JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

Isolated spacious resort with good restaurants and spacious rooms Very staffed hotel with large grounds, shops and Starbucks. Attached conference center provides ample space and very nice catering. Be aware of resort fees on top of regular room prices

I haven't written a review for a while, but I wish someone else had written a recent review about this property so I wanted to fill in the information gap. First the positives however, because the property does have a lot. First, as Titanium Elite members, we were treated very well. Carter worked with me to find a workable upgrade for my family to have a bit more space. Additionally, the free continental breakfast at Cibolo Moon for two of us was VERY good. Second, the property is very peaceful. Even though occupancy was very high, it never really seemed that busy (except for breakfast and the pool which I'll comment on later). Finally, the room and grounds were very nice and well maintained. Now to the reason I needed to make this post. The main message is that the resort is not currently as advertised. We booked this property because of the pictures and reviews of the grounds which includes the pools, waterslides and lazy river. Imagine getting all the way there and finding out that the lazy river is under construction until March and that on the hottest day we were there, only one of the four slides would be open part of the day. While I understand that renovations occur to keep the property up to date, other properties are typically very clear in advertising upon booking that construction is in progress, but not this place. Upon asking whether some of the resort fee could be waived because the amenities were not as advertised, of course the answer was no. The other problem this creates is that when occupancy is high and both the lazy river and waterslides are closed down, it brings everyone into the pool and hot tubs. Thus the pool and hot tubs were very crowded on the days we were there which was took away from the relaxation component. The other issue is what I believe to be one of staffing constraints which I know is affecting many businesses currently. The first day at the pool, there was one waitress who only focused on the rented Cabana. Everyone else had to go to the Rivertop Bar where there was only one bartender who was working SO hard, but just couldn't keep up. I ordered the 6 piece chicken tenders and a drink after waiting about 20 minutes in line to place my order. The food came out quickly but upon getting back to my family with it, found out that I only had the 4 piece kids chicken tenders, so back in the line I went for another 20 minutes to ask for an additional 2 chicken tenders. By this time, finally another person came to help at the bar, but the wait was still a good 10 minutes anytime you wanted to place an order. Relatedly, while the buffet breakfast in Cibolo Moon was incredibly good, the wait time was not. Most mornings we had to wait 10 minutes just to put our name in and then another 30-45 minutes to get seated. Finally by the end of the stay I learned to put my name in much earlier than when we planned to eat. Finally, again while the staff were working incredibly hard, some detailed were missed. Two of the four days, when we got to our table, though the table was clean, the seats were filthy and my son even sat in maple syrup that was left on the chairs. Overall, we had a beautiful spacious room and the grounds were impeccable. The staff works incredibly hard, but I just don't think they have enough people. Thus, I'd at least wait until the Lazy River is complete to stay here and plan accordingly for daytime food by maybe bringing in your own drinks so you don't spend your entire vacation in line.

For the past 7 years, Cibolo Moon at JW Marriott was one of our favorite spots to dine. We would go there or go to High Velocity, or just sit outside and have a drink. But alas, everything changes I guess. This year for our annual Christmas dinner with friends and family, we had to add either $38 or $48 (depending on whether you valet) for parking. We had to have a strategy for how cars to take. Oh -- I do think they have a 20 dollar lot somewhere and you can shuttle over. Not sure about that though. Having said all that -- dinner was great as always. Service was excellent as always. The trees outside were lit up, but they didn't have the Christmas music in sync to the lights, there were no singing reindeer, no singing penguins, no smores -- all the things that just made our Christmas dinner special. All those things were gone. We went back a couple weeks later to see Ice with some family members. This time, we got pizza from the pizza place next to Cibolo Moon, and sat outside by the fireplace. The pizza was very good and once again, service was excellent. So, if you don't mind the parking fees, its a great place for dinner and drinks. I would highly recommend. I don't know now many times I'll be going back now, with the parking fees, but we'll see. Also -- my card was charged three times when I exited that night that we went to see Ice. I'll have to work on getting that corrected. One thing I find about their website, there's no easy way to contact them other than a phone call and usually I can never get through. But again -- I really don't want to be too negative. I love the place -- just wish things had stayed the way they were.

I was double charged at this resort when I went to the spa. The spa refuses to correct the error because they claim their computer can't see the problem even though my bank clearly shows that two charges were made and both payments were processed/cleared. I was forwarded to the resort's accounting department where nobody picked up the phone and no one responded to my voicemail despite having a full business day to do so. I don't even know if it was the right number. It is wildly inappropriate to take your customers money without their consent or knowledge. And it's even more inappropriate to not make any effort to resolve the problem. As a customer, I would think that jw Marriot is a brand name that you should be able to trust has their payment processing figured out by now. They clearly do not and they do not seem to care at all that they essentially robbed me of my money. What they've done is blatantly illegal. The last and final time I stayed at a jw Marriot - there was a live bug crawling in between my sheets and at that time, they also didn't really care to make it right. With this recent experience, I'm absolutely appalled at the customer service provided for the price point. This is not a luxury hotel. I've stayed at motels that do a better job than jw Marriot. Don't waste your money with them because they could rob you and allow bugs in your room. It's disgusting and not worth the risk

I booked a room here in June this year for a race occurring in December. On the Wednesday before my Saturday booking, I attempted to cancel my reservation due to becoming ill with Covid and got the run around from the answering service to call the hotel directly. The phone rang and rang and I had to call back. I spoke with what I assume was a check-in/front desk person and was told they weren’t able to provide me with a refund/cancel my room because the room was booked through a party/room block. I was told they would email the group booking/events person and I would hear back by the next morning first thing. I did not hear back from anyone and again called and left another message on Thursday. By Friday and Saturday, I still hadn’t heard back but of course there was a charge on my card for the room. I called again and was told there was nothing to be done because the room wasn’t cancelled soon enough. I also sent an email was told there was nothing they could do just because I had Covid and also that they charged the room due to me being a “no show!” Well that’s hilarious since I called and emailed several times attempting to cancel!! Poor customer service and just plain rude. ***Customers beware…this hotel does NOT discourage patrons from staying here if they have Covid***