Guest reviews Coral Reef Club

by insight944 London, United Kingdom

Mouse in the house

Took friends for drinks. Sitting by the bar. Chatting. Looking to have a good time. Then a large mouse/rat runs out right in front of us. The women keep calm. We pay and leave. Now the wife won't go back because she says she doesn't feel comfortable and is the place clean?

by jojopip Essex

Just perfect

Stayed for 10 days as first time guests and from the second we arrived until the second we left, absolutely loved Coral Reef Club and everything and everyone involved with the establishment. Lovely friendly greeting, immaculate room set in a beautiful garden location. Personally, we found every single member of staff we came across, to be friendly and the desk team were always happy to help us. We booked on a bed and breakfast basis, food and service never an issue. Dined in the restaurant on a couple of the themed evenings and, again, cannot fault food and service. Never had a problem finding a sunbed and the beach butlers are always on hand for you (specials thanks to Anthony, Carlos and John). We have been lucky to have travelled to some pretty special places outside of Europe & Coral Reef Club is now at the top and we cannot wait to become repeat guests, already requested dates for next time.

by LMS288 New York City, New York

Nice hotel but if you aren't a returning guest...

This is the 2nd time my boyfriend and I have been to Barbados and were excited to stay at The Coral Reef Club as it had many great reviews and we wanted to try a different hotel from last year (we stayed at the Fairmont just down the road). The hotel itself is nice and well kept but the service/customer service is deplorable. We quickly realized that if you were not a returning guest (most people had been coming for up to 30 years with their families) you were treated very differently. The food service was extremely disorganized, slow and most servers had major attitude problems. They break every part of the order down with a different member of staff (your drinks ordered separately, water ordered separately, food, check, etc). As you can imagine, this created a lot of confusion with very simple orders (cheese burgers and tap & sparkling water) and slow moving service. Often times, we would be the only people in the dining room, water glasses empty with 4 staff members standing in a corner talking to one another. When asked for more water, they would huff and puff before returning to pour it 5 minutes later. The bar/dining room are located right on the water and right by the beach chairs which makes coming and going quite convenient but beachwear is not permitted as you are not able to wear baseball caps, collared shirts and shoes must be worn at all times. At night, there is a proper dress code strictly enforced (which we were fine for but would be good to advertise this information for guests who think they're coming for a very casual, beachy vibe). The front desk also was extremely, extremely disorganized and unfriendly with zero accountability. We had worked to arrange dinner reservations in advance as we anticipated the very busy time on the island as well as our NYE plans. Each day and with each shift, there were constant mix ups "a taxi has been confirmed for you" only to find out multiple times that taxis were actually never ordered before our dinners, reservations were never made, etc. Our New Years Eve plans were confirmed with a woman at the front desk the day before NYE. She was aggressive and unhelpful from the beginning. I had spoken to her in person and via email to confirm our NYE plans. We were given a CC auth sheet to fill out in advance of the NYE celebrations. I specifically asked if i had given our CC over the phone to the woman at the front desk, if we would need to fill out the CC auth form. She insisted multiple times, "No, you're all set". NYE day arrives and with all of the taxi and reservation mix ups/miscommunications, I went to the front desk to confirm our NYE dinner and cars. I was told nothing was ever booked or confirmed for us but the woman who was helping me was off for the day so basically tough luck. I explained I had specifically asked for confirmation, read my CC number and was told we were all set just a day before. They scrambled to find another option for us which I had asked many times to confirm dinner would be served and then an after party. Again,we received confirmation from the front desk we would have a sit down dinner before the after party and it was part of the price ($1200 Barbados) at our new venue. We showed up for our scheduled taxi, which wasn't there, and finally got to the restaurant only to be sat at a literal side table. We were informed they would pass "some apps" and the "open bar" only served gin, vodka, white wine and champagne. Beer was an added charge! So, not only were misinformed AGAIN, our NYE was ruined. An adult family of about 10 were sitting next to us, also staying at The Coral Reef Club and heard us asking to speak with the manager only to find out the same exact thing happened to them (misinformed from hotel) costing them 5,000 pounds! 45 minutes went by and we were starving and couldn't imagine waiting until after midnight to stay at the venue so we left to go back to the hotel only to find out they have a full black tie NYE party. We had no idea it was black tie (only returning guests knew this) as nothing was ever communicated in advance (wouldn't it be smart to communicate that ahead of time to ALL GUESTS coming to stay during the Holiday break?!) The O'Hara Family is onsite daily. One of the son's greeted us upon our arrival but we saw them through out the day, every day and had zero other interaction with them. The many returning guests were constantly being flocked to by the Family & staff and had special reserved dining tables and beach chairs reserved . The staff seems afraid of the Family, especially, the elderly, Mrs. O'Hara. I saw Mrs. O'Hara speaking to a guest in the most unbelievable way on New Year's Eve. He had just arrived with his wife and young daughter, likely inquiring about the black tie NYE event that evening. She was speaking to him in the most condescending way, telling him he was not properly dressed, was not allowed to attend and he must leave. The guest was floored and continued to ask how he was supposed to know about the black tie dress code, what the other option was and he could not believe that she was speaking to him so inappropriately, which she clearly had zero regard for. It was shocking, extremely rude and off putting. One other fun thing (like most Caribbean hotels) is that you must wake up at 6:00 am to get a beach chair and tip the beach attendants. We had asked this specifically when we arrived so we could plan accordingly. We were told "absolutely never a problem!" only to show up at the beach our first day hanging out on the grass and in trees. We were constantly being asked by staff "how long we were staying" and "how long have you been coming?" which we found to be interesting but made sense since most people were returning guests with their reserved tables/beach chairs. This only continued to validate that we had zero pull or importance because it was our first time at the hotel. The hotel itself is very nice and located right on the water which is great. The food is decent (but overly expensive) but I would not recommend staying here/would not return to the hotel simply based on how bad their customer service is.

by PRSpero New York City, New York

Lovely with a but

Outstanding service at a well equipped well kept hotel not too far from the cruise ship port. Would do it again. But the but? Our several meals on premises were only fair, rather slow, and decidedly expensive.

by Helen1xx West Malling, United Kingdom

If I could give it 6 stars I would

I am so glad that I chose Coral Reef to stay. I cannot explain how excellent the staff are and the perfect service provided by the hotel. The hotel itself is lovely, the rooms excellent (we actually had one of the more basic rooms but the standard was still very good) and it's in a very good location, only a 5-10 minute walk into the nearest town. The staff are such a credit to the hotel, I am not going to write down everyone's names as I am sure I will forget people but there was no one staff member I could criticise. Most went over and above. I have stayed in Raffles Singapore before where the staff were brilliant but I have to say the staff here went even further. The owners are frequently seen onsite and the cocktail party they provided every Monday is another added touch. I cannot recommend this hotel more.