride for 3 you can have a car for the day. Trust me. Renting the car saved our vacation. I am going to list the cons first because they were too unacceptable and may sway you to stay at a VRBO because you are just as on your own at a VRBO than at this “resort”. CONS: Checked in at 4:30. Had to wait over an hour to get room. Stepped into room, huge dead cockroach in room (it was right there, we were told they were cleaning the room and that’s why we waited), no bed linens for the pull out. Called several times for linen for pull out that came after 3 calls and over two hours. No phones in room. Call front desk with cell phones to front desk. No answers most of the time. I am surprised the first night I got through 3 times. For the rest of the visit no call to the front desk was answered. Found another dead cockroach in room and a live baby cockroach in my sink. I get it. We are in the jungle but still. Asked for service to the room several times at front desk. The room was never serviced our entire stay despite the several requests. I just gave up. Room/grounds are in a sad state. It’s a shame because I can see the potential in this property. Holes in walls, broken doors, water shut off all night with no warning to guests, don’t forget the cockroaches, garbage around the grounds, pool not kept clean, jacuzzi not working, tiles around pool very loose. So many things when you look around are in disrepair or just plain dirty. Front desk/maid service - Customer service is terrible. Didn’t answer phone, had attitude, said they would request service and it never came. Restaurant food is like snack bar quality. Maybe some items are a little better than snack bar quality but not by much, expensive for what it was and they were constantly out of many items on menu. Service is slow. Room service does not exist. Overall, after four days of requesting service/being ignored/given attitude we just gave up. We called the airlines and they were able to get us on an earlier flight cutting our vacation by two days.

We have stayed in lesser quality hotels and understood where we were in small towns like in Panama or Cambodia. The customer service made up for the lacking in accommodations and we had wonderful stays. When you have a property that is lacking in upkeep and the customer service is not good, it’s not good. PROS: Property (from afar before you see the issues with maintenance). Beach location is pretty Restaurant staff was the most polite. Bartender...