Casa Ybel Beach Resort — Hotel in Sanibel

I am writing about our very disappointing stay at Casa Ybel. What was billed as a luxury resort turned out to be much less than expected. For the price of the room during off season, I expected an extremely nice and upscale hotel experience. Your website is misleading and a few well place photos hide a myriad of details that would have led us to not book a stay at your hotel. We did not receive anything close to expectations.||We knew when we checked in, we could not stay in the same room for the three days. We were booked into a two bedroom for one night and had to move to a one bedroom for the next two nights.||We checked into the two bedroom and were disappointed right away with the cleanliness of the villa. It was run down and was not very clean. When we walked out onto the patio, we were surprised to see how dirty the sliding door was and there were various other elements that made us feel like this resort was going to be far less stellar than what we thought, based on your website and previous ratings. For $489/night for the room, I would have expected much better! We had a coffee pot that was totally non-intuitive and we could not figure out how to use it. We called the front desk and they said there should be instructions in the room, there were none. We then went to the front desk and were told they had no idea how to use it, then proceeded to tell us to walk to Jerry’s and find coffee. Then my sister walked the coffee pot to the front desk for an explanation and finally a maintenance person was sent to the room to demonstrate how to use. The sheets were of low quality and the floors were stained with dirt.||We received a phone call that evening saying we needed to move the next day and we should have our bags packed and someone would move our bags. We had a day of outings planned so when we got a call about 2 pm about moving, we told them to go ahead and move our bags. When we returned to the resort, I went to the front desk and was met with a puzzled gazed by the woman at the front desk who proceeded to take 20 minutes to locate our new room assignment and give us keys. When we got to the new room, a one bedroom oceanfront, I was surprised to see the continued drab and somewhat dirty feel of the room. It also had a totally different feel also than the two bedroom, different coffee pot, different bath amenities leading me to conclude this was not a well-run cohesive resort but rather a hodgepodge of various rental units. Not at all what was advertised. When I opened the refrigerator door, I was disgusted to see dirt and crumbs on the top shelf which had not been cleaned. The next morning when we looked for plates and could not find any in the cupboard, we realized the dishwasher had not been emptied and we could not actually tell if it was run. For $418/night, this was a disgrace. We own a Marriott time share and the cleanliness and attention to detail are so much more than what we experienced at Casa Ybel! ||Additionally, I work for a company that operates hotels and entertainment and know what customer service and clean rooms look like, and your resort had neither. When I went to voice my concerns and ask for a discounted rate on the room for all of the above reasons, I was told to write to the front desk manager. Despite writing several times, I have never received a reply..you. ||||The only bright spot in the entire stay were our dinners at the Thistle Lodge. Amy our waitress was friendly and caring, as well as the bartenders and...

Spent a week at Casa Yoel and was very disappointed with the experience. I have been going to Casa Ybel since 1985, usually every couple of years. Last time I was there was 2 years ago before the Covid pandemic started and then just this past week. For all the years that I have been going, Casa Ybel has always taken a two night deposit to hold the entire stay and the balance of the stay was paid at the end of the stay. However, this year the deposit was taken and upon check in, they asked for a credit card to have on file and that nothing would be charged to the card at that time. No sooner than I got to the room and they had charged another 4 days to my card. When I asked about this and said they told me the card was to be just on file, they claimed they had only put a hold on my card for the amount. To my bank, it is a charge, not a hold, I have no access to the charged amount. This unauthorized charge to my account ended up causing problems with my card account. Casa Ybel claimed they had been doing it this way forever, which is not true. I have been going there since 1985 and have never paid this way. Then on my last day there, they called my room and said they wanted to charge for the remainder of the stay right then. I told them I would pay the balance at check out since I want to see the itemized bill before payment. The next day before we even got to check out, which we did at 8:30am, they made another unauthorized charge to my card for balance due at 5:00am in the morning before I could even go over the bill. Besides the problems with the front desk, this place has really gone down just in the 2 years since I was there. The furniture is shabby and worn; the carpet in the bedroom was dirty, stained with bleach spots all over it and very worn; closet door had fallen into a/c compartment; bathroom safety rail was loose; porch screen ripped and was duct taped which did not work; broken screen door parts left on porch; sugar ants all through the kitchenette and dining areas; spindles falling out of the outdoor railings; and many of the beach umbrellas are falling apart and bent. Pool area is not monitored at all. So many infant and under 3 years of age children are in the pool, especially when pool is crowded; children running around pool; adults bringing glass containers to pool area; young children in spa; so many floats, noodles, tubes and very young children in life preservers in shallow end, it’s hard to even move around in that area. It would have also been nice at check in, if I was informed that the parking lot was going to be resurfaced. This created much inconvenience for 3 days of my stay. Due to staff shortage, I was not able to access the beach chaise lounger and umbrella, which I had paid for the whole week, until almost 12:00 on one day. On the 4th day of my stay, I had to call front desk for a refresh of towels and toilet paper, since no housekeeping service ever graced my room, even when the door handle sign had been placed. It also seems that there must have been some turnover in staff since my last stay, the staff are very unwelcoming and don’t appear to really want to be there or help anyone. Sad to say, Casa Ybel has really gone down to the past years, won’t be visiting there anymore, not that they give a hoot! Better accommodations can be found on Sanibel than Casa Ybel, only wish we had booked...

My husband and I spent two weeks at Casa Ybel Beach Resort (Jan.27-Feb.10) in a one bedroom beachfront suite. I’m posting this review to give a recent, personal account of our visit. We found a lot of positive and negative reviews online, some of which were very concerning.

Check in was quick and easy. Our room was spotless and smelled very clean when we walked in. The furniture was just like what is shown on their website-contemporary and very comfortable. The bed mattress was also comfortable with clean, updated bedding and lots of bed pillows. The bathrooms were clean, with plenty of towels and a pair of Casa Ybel robes. The kitchen has full size appliances, plenty of dishware and a limited amount of cookware and small appliances. The screen porch is big enough to spread out, eat at the table provided and just generally spend time enjoying the view. The grounds are in wonderful condition. Maintenance was working every day trimming bushes and trees and just generally keeping things looking nice. There are also shell washing stations and hammocks scattered around the grounds. Housekeeping is available every day if you’re in a 1 bedroom unit. We chose to only get housekeeping every 3-4 days. When we got service, they did a very good job and always left plenty of extra towels. The towels appeared to be new without any frays. The amenities are a big part of why you pay a premium price for the room. We ate at Coconuts and Thistle Lodge and the food at both places was delicious. The pool is very large with lots of chairs and towels available, but we didn’t get in as it was not heated. The staff (front desk, maintenance, food and beverage) was friendly and eager to please. It’s obvious that they could use some extra staff members. However, those they have are doing a great job.

CONS We did have some maintenance issues while we were there (no heat for the first couple of nights when it was unusually cool and a refrigerator/freezer that wouldn’t cool). However, the maintenance crews and the outside vendors they called in got the issues fixed quickly and it didn’t affect our stay at all.

In summary, we had a very nice 14 night stay at Casa Ybel! We are considering staying again next year. The rating I gave was primarily because of the...