Peninsula Island Resort & Spa — Hotel in South Padre Island

1-Star Review: A Complete Scam – Terrible Experience, Stay Away!

This hotel was hands down one of the worst I’ve ever stayed at, and I feel it’s my duty to warn other travelers about the reality behind their misleading ratings.

When we arrived, we were shocked to see that out of approximately 80 rooms, barely 10 were occupied — the place was almost empty. Yet somehow, despite all the available rooms, they deliberately gave us one of the worst rooms in the entire hotel. The room was outdated, dark, uncomfortable, and clearly the type of room you would assign to someone only if you don’t care whether they ever come back. 1-Star Review: A Complete Scam – Terrible Experience, Stay Away!

This hotel was hands down one of the worst I’ve ever stayed at, and I feel it’s my duty to warn other travelers about the reality behind their misleading ratings.

When we arrived, we were shocked to see that out of approximately 80 rooms, barely 10 were occupied — the place was almost empty. Yet somehow, despite all the available rooms, they deliberately gave us one of the worst rooms in the entire hotel. The room was outdated, dark, uncomfortable, and clearly the type of room you would assign to someone only if you don’t care whether they ever come back.

The condition of the room was beyond disappointing. The so-called closet wasn’t even a real closet — it was an empty, open space with no doors, and unbelievably, they had placed the water heater and heating system INSIDE the closet area! So, not only was there no place to properly store clothes, but it was also noisy, unsafe, and a total design failure.

Adding insult to injury, the hotel’s main amenities were completely shut down. The pool and jacuzzi were closed due to “cleaning and maintenance issues” — meaning they were not usable, yet they never informed us in advance. On top of that, the hotel had no restaurant, no bar, no real facilities that would even remotely justify calling this a “resort.”

And still, they shamelessly charged us a Resort Fee. I honestly cannot understand what exactly we were paying that fee for. When your pool and jacuzzi are closed, you have no restaurant or bar, and your so-called resort looks like an abandoned motel, what exactly is the guest being charged for? It feels like nothing more than a cheap money grab.

To make matters even worse, the Wi-Fi was ancient, unreliable, and barely functi The condition of the room was beyond disappointing. The so-called closet wasn’t even a real closet — it was an empty, open space with no doors, and unbelievably, they had placed the water heater and heating system INSIDE the closet area! So, not only was there no place to properly store clothes, but it was also noisy, unsafe, and a total design failure.

Adding insult to injury, the hotel’s main amenities were completely shut down. The pool and jacuzzi were closed due to “cleaning and maintenance issues” — meaning they were not usable, yet they never informed us in advance. On top of that, the hotel had no restaurant, no bar, no real facilities that would even remotely justify calling this a “resort.”

And still, they shamelessly charged us a Resort Fee. I honestly cannot understand what exactly we were paying that fee for. When your pool and jacuzzi are closed, you have no restaurant or bar, and your so-called resort looks like an abandoned motel, what exactly is the guest being charged for? It feels like nothing more than a cheap money grab.

To make matters even worse, the Wi-Fi was ancient, unreliable, and barely functional. The staff were unhelpful, indifferent, and made no effort to offer even the most basic level of hospitality. Zero customer service, zero accountability.

This hotel is a 3-star property in name only. In reality, it doesn’t deserve even a single star. It’s outdated, neglected, dishonest, and clearly mismanaged. I strongly recommend that anyone reading this avoid this hotel at all costs. You will pay for services and amenities that you’ll never receive and leave frustrated, like we did.

Do yourself a favor and stay literally...

First time staying, and booked a reservation based off the reviews they have on their website. The prices were within my budget and did not say they were "discounted" in anyway. Upon arrive I was told I had to wear a bright green paper wrist band the entire time of my stay, even thru swimming, showering and sleeping. I felt sort of like a kid. The room was nice, not "resort" at all. But, we had already checked in. Ono our last day we found a live cockroach crawling on the bed, which was not addressed. The tiny little refrigerator smelled horrible like fish! Very disturbing we had to empty all the tiny liquor bottles out to put our food in it which barely fit so every time we opened the fridge we smelled fish. When I spoke to Desirae the Manager, she said the fridge did not smell like fish and she said her housekeeper also said it did not smell like fish. The phone in the room did not work. We called on or cell phone downstairs which took forever for them to respond, and we were informed that those lines on that side of the building have not worked in awhile, and they are working on it and to use my cell phone instead. So obviously this was known issue prior to my reservation. There were NO curtains in the room. They were see thru blinds, and the Manager Desirae said we had another set of blinds to pull down which we did not, and that "some of the customers ask for those blinds," which I did not. But this is not a hotel where you change rooms. The pillows are HALF the size of a regular pillow FYI. There was a cigarette bud on our balcony, and upon check in they were very adamant about non-smoking so when I brought it up to Desirae, she said "they can not control cigarette buds from the top balconies dropping down to mine." The hotel's ice machine, the only one, was downstairs on the first floor, and it's an old fashioned kind you use a scoop, of which they had a plastic spoon I'm not kidding, and people were reaching in with their hands to get ice, of which was at the VERY bottom of the machine with little or no ice left. We had to go to the restaurant for ice. The restaurant I thought was a bonus. The views are fantastic, the food is disgusting. I ordered the red snapper, a side of caesar and a side of fettuccine alfredo. I could NOT cut thru the fish! I was like a piece of rubber! They brought iceberg with a "packet" of caesar dressing! And a side of noodles with no sauce! I had to send it all back. When I brought it up to the Desirae, she said "well you didn't pay for it right?" With all this said, I thought the hotel would in good faith give me some sort of restitution for my stay, but instead I was told I got a "good deal" on "that room," and they don't give refunds as their customers don't like "to wait the 3-5 days for a refund." I said, "I can wait." I wasn't even asking for a refund, but accountability in good faith. I didn't even get an apology. Desirae said they would give me a discount (she never said exactly what that would be) on a future stay. I was very disappointed with their response. I was told by Desirae that I should have complained before I checked out, which I did. I left a message at the front desk before I checked out. No one called me afterwards, so I emailed the resort and got no response. So after day three, I called and got these responses from their hotel manager. Very unfortunate. Do not recommend this hotel or motel. Lastly, they do play loud music from 10am to 10pm all night...

The problems: the website does not represent the reality at all, our dresser drawers wouldn't stay closed, balcony door was very difficult to lock and was unlocked upon arrival, the handle of the exterior door came off and we had to postpone our vacation activities so it could be replaced, the free breakfast was inedible, the room phone had no signal, the wifi didn't work, the manager was extremely rude and refused to work with us. |The details: |I booked this hotel for 3 nights but only stayed one. My friends and I were disappointed when we walked in the door but decided to make the best of it. Everything looked and smelled very old- not at all like the pictures on their website. The first thing we noticed was that the dresser drawers were open. We closed them and they fell open again. We put clothes in them thinking the weight would help. They rolled open again so we had to just leave them that way. The balcony sliding glass door was unlocked when we got there. I tried to lock it and couldn't get it. It took two of us to force the door shut enough to get it to finally lock. I had minimal service on my phone so i tried the wifi. It didn't work. I was going to call the front desk for help but the room phone didn't even work. I was able to call on my phone and the front desk person said that alot of people have a difficult time getting the wifi to work but he didn't know why. We left the room to explore the island then returned to go to sleep. We had a busy day planned the next morning. We had already found out that the exterior door was hard to shut and needed some extra force. But as we were closing the door on our exit to spend our first full day in padre, the door handle came off. I had to borrow a phone to call the front. They said they'd send maintenance. I asked for a room change. That request was completely ignored. Now our plans were delayed. My friends check out the gym while I wait in the room. The 3 men (who didn't speak any English) had to replace the whole assembly (front and back handles). My friends went to get our continental breakfast. They wouldn't allow them to bring in their water bottles from their workout. They don't allow food to be taken out of the restaurant. The pancakes were rubbery and the yogurt was warm and runny. The gym equipment was so dirty that you could see the discoloration. The restroom in the gym was locked with no one in it. So we decided to change hotels. We go to checkout and pay. The guy says I have to pay for all 3 nights. I ask to speak to manager. He has to call her. I get on the phone and tell her all of the reasons why we are leaving. Her response was that she personally inspected the room before we arrived and everything was fine. They always leave the balcony doors unlocked for their guests. They fixed the exterior door handle. And a lot of hotels don't allow you to take food out of the restaurant. I told her I would dispute t the charges and she rudely said to go ahead and she would stand her ground. I'm currently still...