Catalonia Montego Bay

I had the worst time ever and it was my birthday. I came on June 29th and stayed to July 6. When I came it was holiday Inn. July 1 it changed. The customer service doing a hurricane was terrible. I will never go back, but I hope they improve. They had all these things that you can do on the resort that we could not do. I wanted to go rafting couldn’t go rafting sometime. The employees was not there to help with towels gift shop had the certain hours that they were open and they were not open, I wanted to on my birthday and when I went, they said that they weren’t available. They had an area where you can exchange money, but it was never. , I wanted to on my birthday and when I went, they said that they weren’t available. They had an area where you can exchange money, but it was never open. they said they will have people come and bring food size when the hurricane came. They never brought us food. They wouldn’t come and change our sheets. We have the same covers and sheets for four days. We had to keep axing them for towels. We called them to the front desk sometimes the front desk phones will not work, the TV was not working. Some of the lamps in the rooms have burnt marks on them. We were supposed to be VIP customers and they had a separate area for the VIP customers but sometime employees wasn’t even there to help us so we had to go to the front counter. So it was like what was the point of paying more VIP customers when we weren’t gonna be treated like VIP. Recommend anyone to go to this hotel, they don’t care about their customers. The only good thing that they had was a food and drink. Read less

I have reviewed this hotel numerous times over the years as it was always one of my families favorites. Unfortunately we had several issues this trip. Some were old ownerships fault and others were due to the new ownership. Catalonia Hotels took ownership a few days into our stay. I see a lot of fan boys making excuses for things on the resorts behalf on various social media sites. You work hard for your money and you should get what you pay for PERIOD! CHECK IN: We arrived and were dropped off in front of the main lobby entrance. It was already clear the hotel was in a hectic state. Luggage was lined up around the lobby. We received no welcome or help with the luggage. We placed our luggage in the pile and got in a line with 20 people in it. Sad way to arrive for a vacation. There was 3 people working the front desk at the "No problem" Jamaica work pace (seemingly slower than humanly possible). It took us nearly an hour and a half to get to the front. We were helped by Shantoy who wasn't even remotely friendly. We requested a room on the 3rd or top floor and were offered a room on the 2nd floor. We knew a hurricane was forecasted and that our building/room were the closest to the ocean so we wanted a higher room as requested months before. She said either take the room offered or wait in line again. Seriously? When I told her I would not wait in line again but wanted a higher floor room she ignored me. She gave us keys to the 2nd floor room and smirked. ROOM: The rooms here remain VERY basic. A balcony or patio with 2 plastic chairs and a plastic table. In room safe in a closet with 8 hangers. The bathroom has a shower with tub. The water is hit or miss on temp but typically at least warm. Shower strength is medium to low. The bed is firm and is sheeted well with a small blanket. The TV has a few channels when working which is about half the time. A fold out couch with coffee table are in front of the sliding doors that lead to the patio. The patio doors in all rooms are like trying to open a 200 pound door. They all slide horribly with a lot of noise. There is a vent in the bathroom that leads to the room next door. Most rooms have a small fridge although its not stocked at this resort it comes in handy. When the storm began rolling in we lost power on and off all day the first day and then it was gone before dark- no lights in the room, no ac, and no water!! The infrastructure and backup systems at this resort are poor at best so be aware you will be miserable if a storm comes. The maid didn't show up the whole week to do anything. We chased her down for things we needed in the halls. FOOD: The jerk chicken shack has always been great and continues to be great. I hope the new owners keep this around as its always a highlight of our trip here. The buffet food is decent at best. Over the years its certainly gone down hill. Its very very repetitive to the point that we were starting to get disappointed by day 2. We found ourselves eating half our meals from the kids station with nuggets and pasta. The seaside restaurant allowed us to make a same day reservation which was great. When we arrived and were seated we realized it was over 90 degrees in the place. 4 minutes into looking at the menu we decided it wasn't worth sitting in a sweat box while we ate so we left. We have eaten here before and while it was warm it was never THIS HOT. STORE: The stores have basic commercial trinkets as gifts, snacks, meds and cloths. We went to one of the 2 stores to get water and it was closed at 6pm for some reason. We went back the next day and it was closed all day. We needed water! They finally opened the 3rd day. Yes they were changing ownership and needed to take inventory but I could have done that myself in a few hours not days- this was a joke! GROUNDS/POOL/OCEAN: The grounds are well kept here at first glance but a closer look will reveal they need to work on some things. The buildings are old and again need updating. Caulk, rust, and bad painting are obvious. They have a roach problem and you may see them in the eating areas as well as the coffee station. The pool is large and great for all ages! Its kept rather clean. The ocean and beach areas a nice with very limited seating unless you walk out the man made island. They have many chairs and shade there. THE HURRICANE AND HOW NEW MANAGEMENT FAILED US: The day the hurricane was to arrive we left the room to eat breakfast and were told by a frantic maid that we must go to the front desk to have our room changed for our safety. Imagine that I tried to do this 2 days earlier at check in! We arrived at the buffet at 9:45 and were told by the staff that they were closing and we could not eat. The hotel put a note about hours under our door that morning that stated they closed at 10:30. She argued with us and told us we needed to leave. Upset at this point we went to the front desk to change our room as the maid requested. We stood in line for another hour. They were confused and frantic once again up front. They forgot about us and we stood at the desk another 30 minutes before someone asked if we were being helped. We started all over again and after another 20 minutes of confusion we were told we weren't getting our room changed. We went back to the room hungry as the storm was rolling in. We waited until lunch time and went back down to try and eat again. We found with no help of the staff or even a sign that lunch was upstairs above the lobby. We found a seat, got plates, and walked up to empty tray after empty tray. They only had lettuce and rice! We got some of each and sat to eat. Over the next 20 minutes 2 other quarter filled pans came out with fish and chicken. They were immediately taken buy swarming hungry people. Leaving lunch hungry we saw a line where they were handing out sandwiches and water. We received 2 cheese sandwiches (dry) and one water each. They said they had soda and juice but it was gone. We again went back to the room as power was coming and going. At 10pm when the storm was heavy. The hotel decided they needed to fix the window next to our room in the hall. One of the window panels was missing so 6 guys were trying to board it up for 2 hours. Once they finally got it somewhat covered and left it was midnight. Water began pouring into our room from the "fixed" window. We spent all night/morning ringing out towels we laid down to collect all the water coming at us. The floor and haul in front of our room had dirt and debris from the window fiasco all over it for at least 2 days when we checked out it was still there. I spoke with several of the Catalonia staff that were there for the transition and they were all receptive and nice people. Yet nothing was done about anything I brought up or expressed concern about. SHOULD YOU VISIT?? (The big question): It saddens me to see how the hotels service has really gone down hill over the years. My family and I really loved coming here over the last 30 years. The staff is 50% rude. Many need to either be replaced or need a higher bar of expectation put on them. You will not be offered refills on drinks while eating or coffee after dinner. You will be lucky to have your lunch plate cleared by the time you finish desert. The food is just ok and very repetitive. We have given out a lot of tips at resorts including this one but rarely handed anything out because no one wanted to work the last 2 visits. I will not be looking to return to this resort for at least a year while the new owners rebrand and implement operational changes to all areas of the resort. Speaking from experience this kind of transition has many bumps along the way and will bring a lot of frustrations to guests. Enjoy a nice Riu hotel for similar money for now and you will not be sorry. NOTE TO CATALONIA MANAGEMENT: I sincerely hope that you raise the bar for staff expectations. There is a known problem with the work force in the area not working up to potential. Hiring qualified people with experience and the drive to do well is going to be key for future guest satisfaction. Be prepared for employee churn until you get a mix that does well. I know that you may reply to this review with similar rhetoric to what you sent back via email when I wrote you on some of the issues we had. While you certainly can layout what you believe happened based on the protocol implemented, things certainly did not go down the way you think it did. If you actually walked around outside of the main areas and spoke with guests, you may have see more of the chaos and addressed it properly. You clearly didn't come into owning this hotel with a good plan and were certainly not prepared for a hurricane. Read less

This was a nice family resort! The food was great, lots of options! When the buffet closed which was 11am then the 3 other beach restaurants opened until 6pm. Then the buffet opened at 6 to 10! Then at 10 the beach restaurant opened and stayed open til 2am! So you literally had food all day long! There are 4 a la cart restaurants that you have to book with guest services the day before, they don’t take any bookings the day of….we ate at 3 out of 4…the The Terrace was supposed to be more authentic Jamaican food and it wasn’t bad but it seemed like the buffet food just plated fancy! The sea breeze restaurant (seafood/steak) excellent dinner and service was top notch plus they had two menus one that was all included and the second you could pay and get different options! We were served by Fitzroy and he did an excellent job! The last restaurant we ate at was the The Sorrento(Italian food)…Amazing food! Service ok…we did not eat at the last one as it was a Japanese Hibachi style and it was at a cost to you…we’ve done this style before so we were fine not booking it. Most of the staff were nice! There are some who weren’t nice…but that happens anywhere you go! We stayed in Building 5. The rooms were decent we wernt there to hang out in the room! TV only had 2 channels… again wasn’t there to watch tv..I would recommend that you maybe download shows and movies on your device if you need something to watch at the end of your night! We always had hot water and great water pressure no issues at all! This resort was a big resot but had a small feel to it!! Loved that everything was so close and you didn’t feel like you were walking miles and miles! The pool was lovely and we spent more time in the pool than we normally do…the reason why is going to be my only complaint…the water! The beach was lovely lots of chairs and normally you have to wake up super early at most resorts to reserve your prime seating I notice fat this resort no one did as there weren’t many people in the water! The water is literally only waist deep(I’m not very tall I’m 5ft 1nch) so if you did venture in you’d have to just sit…the bigger disappointment was what I called the seaweed it was growing everywhere in the water and it felt like things were grabbing you all the time! We had to walk through it to get to a little area by the boundary rope to sit at!!! If you like to swim there really isn’t any room for that! This is my biggest and only complaint as I go on vacation to be at the beach and spend it in the water not be in a pool(you can find a pool anywhere) I maybe come back to this resort(which is now called the Catalina Resort) if the find a way to get rid of the seaweed growing so thickly…but still not so sure as it’s so shallow…I don’t think they have a way to make it deeper lol! So I guess I will never come back! If you’re not there to spend time in the ocean then you will quite enjoy this resort! If you like to party this isn’t the hotel for you! It’s very low key! There is nightly entertainment which was ok!!! I would definitely recommend lots of mosquito repellent!! We sprayed so much but it did not work at all!!! Read less

No no no, for the love of God, do not go to this resort, first it's no longer called the Holiday Inn, as it does not meet HI standards, now under new management. it is one of the oldest resort in Jamaica and it showed. during my stay my floor was out of water because of work being done on site but they book guess there anyway, the beach do not go pass your knee so if your looking for a swim forget about it. and if it's close to capacity the quality of food goes down as well. if there is a positive, it would only be the hard working staff, not management. Read less