Royalton Luxury Hotels review: Lack off service. Rude staff, made to wait for a long time for an outcome

Booking ref: 27254812 – 2 adults – 14-night stay - Dawson
Booking Ref: 27255751 2 adults and 2 children 10-night stay - Kudarenko

Please note that this is a joint complaint for both the Dawson and Kudarenko Party however it is two separate bookings as 2 adults stayed for 14 nights, and 2 adults/2 children stayed for 10 nights, but we were together for the holiday as a family of 6.

Firstly, we would like to say Antigua is a beautiful island, the hotel was in an excellent location and was very clean, tidy and well maintained on an amazing beach front worthy of its 5* accolade. There was some lovely staff however this was the minority.

Arrival/ check-in
Upon the Dawson family arrival at around 4pm our rooms where not ready and we had to wait and was advised just to wait in the coffee shop for a bit and connect to the wifi which didn’t work so we couldn’t tell anyone we had arrived safely. After 45 minutes we walked back and queued again to try check in and was given the correct code to sign into the wifi. We then had to find our way to the room by ourselves as we were not advised of any “bell boy” services or anyone that could assist. We found our room eventually did what we had to in the room once sorted in the room we came back to notice the elevator button on the 6th floor wasn’t working to go back down so had to either go down to floor 5 or press the up button to go up first to then go back down to the ground floor. We were advised by staff members later in the holiday it had been an issue for months and finally was fixed on our last day.

The same thing happened when the Kudarenko family arrived, upon entering the hotel we were ignored by the bell boys with no one ‘welcoming’ to the hotel and carried our own luggage to reception. We too were informed that our room was not ready and to go have something to eat and come back in an hour or so and the room should be ready. On explaining that the children wanted to go to the pool and asking if there was anywhere, we could use for them to get changed we were informed to speak with the concierge team but was not informed of where they were based. We grabbed a drink and went back to reception after 45 minutes, and our room was ready. We were not advised to speak with the bell boys or given any directions or offer of help and was left to carry our own things and find the room ourselves. On arriving at the lift, a bell boy did direct us to which level we needed for our room number. We had the same ongoing issues with the lift buttons not working as the Dawson family.

The Pool
Both parties received an email approx. 2 weeks before travel to advise that maintenance was been completed on the pools, in which some of the pools would be shut however this should not impact any of the bars/ activities and should have only affected the first few days. Given that we had 2 bookings with different duration and the very short notice we had very little choice but to stay with the same hotel as there was no time to re-arrange this.

The fixing of the pool was not completed as stated in the email and the main pool was closed and not ready until the second week of the holiday affecting both the Dawson and Kudarenko family booking (opened 26th October).

The whirlpool was not working as a whirlpool should be for the whole duration of the holiday. When asking about this they stated it was just a smaller pool. When asking why there was jets then they were stated its never worked. We then showed them an advert on the TV next to them showing the whirlpool in the hotel with the jets working so clearly it did at some point.

There was ongoing building and work maintenance within the cabana pools throughout the whole duration of the holiday which is not ideal when you work in the building trade and are going on holiday to relax and move away from this and was not informed this works would be happening during our stay.

Upon talking to some other guests, we learned from the (not the hotel) that we were to be given room credits because of the pool closures of 30.00 per person per day, so we went and asked at reception and the lady said that’s quiet its available for the ENTIRE length of your stay for the inconvenience.

This was provided to the Dawson family and when asking about this for the Kudarenko family we were informed this gesture was not applicable to us as the pool was not closed for our stay. When correcting them and informing them that it was for three of the days at least, the credits were never actually applied to our room.

The service
The bar staff at the pool where honestly the worst we have ever experienced, there was more than enough around for it to work fast and efficiently but unfortunately, they were extremely rude and slow. Often just talking to other bar staff and just ignoring people entirely. When asking for a drink you were often met with eye rolls, grunts, holding their hand out without even a word said. No please, no thank you, no hello literally nothing. I have never been to a hotel where staff have been so rude, it became a running joke for the holiday! Not to mention ordering a drink and then staff never returning with your drink. The pool bar was also meant to open at 10am however this appeared to be more often than not when staff could be ‘ bothered’ one day it didn’t open till 10.45.

Then there is the lack of items – many times we were informed ‘we don’t have that right now’. During the duration of our stay, they ran out of diet coke, beer on draft and cans, sprite, many of the cocktails/ mocktail ingredients and even orange juice on the breakfast buffet. I wish I could say this was a one off but literally was a daily occurrence which should not be the case for any all-inclusive never mind a 5* all inclusive. Again, staff did not care, and no apologies were given. Some staff where clearly not trained properly (on the odd occasion they did have the correct ingredients) as they would often ask “what is that” “what’s in this drink” and you never got the same drink twice.

The Dawson family due to medical reasons cannot drink alcohol and when they asked for an alcohol-free beer they were advised they didn’t stock this which was news to us as they do at other Royalton hotels. When mentioning this to reception they did send and put some in the mini bar in our room but again once this had run out, we had to ask again for this to restocked and wasn’t readily available in any bars around the hotel.

We ate at the snack bar by the beach for lunch ‘nibbles’ once and waited for approx. 1 hour for our food. For the waiter to then tell us they had run out of ‘fries’ so they had given us a measly side salad instead. The fries were for the children on there children’s meal. Not sure how a restaurant can run out of fries and there was no effort made to then rectify this issue or apology for the delay with the order and running out of what had been ordered. This restaurant was also covered with flies. We didn’t eat here again.

At times there was clearly a staff shortage as a breakfast not all cookery stations were in operation such as the ‘crepe’ station and when asking if this would be open we were informed there was no one to work on that station. We would often ask for a coffee which would never arrive or would arrive as you had already finished or breakfast or some occasions we were not even asked.

Kids Club
Our children did enjoy the kids club, on the first time they visited we were allowed to stay with them. Given how rude staff were it did not fill us with much confidence that the staff in the kids club would be friendly either towards our children therefore did not want to leave them alone. The second time we tried to visit we were informed that parents could not stay. In which my youngest then cried as he did not want to be left and they never attended the kids club again after this.

The last night
The purpose of this family holiday was for Mrs Dawsons 60th Birthday, this was the 2nd November the day we were flying home.

Therefore we decided for the last night we would try and do something to celebrate. We went to the booking desk on the 31st October to see if we could book the ‘culinary experience’ but we were told it was shut for refurbishment. Even though on the screens around the hotel it stated ‘available’ and in the restaurant itself there was no sign of refurbishment. We then booked a private room in Hunters and was told to check regarding the credits with reception to pay for this (given for the pool closure as mentioned). We visited reception then were informed that ‘sadly’ we had no room credits. After some arguing and discussion, we waited for over half an hour to speak with a manager (Mandy) to who looked into this and come back to us and advised she would come back to us with a response contacting us by phone.

We gave her 24 hours but no one contacted us, so we cancelled the room which they tried to say would be 250.00 dollars for a room rental, just to be sat on our own with the same menu as the main restaurant.

On the 1st November we went to reception to ask for an update in terms of the room credits and again were informed we did not have any. We asked to speak with a manager and Mandy did appear and recognised us. She advised that she was still working on it. We explained we cancelled the private room at Hunters and booked the Caribbean instead. Mandy stated that she couldn’t even find a record of the room even been booked and wanted to know who this was booked with which we informed her it was the reservations team outside the restaurant. We did explain that we could only book in on the app at 9pm for the Caribbean which ideally was too late with having 2 children our party, therefore we would need to feed them in the buffet first. Mandy was helpful and said she would try and get us in at an earlier time and an upgrade for 3 people to have lobster to be paid for with room credits. She promised she would contact us asap to advise so we knew was we was doing and yet again another promise was broken, she still didn’t come back to us so we had to walk back up to reception to see her later that afternoon, in which at this time she did inform us that it had been booked for 7pm.

That evening on the 1st November we arrived at the restaurant which is at the bottom of the complex only to be told that we had no booking under our name or room for 7pm or the original 9pm we had booked for in the app. We explained that Mandy the manager had booked it for us as a birthday celebration with lobster and asked for them to check with their manager who also stated there was no booking at that time. There was nothing so much as an apology. We asked them to phone reception and speak to Mandy in which they stated they had not credit on there phone for facility to contact reception. They then turned away to go and do other things again without even saying sorry or we will try to resolve it and basically left us stood there. We then had to walk all the way back which take a good 10 minutes to reception to have to wait to speak with Mandy, who stated again that it was booked.
Another manager walked all the way back with us to the restaurant to resolve this and we did eventually get a table 50minutes later, however there was no apology just told there was a ‘miss understanding and if we worked with them they would work with us’?

There was a terrible atmosphere from the staff and we was often just ignored. We ordered and stated that lobster had been preordered which took another 3 different staff to check and confirm this. We did also request alcohol free beer to go with the meal at reception, but this too hadn’t been passed on.

Other tables got cake and happy birthday etc and we received nothing. Again, this was booked for a special occasion. We then left the restaurant.

When the Kudarenko family arrived 24th October the concierge team did a call to the room to check how our stay was going. We informed them it was my mums 60th birthday and her room number and asked if anything could be done for the occasion. They advised that room decoration could be done and agreed to do this for the 1st November. This did not happen, and during discussions with Mandy the manager on the 1st November this was mentioned on two occasions and she stated this was actioned and would be completed – however sadly it never came to fruition. A little disappointing when a door opposite had balloons and banners on there door for their anniversary.

Late check out
We also asked if late check out could be paid using room credits as it was 35.00 dollars per room to stay until 2pm. Initially we were told by reception this was not possible as credit cannot be used for this. Again, we spoke with Mandy who said she would look into this and come back to us. Again, she didn’t come back to us as promised which resulted in us asking and visiting reception twice throughout discussions on the 31st October and the 1st November, to ask if this has been approved until we finally got a response to state it had.

On the day of check out, both families were locked out of the room and had to visit many different floors with only 45minutes until we had to leave the room to ask a maid to let us into the room, clearly this had not been extended on our room keys as promised. To walk to reception and back this would have taken at least 15minutes.

The Rooms
The Kudarenko room had one shower head not working, even though this was reported on arrival it was never fixed.
The restocking of the mini bar for both Dawson and Kudarenko family was very hit and miss.

The App
Like everything else in the hotel the Royalton app didn’t work as it should have done. On one evening when attending the Italian there was an error with the app and this only booked for 1 person. Luckily the hostess this time was very polite and realised this and amended the booking on turning up for our reservation. We were also provided with many different ways as to how to use the app very abruptly and rudely by most of them for example to max you could book was 4 people, as a party of 6 we were informed to book 3 and 3 and the tables could be put together. To then be told this was not possible and to book for 4 people but then in the notes field state 6 people however we was then told they don’t look at the noted field and this too was incorrect. Basically, on the app you could not book for 6 people and the reservation team were less than helpful too, stating that the restaurants were always full even though there was availability on the app.

Over the years we have all stayed at other Royalton hotels in both Mexico and St Lucia and we have never experienced such poor service. Sadly if this was our first stay at a Royalton we would not be returning to this hotel chain or recommended them to anyone.
As mentioned, this holiday was booked to celebrate a 60th Birthday and although we did try to still enjoy our holiday it sadly was not the holiday or celebration we was hoping for. Visiting the Royalton Antigua was an expensive holiday and for a 5* hotel common manners and polite staff plus adequate supplies is the bare minimum of a service which should be provided let alone the lack of customer service. Upon speaking to bar about the service the reply was that they didn't get paid enough help. We go away on average 4 times a year with no problems. Recently we have been to Canaries Island twice in similar 4 star all inclusive. The holidays were spot on 10/10 in RIU and Seaside hotel chain. extremely busy service and staff were amazing> maybe someone visit this hotels to see how they operate.

I look forward to hearing from you and your offer of a resolution to compensate the experience we have received.

Regards the Dawson and Kudarenko family.