The Verandah, Antigua

Sybil: why do you do it Basil? Polly has worked wonders with clean rooms, pool and grounds, while Cook Terry has sweat his bandana off delivering good food, the buggy drivers wave to everyone, while I left you in charge of service Basil: which I did brilliantly S: so why was there only one person serving on each bar? Why apart from Andre and Shawanee did the staff look grumpy? You stopped paying them? B: I pay them! S: letting that nice man spend $300 on tips does not count as salary B: I thought it did S: and why did you serve that nice man two small glasses of ice cold Pino Noir and then charge him $19? You said you would apologise; did you? B: room temp in the UK is currently ice cold so I thought he'd feel at home and no need to apologise S: finally why did you turn up the volume to #11 for all the live entertainment? B: because the bar staff like to dance; it forces the patrons back to their rooms early and we cant hear when they complain; vola! S: you do realise that nice man was The Hotel Inspector? Fat chance we now have of competing with CoCo Bay's 9.4 B: punches self in face, falls backwards. Read less

This was my 1st time to Antigua and I joined the fb group and checked reviews of all adult only resorts. This is different from any other resort we’ve been to and I expected things to be somewhat different than usual. Arrived about 5 pm on a Saturday. Check in was a breeze. Golf cart took us around the resort to show us where things were then dropped us off at room. Could only eat at buffet since no reservations could be made that late. Went over to Wicket pub afterwards and that was fine. Reservations are difficult to make and would only let us book 3 days at a time. People will direct you and are very polite at all times. Didn’t have any issue with that Spent most our time at the pool and our room was pretty good location between 2 pools so that worked out for us. They did have some kind of music every evening so you listened to that or went to pub or to your room Beach was nice and had plenty of toys you could take out so no problem there either I could find things to eat wherever we went but if you are a Foodie you might be disappointed Read less

I don’t normally give a negative review preferring to be constructive in my comments. However, we are on day 5 of a 14 day vacation and we could not agree more with the previous reviewer and could add more. If you want a relaxing and stress free holiday this isn’t the resort for you. The resort is understaffed, staff are not well trained and despite doing their best are ineffective and sullen which is down to poor management who don’t appear to care about the staff or guest experience. We don’t want - to queue up to 20 minutes at the main bar or sports bar for drinks as there is only one person serving whilst others are stacking glasses or non existent. - to queue everyday to make restaurant bookings as only one person on at Guest Relations and they are dealing with multiple guest issues - have a dedicated booker and let guests book 7 days ahead and it would reduce the queues and number of visits. Alternatively an App would be easier for all. - to keep having to check whether there are clean beach towels available as these are not stocked up at the start of the day and replenished. Have a system where to get a new towel you return a used one and have one towel per person. - to clear a table of dirty glasses before we can sit down to enjoy a drink. - to feel as though we are in a nightclub when trying to relax round the pool or on a 18-30s holiday ( for those old enough to remember) - to queue for 20 minutes at breakfast for a fried egg or omelette because only one person can appear to fry an egg in this hotel. As for paying $24 a day for enhanced cleaning etc, we expect to have our room serviced everyday unless we choose otherwise . The public areas are not regularly cleaned, all tables around pool are sticky and have ants crawling on them. Tables in bars are not cleaned with antibacterial spray. The pool area needs a pool attendant to keep it clean and tidy throughout the day for all guests and showers need to be used by guests. Sorry but like many of your guests we holiday 2 or 3 times a year and expect for the money we pay to have a relaxing and comfortable holiday to remember for the right reasons. Read less

Sorry Verandah but you are not a 4* resort. The enhanced cleaning fee is an insult especially when rooms are cleaned every other day and many communal areas are neglected. Accomodation Rooms (despite being refurbished - a lick of paint and perhaps new floor tiles) are basic with very dated furniture. Bathrooms may have been re-tiled but with poor quality materials. Our verandah/outdoor furniture was very 90s at best!! Cleaning (enhanced pah!) At the end of one day, a member of staff at Beach Grill asked a fellow patron and I to go into the pool and collect the glasses for her. Perhaps this is the enhanced cleaning?? Frequently, tables in the main bar were left dirty and I often cleaned these myself. The main pool was left in such a state on a daily basis. Empty glasses/rubbish/half eaten pizza left for all to admire. Granted some of this is guests but there are no bins in the pool area. Guests also left dirty towels strewn around this area! (There are bins for used towels). We noticed used towels on a chair one evening and they were still there the following afternoon! Why not employ pool/beach boys (or girls) to clean up sporadically? That is the level of service I would expect at a 4* at the very least. One lunchtime at Beach Grill; half empty plates were left for such a time that birds were pecking away at bones etc. These plates were left here for at least 15 mins. Why not have staff on a clearing/serving rotation? It’s not rocket science! If this was a brand new resort, I could possibly understand the inexperience of running a new team but this is an established hotel albeit with a new direction. One pays $24 per day for this “privilege”!! I dread to think what standard cleaning entails. General The resort is clearly under-resourced in terms in staff and supplies. Beer (brewed on site) ran out on numerous occasions. Sparkling wine ran out a lot, as did the Jarras rose. Scrambled egg ran out at 08.20 (breakfast service finishes at 10.30) Breakfast buffet is quite basic food including that 4* hotel staple of Fruit Loops. One morning, we waited at the egg station for 25 minutes for an omelette. The egg chef works so hard but why not get an additional chef and hot plate going for the busy periods, (we did see two chefs working this station on the Asian buffet evening). One evening, our reservation was not available until 30 mins after the pre-booked time; service was ridiculously slow also. Staff do not appear to be able to cope with busy dining areas and this was clearly demonstrated on this night. Food A la carte dinner menus at both Sails and Tales and Portofino were good and offered decent options - we did not have bad meals whilst dining in the evening at the above two restaurants. However, one during one lunchtime at Beach Grill, jerk chicken was sent back as it was still bloody!! During another lunchtime at Sails & Tales, Chipotle chicken burger and sweet potato fries were sent back as they were cold, they were duly heated up/refried and served but the attitude certainly was not apologetic. Service Lovers Beach bar staff were quite abrupt. When drinks were unavailable (frequently); no smile, no apology just “we don’t have it” or a straight “no”. It’s early in the season and it’s going to get busier and staff will get tired and cranky after a few more months of hot days! Beware future patrons! Check-in was farcical. The receptionist Sharrie forgot to give me my key. Upon entering the room, I realised a contraption was required for the safe, (again forgotten by the receptionist). No apologies, yet again. As this was the first interaction, this was terrible and we did not feel particularly well received. Subsequent calls to reception were answered with no warmth and often one word “moody” responses were given. During our stay, we did encounter a few standout staff members; Romaine, Theodore, Kertie, Andre, Natasha, Nicole P, Kiara and Michelle G. The majority of the staff appear to have better things to do, or at least it seemed that way. Sometimes, I felt that I was asking them to donate their right kidney instead of a drink!! Pineapple Beach over the road is currently experiencing renovations (which includes new furniture, fixtures and fittings - an actual refurbishment). We went to the beach there on a number of occasions as Long Bay is really beautiful. Staff were offering cocktails on the beach, cleaning up, collecting glasses and generally had a much better attitude and demeanour towards patrons. What a novelty! Buck up your ideas Verandah. You are not a cheap resort. You may have re-invented yourself as an adults only resort so why not start acting like an adult. You have great potential - don’t waste it! Read less

Having stayed at the resort 8 years ago we were keen to see the changes after the recent updates and becoming an “adult only” hotel for a short winter sun break The one thing I personally love about the hotel is the layout, it’s very spacious and at no time do you feel like you are on top of each other. Rooms are fairly basic but more than adequate for a week away. Lovely view over the sea to wake up to each day. The addition of the coffee shop, pizza takeaway and Wavy Wicket pub are great, I’m not great at remembering names but the ladies in the coffee shop (in the late afternoon/evening) and the lady at the Pizza Hut were really friendly. We preferred the beach each day, nicely spaced out, no issue with sunbeds. The pool was a bit too loud for us personally with the music etc, but some prefer that so it’s not necessarily a criticism, just personal choice. Overall the food is good in each of the restaurants, with a definite level of quality in Nicole’s should you choose to pay the extra supplement. However the overall theme of the hotel is one of being very understaffed and therefore the restaurants can be disorganised . In Nicole’s one of our courses was totally forgotten about and any vegetable were missed off our main course. At breakfast they regularly ran out of dishes, some of the food options took an age to be replaced when empty and the queue for omelettes would be a good 10 mins (and that is not a criticism of the one lady at the egg station at all as she couldn’t be faulted) I also don’t understand why in an all inclusive resort there are no drinks in your room fridge, even just a couple of cans of coke/sprite etc not necessarily alcohol, and why do you only get 4 small bottles of water to last 2 days, assuming house keeping replace them at all, which isn’t a guarantee? Not going to moan about the $24 surcharge per night as we knew in advance, but if you are going to charge that at least make guests feel like that it is going towards something, cleaning rooms and replacing water every other day and a lack of staff in all restaurants Isn’t a 5* hotel Despite the moans however I would go back as I like the hotel overall, there’s just a frustration that it could be so much better than the way it is currently run if penny pinching wasn’t the main priority Read less