St. James's Club & Villas

Unfortunately, I do echo so many of the other recent reviews. We were really looking forward to arriving in resort to a warm Caribbean welcome, but instead we just had to queue up whist one receptionist was checking other guests in already. No welcome smile, no music, no welcome drink, no concierge, nothing. And that was our first impression…. The receptionist clearly didn’t want to be there, and all the while she ‘processed us’ at check-in, she was answering the phone as well each time it rang. In fact her ‘attitude’ was not unusual, the staff in this hotel all really did not want to be there. This is the Caribbean, I was expecting a smiley, happy atmosphere, but far from it! Every member of staff wherever we went was miserable, bordering on rude at times - with the exception of the lady behind the bar at the main pool (Cressida I think her name was), she was lovely! She deserves a bonus, she knows about customer service! Our bedroom was spacious, but tired, the bathrooms need modernising - and they call this a 5* luxury resort, but the rooms are only cleaned/beds made every two days, and towels changed every three days. The towels at the main pool wouldn’t arrive until about 10am, but the pool opens at 0830. And the list goes on….. So, after two days I went to speak to Guest Relations. The lady listened, said how sorry she was to hear my comments, made a load of notes, but nothing seemed to change. The left hand really didn’t know what the right hand was doing. The queues for the non-bookable restaurants were ridiculous, and there was not enough availability in the bookable restaurants. On our third evening, I thought I had booked a dinner table in the main restaurant, we requested 7pm. I made the reservation with reception, was told it was all fine, only to find out when we turned up at the restaurant that they NEVER offer a 7pm booking apparently, they are all on the half hour! So then we were told they were full and were turned away - disgusting service! The service standards in the restaurants were just appalling, often having to wait 1hr+ for food, and that’s after queuing for a table. Then when the food/drinks did come, there was nearly always something forgotten, so frustrating. I enquired about drinks service on the beach. I was told in no uncertain terms that ‘there’s a blue kart with a straw roof that drives along every hour, hadn’t I seen it?’ Well, no, I definitely hadn’t missed this…. It wasn’t until day 6 of our holiday that there it was, driving along the beach, offering drinks. I enquired as to its whereabouts for the past week, and the guy told me they’ve been short staffed so it’s not been out for a while, and only at 2.30 that day he was told to take it out. As I said before, I did try and have a conversation about all these issues when we were there, as I didn’t want to just write all this upon returning home, but despite what the Guest Relations Manager said, the fundamental flaws are too engrained and it will need a strong operations manager to come in and make some changes. Having read a number of other replies to other reviews, it does seem to get mentioned that the hotel has many repeat customers, but it’s worth noting that there are timeshare apartments within the resort which would result in repeat custom, but most of these are self catering. It’s such a shame, this resort could be so much better, it really is not a ‘5 Star Luxury Resort’.

I had high hopes for this resort, focusing on the positive reviews but it turned out to be a massive letdown. The 2-bed villa we stayed in was dirty. When I pointed out that the floors hadn’t been properly cleaned, I was told it was “the wind.” The truth is, the villa just wasn’t clean, it was filthy. When they finally did clean, they used a wet mop with dirty water, just spreading the dirt around. For the entire 10 days, we ended up with black feet. The fridge was old and rusty inside, and the other appliances badly needed upgrading. The safe was useless—anything valuable simply wasn’t secure. The hairdryer even blew up and set off the fire alarm, though at least that proved the alarm worked! The food was mostly poor, and booking the à la carte restaurants was impossible. This left us stuck with the buffet, which was closed twice a week. On those days, we had to rely on the 11/11 bar for basic snacks, where waiting times could be up to two hours. In a hot country, water is essential. On arrival, we were given 2 bottles of water and told that was all we’d get on the all-inclusive package. The rest of the time, we had to drink tap water, which tasted awful. If you wanted bottled water, you had to buy it from the hotel shop. They happily offered wine, beer, spirits, and Prosecco on the all inclusive package—but no bottled water! Our villa had no drinks—not even soft drinks—just an empty fridge. The only option was tap water, which is unacceptable when you’ve paid for all-inclusive The staff were hit or miss. Some were lovely, but others were outright rude. The real issue seemed to be a lack of staff, leaving the ones there under constant pressure. This understandably made them defensive and unapproachable at times. There was no management presence whatsoever. When we tried to speak to a manager, we were made to feel like we weren’t worth their time—just paying guests with no importance. This resort failed on every basic level of providing a comfortable stay. It’s honestly the worst resort I’ve ever stayed in, and many other guests seemed to feel the same way. I can’t recommend it to anyone looking for a relaxing or enjoyable holiday. When reading reviews, it’s important to read between the lines, as expectations vary. But I strongly advise you not to ignore the negative reviews—this place genuinely has serious problems.

Bad Service. We had to ask 3 times to get our room cleaned. They finally cleaned it on day 4. No beach towels for many of the days. We also had a few nights where we waited over 2 hours for dinner even when we had reservations. A couple of nights we gave up and didnt even eat dinner. I even saw the staff arguing in front of diners. Nobody was happy.

Pink panther tour with Yajairi was a great half day!!!! She is so knowledgeable chatting gracious and willing to give you the best possible experience. Including rum punch banana bread photo opps and history. She’s darling. Would do again. Saw all great sights including nelson’s dockyard, Shirley Heights, Betty’s Hope sugar plantation, Devil‘s Bridge and a great stop for a swim to top it all off!!!

This hotel/resort is advertised as all inclusive, foodn drink, lodging—but that hardly prepared me for just how lavish that was. A wide selection of rather elegant restaurants, top shelf liquor, plus a little cafe where you can drop in almost any time for little tea sandwiches, baked goods, tea, cappuccino etc. The staff is friendly and competent This was our first visit to Antigua, a pretty island with abundant beautiful beaches and some interesting history—some handsome churches, a venerable Royal Navy dockyard where the great admiral Lord Nelson spent several years in the late 18th century.