Meg C.
Google
We’ve stayed at Red Jacket Resorts every summer for the past five years. Our first visit was at Blue Water, and we’ve since returned annually to the Red Jacket. During our early stays, the experience was wonderful. Yes, the rooms were a bit outdated and could’ve used a fresh coat of paint, but that was part of the Cape Cod charm- something we expected and even appreciated in a beachfront property. The food was decent, the service consistently excellent, and the overall atmosphere had a “hidden gem” quality: peaceful, not overly crowded, and easy to find a chair at the pool or beach.
Over the past few years, however, the resort has undergone renovations. While these updates have made the property more visually appealing and social media-friendly, nearly every other aspect of the experience has declined in quality while increasing dramatically in cost.
We’ve stayed in the same oceanfront suite each year, but this time there was a frustrating mix-up with our reservation. Despite calling weeks in advance to change the dates of our stay, and being assured that our usual suite would remain the same, we arrived to find we’d been placed in a much smaller room. It had a king bed and a set of bunk beds crammed into the same space, which they referred to as a “suite.” For a family of four (two adults, a 15-year-old, and a 10-year-old), that simply wasn’t going to work, especially with only one bathroom and very limited space.
To their credit, the staff was accommodating and eventually moved us into adjoining rooms. Still, the situation was disappointing and avoidable, especially considering we typically pay over $1,000 a night for our usual suite which includes a couch, living space, etc that these adjoining rooms did not have. Being expected to stay in what felt more like a dorm room for that price was incredibly frustrating.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only downside. Since the renovations, the resort has implemented a number of changes that have made the overall experience feel more like a cost-cutting operation than a luxury vacation:
Pros:
• Unbeatable location, right on the beach
• Very family-friendly environment with lots of kids and activities
Cons:
• Vinyl plank flooring in rooms looks nice but tracks every grain of sand - carpeting was much more practical for a beachfront stay
• Minimal housekeeping during your stay, including no nightly sheet changes
• New towel policy requires guests to trade in a card for one beach towel at a time, adding unnecessary inconvenience
• Pool cabanas that were once free and first-come, first-serve are now expensive to reserve and the pool chairs are all taken early in the day due to overcrowding
• Food prices have skyrocketed despite quality being very average at best
• Cocktails are extremely overpriced
• 20% gratuity is automatically added to all food and bar tabs, with servers the expectation of additional tips on top of that
• Overall, the resort now feels like it’s nickel-and-diming guests to fund its renovations, while cutting back on the service and conveniences that once made it special
We’ve continued to return to Red Jacket because of the memories we’ve made here, but we’re increasingly feeling like the value just isn’t there anymore. Unless things shift back toward prioritizing guest experience over profit, we’re unsure if we’ll continue our annual tradition.