The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas

I wish I had researched the property before making reservations! This property would receive 4⭐️ if it were a basic Mariott hotel. However, I expect more from a Ritz Carlton property and am willing to pay more for the (expected) level of staff service and services. This is easily the poorest example of Ritz Carlton service we have EVER experienced! To begin with, I tried no fewer than 14 times before we arrived to contact the hotel restaurants to make dinner reservations. At times, I was refereed to the Concierge desk (where I was disconnected during the call transfer) and at other times, no one picked up the phone. Bottom line, we made dinner reservations off property for every night of our stay due to this awful treatment by the hotel staff. Upon our arrival, our room was obviously not ready (I called ahead to inform them of our 2:00 arrival and to request an early check in). I wasn’t expecting our room to be ready based on my restaurant experiences, but I was “hopeful.” No such luck! Even though the hotel was nowhere near capacity, our room wasn’t ready for almost another hour. I won’t necessarily hold the property responsible for inconsiderate guests but I do hold them responsible for not enforcing property rules. Each day of our stay, we struggled to get chairs by the adult pool. Guests routinely get chairs early, leave for hours and block other hotel guests from enjoying the pool chairs. Then, the parade of kids age 5-10 would come screaming into the adult pool, splashing one another and throwing balls and toys. Again, I fault the parents for ignoring the rules clearly shown around the adult pool stating “No children under 13 allowed”…. However, the hotel staff should enforce the rules but they were too busy playing cornhole and ignoring guests. Last, be prepared to request housekeeping. We were at the pool for most of the day, and returned to our room just as we left it. When I called to ask what time they typically clean, I was informed that I needed to call and request our room to be cleaned. Again, not what we have experienced at other Ritz properties where service is king and turn-down service at night is a unique treat after dinner. We will not return to this property unless they reclassify the property as a Residence Inn or basic Marriott property with prices commensurate with the level of service ambivalence.

The only good thing here is the view. The customer service is at best abysmal. We arrived at reception at 4:00. We weren’t checked in until 5:30. Only half of our bags were delivered to our room. We waited another thirty minutes to get our missing luggage. We waited one hour and forty minutes for breakfast after repeated lies from room service and the manager. Told it was a 45 minute wait then told in a canned response to our inquires “it is out for delivery.” Of course our order was completely messed up but we did not call the manager. Why bother? Many more examples of this lack of competence. The standards for customer service is way below The Marriott and certainly The Ritz Carlton. “ My pleasure”. What a joke. Go somewhere else!

We chose the Ritz-Carlton St. Thomas expecting impeccable service and a memorable New Year’s celebration. What we got instead was a frustrating and disheartening experience that fell far short of the Ritz-Carlton name and the over $3,000 per night price tag. From the moment we arrived, the staff aside from the outstanding Claudia, Jonathan, and Latoya—were consistently unwelcoming and hostile. Our visits to the concierge were met with impatience and bad moods, leaving us feeling like an inconvenience rather than valued guests. The breakfast buffet was disappointing in quality and variety so we opted for à la carte. Big mistake. It took an excruciating hour for our order to arrive, further souring our mornings. Housekeeping added to the stress. After cleaning our room, they forgot to leave towels. Despite making over eight requests for fresh towels, we didn’t receive them for 4.5 hours completely derailing our New Year’s Eve plans. Unacceptable for a hotel of this supposed caliber. Our bathroom sink barely had running water, so we requested maintenance and were assured someone would come “right away.” It took two days for anyone to show up, leaving us to deal with the inconvenience far longer than acceptable. And the highly anticipated New Year’s Eve party? A complete letdown. No countdown, no energy, no sense of celebration—just a poorly executed event that capped off a disappointing stay. Spending over $3,000 a night for this level of service is beyond unacceptable. We didn’t feel welcomed or cared for and this experience is far from what we’ve come to expect from Ritz-Carlton properties.

We went with our two kids (4 and 8) in February and chose this hotel because of the water slide and the kids club. We had read a lot about mediocre service but we found everybody to be friendly and helpful and to seem to like their job! Food was very expensive, more than just "oh, this is the Ritz, no surprise". The rooms were good and but nothing to write home about. A little dark because of the covered balcony. Free paddle boards were great, and it was wonderful to be able to use the residences' facilities as well. Kids Club, yay, it was there, but uh, it wasn't great. We checked the kids in with a dude who was clearly not used to being with children. Didn't know what to do with the little one who was hesitant to go in, didn't try to distract her. One day they did tie-dye but only the bigger kids got a t-shirt, the 4-year-old a little tote bag to tie-dye. Not fun. Because we didn't feel they were in particularly good hands, we only used the kids club two mornings. And they're insanely expensive! Also, they don't take the kids to the pool. That's weird when that's really why you're at the Ritz-Carlton on St Thomas with kids.

We stayed here for an anniversary trip and although the view and scenery were beautiful, the unfortunate encounter from check in and front desk agents tinged the overall experience with great displeasure. I had booked and paid in advance for the club level room and confirmed by phone months in advance that it was an upgrade included as a benefit from having the Ritz Carlton credit card but the front desk agent strongly insisted that it was not valid and we would have to stay in the regular room despite having confirmed and reserved our club level room in advance. She only changed her mind and allowed me to stay in the club level room after she called reservations who informed her that I reserved the club level room. Absolutely no apology, it was actually made to sound like she was extending me some huge courtesy that was a great inconvenience to her. Despite their well dressed staff and gilded presentation of a luxury status hotel, the front desk customer service and Ritz Carlton service values were painfully lacking. The ladies spoke in monotonous voices and looked like they rather be packing crates of metal than interact with ladies and gentlemen who come there for vacation. Check out was also sad and reminiscent of going to the DMV as the lady did not smile and seemed exasperated to be there. Their shiny shoes were impatiently tapping against the shiny floor as they looked at their computer screens. Luckily for us, the other staff including the ladies and gentlemen from the club lounge and bellman were hospitable and engaged, which made the experience better. The housekeeping staff meticulously cleaned the room which I was pleasantly surprised thinking that everything else was going to be subpar after the experience with front desk agent. I had stayed at Buoy Haus nearby before checking in here and that hotel had better guest anticipation than here. We received a nice gift for our anniversary whereas the Ritz Carlton front desk agent couldn’t even check me in properly and didn’t use our names nor wish us a nice day. All words exchanged were just part of the transaction. It just felt so odd coming from a so called luxury hotel costing about $900 per night. No service recovery unfortunately, to turn things around so my view of them remains.