The Atrium Resort — Hotel in Virginia Beach

My family owns a time share at The Atrium, so I have been going there for a very long time (14+ years). The past few years the place has really been on a severe decline. From the yearly maintenence fee going up yet again, to the actual maintenance of the entire building, and the staff as well. The maintenance fee going up is pretty self explanatory, but just where is that money going? Is it in sagging sofas, and decor that is not at all appealing? No. Is it in the paychecks of the employees? Judging by the way I was treated by one of them, they have no enthusiasm for their job and will leave guests and owners alike standing at the desk while they sit behind a partition actively ignoring people waiting with questions. When they do come out it is rarely with a smile on their faces. The first night we were checked in this year, just 2 days ago, the young lady came out scowling. There was no "Hi", "Hello", or "Can I help you", just a cold "yes". I asked for a parking pass and was told that they were not giving anymore out. Hold on now, I own property here and I can't have a pass to hang in my car so it won't be towed?! I asked, where then, am I supposed to park my car? She shrugged her shoulders at me and said " I don't know.". I went up to our room and told my husband what was said in the lobby, and he had a similar experience with another lady when he checked us in a few hours before. Luckily he had already gotten me a parking pass, so he ran down and stuck it in my car, so that solved that problem. But what if he hadn't? If you are at all familiar with Virginia Beach, you know that parking is a nightmare. No Parking signs all over the place, bumper to bumper traffic on the main roads and the ever looming tow trucks just waiting for a reason to grab your car. I honestly don't know what I would have done, had my husband not had the foresight to get me a parking pass. Now back to his check in experience. Yes, 3 to 5 pm is a very busy time at any hotel, especially during the peak summer season. Hire some more people to cover it! One or two does not cut it when you have a lobby full of people paying to stay there. After getting the room key and going up, the room was far from clean. An open, half eaten yogurt cup in the refrigerator. Hair from the last guests still in the shower. The toilet seat barely hanging on the toilet. Dirt, dust and/or sand all over the floor like it was not even vacuumed after the last guests left. What a great way to spend the first few hours of your vacation! Immediately calling the oh-so-helpful front desk to have someone come clean the room that should have already been cleaned. Now, on to another problem, there is only one elevator for the entire building. At times it can take 4 or more minutes waiting for it because it has to stop on every single floor on the way up and down. So in closing this review, The Atrium, has gone from a nice beach-week vacation to, in the past couple of years, a decaying hotel that is in desperate need of an update. Both to the building itself, it's furnishings...

For the price, this was a great find. This is so close to being a five star review but just a few things hold it back. To start, the good: to be on the beach would have cost three times as much as this. Barely a two block walk and you’re on the beach, which was fantastic. The staff was lovely and over our week stay every person we encountered was extremely kind. There’s an indoor heated pool and hot tub, and it’s adults only after 9pm. The rooms are a great size, you walk into a large living room area with a pull out couch and table then walk through a kitchenette with a bathroom branched off to the side and a large bedroom with a king size bed in the back. The kitchenette was great. Large fridge/freezer, electric stove top, microwave that also worked as a convention oven, a dishwasher, coffee maker, and a sink. The kitchenette was also stocked with plates, cups, silverware, and some cooking utensils. This was great to make breakfast in the morning and dinners some nights so we weren’t eating out every day. Everything functioned perfectly for us in the room. There is a free washer and dryer on the 3rd and 5th floors that you can use anytime to do laundry if you’d like to.

The not perfect: these things aren’t major and certainly weren’t deal breakers. The biggest for us was the walls were very thin. There is a club right down the street that is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (closes 2am). Thursday was fine, Friday and Saturday we didn’t get much sleep from the music from the club blaring and people hooting and hollering. We were there Labor Day weekend so that also likely plays a large roll and most other weekends may be a bit calmer. The weekend was a full house so we had guests in each side of us and could hear them watching TV and having conversations if they were talking louder or had the volume up. During the week there were a lot less people and we didn’t hear anyone at all for the most part. This isn’t a place that comes and cleans your room during your stay (which we liked very much for this trip) but there was a note in the room that if you needed trash taken out or towels exchanged to call the front desk; we called the front desk a couple days in to get our trash taken out and fresh towels - we were told to bring our trash downstairs and bring our towels to the first floor where they have an exchange room to get new ones. This was my own personal preference, they could at least come to you and empty the trash and replace the towels, even if it was a leave it outside the door thing. Again nothing major and easy enough, just a personal nuisance for this one.

Overall this was a great experience and lovely place to stay. Besides the couple loud club nights, the location was great and the room setup was perfect for our needs. We would stay here again in...

UPDATE: I received a call from Camille at Vacatia and my booking was cancelled and my money refunded, therefore I'm changing my review to 3 stars. She also assured me they didn't share or sell my personal information, so if it wasn't them, I don't know how it got out there.

WARNING. READ BEFORE YOU BOOK!

My family and I were headed to the Neptune Festival on Saturday, Oct. 1st, but unfortunately, it was cancelled due to Hurricane Ian. I called the hotel's direct line to either cancel my reservation or postpone our trip. I was told the cancellation policy for the hotel is a 48-hour notice, which I called on Tuesday so I was well outside that. She asked how I booked and I said online through their website and her tone changed. She said I booked through a company called Vacatia. One search will tell you this is a timeshare company. I had no idea, I thought I was booking through the hotel directly. This is where my nightmare began.

First, they SOLD MY PERSONAL INFORMATION. Since booking, I've been getting spam calls and emails constantly and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I now know where. I intended to book a hotel and my personal information is associated with timeshares.

Second, when I called Vacatia to cancel or postpone my trip, I was told it was non-refundable, even though the hotel just said you could cancel if outside 48 hours, which it was. I didn't see anything about this when booking either. I explained this was due a hurricane, but she didn't care. She said the "policy is the policy". She said I had three options-1) cancel my reservation, but I would still be charged, which I'm not sure how that helps, 2) risk my family's safety and drive to Virginia Beach in a hurricane and stay at the hotel while the storm is right outside, or 3) wait for a mandatory evaluation of the hotel, which is the only time I would be entitled to a refund.

To say the least, I am shocked. I only write positive reviews about good customer experiences, but I felt compelled to warn others of my experience. Timeshares have a negative reputation of conning people out of their hard-earned money and I can see why with my experience. DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU. I'm out what I paid for the room and I'm having to unsubscribe from emails and block calls constantly.

The same company manages two other nearby hotels - The Ocean Key Resort and The Ocean Sands Resort. If you value good customer service and the privacy of your personal information, I would avoid these two as well. There are other more reputable...