Joe S
Google
TERRIBLE experience, please read fully.||||My wife and friend booked the Beach Front Suite and adjoining room. Promptly went to bar at 5:30pm to get a drink after long day of travel. We were immediately surprised by rowdiness and inattentiveness of the staff. Julien (bartender) was pouring shots for many of bar/hotel staff. Despite many trips to St. Barths and other luxury getaways, I’ve never seen staff so brazenly drunk.||||We asked to order food, but they said the kitchen reopens at 7pm. Moments later, one of the staff, Remy, put a small bowl of dinner rolls next to us (the kind you get complimentary at the start of any meal). We each helped ourselves to one, at which point, Remy came back and yelled “Where’s the bread??!” He looked at us, who were clearly not trying to hide the fact that we’d each taken a roll, and he started screaming at us. In our faces. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. ||||Apparently they were for another customer. This was an honest mistake on our part, and we were in shock at his accusation that we stole their food. We offered to pay for them (even though they were FREE dinner rolls), but nothing would appease him. He continued walking around the bar, glaring at us, cursing to himself in French, gesticulating at us, and talking to other staff about us and pointing at us. We tried to explain our misunderstanding and that the rolls were put down right in front of us, at which point he said, “So you think anything that gets put down on the bar is yours?” He grabbed my iPhone, which was on the bar, and started walking away with it. “Well, this was on the bar, so now I guess it’s mine.” ||||That was the end of it for me. We had already been humiliated in front of other staff and guests, so I got up, and we both raised our voices and got in each other’s faces. At one point, I was concerned he was so angry he might take a swing at me. I took my phone back, and went to the front desk to complain.||||The concierge was apologetic, but would not connect us with management. No one tried to reach out to us at any point. I went back to the room, and Remy was on our terrace stacking all of the lounge chairs from the beach. Clearly there was no getting away from him. We had no choice but to spend the night, and then we checked out and moved hotels the next day. Again, no attempt to contact us by management. ||||Since the credit card company let me know what PBH’s counterclaim was, I figured I’d bring it up preemptively, lest they try to respond to this review. ||1) They claimed that WE were disrespectful to THEM. This is preposterous. Yes, I yelled at Remy after he snatched my phone, but until then, we were nothing but kind. After all, we were delighted to have finally arrived at our vacation destination. ||2) They claimed that Remy did not work for the hotel, but instead, worked for the hotel bar, which is a separate entity. This is also false. Not only was Remy wearing a “Pearl Beach Hotel Staff” t-shirt, but he was the one stacking the hotel beach chairs… hardly the responsibility of bar/restaurant staff. And keep in mind, the bar is called the “Pearl Beach Hotel Bar.”||||Beyond this very disappointing experience, I will mention other things that any person should know when considering this hotel:||1) When we flew into SBH airport, we were promised a hotel transfer. We waited nearly a half hour (they had our flight information ahead of time, and usually hotels are waiting for you). We called them, and they let us know no one was available. A little while later, the concierge showed up in a Jeep Wrangler and the four of us crammed in. This was not a typical transfer.||2) The rooms are photographed far better than they appear in real life. The walls are stained, there were bugs (ants, etc) on the ground, and the sliding door to the deck and beach would not lock.||3) The room we booked “Beach Front Suite” was supposed to have a balcony and large terrace. What the fail to describe is that this is a terrace where they store all the chairs from the beach, so it’s hardly a terrace that belongs to the room.||4) The hotel’s proximity to the end of the airport runway makes it exceptionally loud and jarring when planes take off every 15-30 min.||||This hotel might have been worth the stay at 250€ given the attitude of the staff and the disappointing amenities, but at nearly 1100€ per night, it was beyond disappointing. Le Sereno, by comparison, was LESS expensive and proved to be one of the most luxurious resorts we’ve ever stayed in. Save your money and your headache and stay somewhere else.
