Sea Island Resort — Hotel in Saint Simons

Stayed in cottage 236 with large family, so my rating for the "Rooms" reflects the cottage itself, not the rooms at the Cloisters or Beach Club. We only saw the lobbies, and both were warm, inviting, clean and beautifully decorated for Christmas. The cottage was fantastic - plenty of room for 9 people, everything was well appointed, clean and very nicely designed. Not a single complaint regarding our living arrangements. That being said, the customer service at SIR is far from "Five Star". In terms of our dealings day to day with staff, we had no complaints. Even our concierge was receptive and communicative. The low score comes from the reservations system, Food/Beverage management and the General Management. The trouble began with our large party dining reservations. We had alot of trouble booking dinner reservations on the website for our party. I was able to get our group a reservation for the first night. We got an email showing us the reservation at Southern Tide, it was printed on our itinerary, and we got a call that day asking us to confirm, which we did. We had dinner there- the food was good, but it was nothing exceptional. We were supposed to be booked for the next night at Tavola, and while our paper itinerary showed it, we got no confirmation email and no call to confirm. Tavola indicated that we had no reservation, but that we had missed our reservation from the night before and they charged us nearly $1500 in no show fees (we were at Southern Tide - it appears that Large Party dining either mistakenly double booked our party the previous night, or the Restaurant got the reservation wrong, because they had no record of our reservation for the night we thought we had reserved). We attempted to figure out what happened and get management to reverse the charges, but they were not receptive. The Food and Beverage director refused to talk with us (according to the concierge). We escalated, and heard nothing back until the day we were checking out. As a further nice surprise, an additional charge for approx. $1500 was added to our bill again for another dinner we allegedly missed. It was for a party of 14 (we were 9), it was not on our printed itinerary, and we got no emails or calls about it - probably due to the fact we never made that reservation in the first place. Nearly $3K in dinner no show fees and only one confirmed dinner reservation. For customer service, this bunch gets a failing grade. We ate offsite and enjoyed the local restaurants far more. Lastly, beach access for those on the other side of Sea Island Road in Cottages is not easy. The only open access near us was 3 blocks away. We could also park at the Beach Club and go through their lobby to get out, but we found no other easy way to get to the beach. Due to the time of year, it wasn't much of an issue for us, but in the Summer it would probably be a bigger deal. I would add that activities seemed sparse, which could be attributed to the time of year. It just seemed like there wasn't enough to do.

In summary, the staff we encountered daily seemed lovely, the grounds were impeccable (and quiet), the cottage was wonderful, but the customer service from Management/Food and Beverage and the horridly outdated reservation system that failed on the most basic things (calling you to confirm a reservation, still using printed itineraries, etc) dropped the rating significantly. This would never happen at a true 5 star resort. I do not think we will be...

I booked an oceanfront 2-bedroom suite for the week before Christmas 2022 (that's in the Beach Club, which is a separate building than the main Cloister building). One reason we chose the Beach Club is because it's casual (it's pretty formal inside the main building). We are t-shirts and jeans kind of people. Ha!!! We treat ourselves to a 5-star resort every year right before Christmas. We've been to a lot of beautiful places, but Sea Island is definitely in our top 3. Per my request, Blake decorated our suite for Christmas. That included a huge, elegant, live, decorated Christmas tree, wreaths, garland and sparkly decorations everywhere. Thank you, Blake!!! You made our holiday extra special. The beautiful walk from the Beach Club to the main building only takes 5 minutes (you pass the spa building and fitness center along the way). We went to the spa, the bowling alley (Omg, so fun!!!), the restaurants, the shops, the ice cream parlor... all of our experiences were absolutely amazing (and we are picky!!!). My son's favorite part was the room service. Every time they come, it's a big production with the white tablecloth and all the fixins'. I heard that there are good places to drive that are close to the resort, but we never got in our car the whole time. LOL Oh, and that's not to mention, THE GORGEOUS BEACH!!! Even in December!!! It was like a dream come true. The ocean breeze in our suite the whole time was like a little slice of heaven. Sea Island will always have a special place in our hearts, and we will definitely be back. I recommend this place to anyone who wants a private paradise to relax and unwind. It is worth every penny!!! Thank you to everyone from Bill the bellhop to the adorable guy (with braces) at the pool who gave us towels to take to the beach. He kindly walked with us so he could set up our chairs. A+++++++++++ We...

A WARNING TO GUESTS: We have been to Sea Island many times and have always left anticipating our next visit. This last trip (May 2025) ended a little differently and the resolve is what has me so upset. Our last evening, we had an early dinner and returned to our room to turn in. The next morning, I noticed my Apple Watch was nowhere to be found. I had taken it off before leaving for dinner, so I located it using “Find My”. The watch has cellular so it gives a very precise location. It’s location was nowhere near our room at the Beach Club, and last registered at 1AM (must have been turned off manually, or damaged, as it had a good charge) long after we were asleep in our room. I thought maybe it got mixed with towels during turndown service, not assuming anything intentional, and contacted the front desk. They said nothing was turned in and I created a report. My husband and I walked the grounds of the Cloister trying to get near the “‘marker” of the last registered location. It brought us to a loading dock area going the basement of the building. The bellman gave me a phone number to call the security team. After a handful of calls, I was told today that the investigation is complete and there is nothing more they can do. We always use the room safe for cash/valuables but I did not think it was necessary for this type of item at this resort. I was wrong. I do feel the resort should take accountability, even if it was an accident, as the time/location of the watch is very evident.

Moral of the story: lock up ANY and ALL items of value or...