Royalton Antigua, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort

We just came back from a 5 day stay at Royalton Antigua as a family of 4. My advice is to AVOID this place. I should have believed all of the negative reviews on here. This hotel is not a 5 star hotel as advertised. It is not a 4 star hotel. It is AT MOST a 2.5/3 star hotel. We travel quite a bit and have not had an experience like this since Dominican Republic 15/20 years ago. The Pros: The beach that the hotel sits on is the only 5 star part of the resort. It is beautiful, calm, warm, super clear & clean and insanely picturesque. The beach saved our entire trip and was the one reason we did not fly home the next day after arrival. The coffee at the coffee shop is not bad. But please note that the only non-dairy milk they have is Soy milk. But even with that, having a decent soy-milk latte daily and the beautiful beach are the two things that saved this vacation for me. The Cons: The property is run down, dungy, and in need of major repairs. There are water damage stains along the ceiling throughout the hotel, from hallways, to the buffet restaurant, to the rooms. All that the management seems to do about those is paint over them. Our room had a crazy musty smell, as do most room at the resort. Upon returning home, I have so far washed all of my clothes once and have not been able to get that smell out of them. I could not sleep the first night because that smell was so strong. My son’s eyes started to show signs of allergies after the second night so we asked to be moved to a different room. The front desk first sent us to a manager, the manager then asked us to send a whatsapp request to a number, which I did, and the last set of responses that I received was “please give us a few more moments to find another room for you” and then we never heard from them again. At that point we kind of figured that the whole hotel is like this because that smell was in the entire building and along all of the hallways, so we gave up. There was a huge water-damage stain above our bed that they tried to just paint over, as in the rest of the hotel. There is peeling paint and black water damage on the outside of the building. The small children’s water park is super dirty and run down with yellow water stains and yellow water that my kids called “pee water”. There are no lights along any of the walkways around the hotel at night so you are walking to all of the restaurants close to the beach in pretty much complete darkness after 6pm (we had to turn the flashlights for all of our 4 phones every time we walked there, which is ridiculous. The furniture in the entire resort (including the rooms) is beyond run-down. The benches at the buffet restaurant have huge stains and holes in them. There is absolutely no beach service. To the extent that we had to find and set up our own chairs every single day of the 5 days we were there. Not once did I see a beach attendant on the non-Diamond side. Not once did anyone ask if we needed anything. The lifeguard on the beach would disappear for hours at a time during the day, literally (but at least they have one, so that is a positive). The food at the resort is at most 2 stars and we are not that picky. All we generally require is some fresh fruit and eggs at breakfast and some fresh fish & some types of vegetables for lunch/dinner. We did not see fresh fruit (some melon & some pineapple) at breakfast until Thursday of our stay (we arrived on a Sunday). It seems food gets restocked on Thursdays, before the weekend, and pretty much runs out by the end of Sunday. When we arrived we were only able to eat at the Sports Bar because everything else was closed by then and the only thing they had available was burgers & french fries. By Tuesday, the buffet was out of even burgers and french fries (like what?!). When we tried to eat lunch at the buffet on Tuesday at 2pm (lunch ended at 3:30), they were out of pretty much ALL protein options (no fish, no meat, no shrimp, no burgers, just hot dogs). On Wednesday, we ate lunch at the restaurant near the beach and out of the 8 items on the menu they only had available 3: chicken taco, chicken wings, and a chicken “burger”, that was just atrocious. My daughter did not feel well for an entire day after eating those chicken wings. The plates at the buffet restaurant were constantly dirty. Several times I picked up plates that were utterly stained (again, what?!! at a “5” star resort?!!). When I say that they were constantly running out of food, I am not exaggerating. How can a resort run out of yogurt, or burgers or fish or fries or steak?! The service at the “resort” is also atrocious. Most workers have the most attitudy air about them, like they do not want to be there, they do not want to work, and they are doing the guests some huge favor just by being there. Only once did we encounter anyone who was just plain nice and had a smile on her face (shout out to Reneshe at the Hunter’s Steakhouse for being a bright light in the middle of a very bleak environment). We overheard conversations in the kitchen between those who cooked at the buffet arguing why they should or shouldn’t be doing something. I saw many staff being on their phones for hours at a time, like housekeeping, the lifeguard, the general staff. All of the servers at the buffet were constantly just annoyed and angry-looking. Same with the servers at the restaurants. I don’t know what is going on at that hotel but whatever it is, it feels like the workers are trying their hardest to sink further an already sinking ship. I think I’ll leave it at this (along with some photos). But in conclusion: believe the negative reviews and Stay Away. Read less

This is a beautiful resort to visit. Overall staff are very friendly and helpful. We had the pleasure of having Kai and Brandon as our Butler team and we couldn’t have asked for better. Small improvements could be made on food and drinks. Housekeeping was very good My room was cleaned daily and mini bar was always stocked with plenty of bottled water, beer, soft drinks and juices. All common areas were very clean and well kept. Some small maintenance details for improvement would be locks on bathroom doors in multiple locations but especially at Diamond club pool. Cocktails at pool area could include some less sweet options. Vibe team was fun and the pool area was always lively with music and various activities. Restaurants had a lot of choice but did run out of things on menu. We really missed Mango as a choice. As a group we did get later restaurant times as we were told that was the only option from restaurant managers. We often missed hotel entertainment due to our dinner times. Our excursion tours were easy and well managed from the butler staff. We had great times touring the island and always felt safe in anything we did. Shirley heights on Sunday was definitely a highlight. Overall a great experience at the Royalton and would encourage the resort to continue building on and striving toward excellence. Read less

Check in was chaotic even though we were in diamond club. We had room with pool and that was good. AC did not work 1 night but otherwise was fine. Food was possible but ther were out of mant things. Chef Alex and Chef Almonte helped make the trip for us after we complained. They made us 3 fantastic meals. Our butler Paul best the best. Very responsive and helpful. He is rye one who brought us the chefs. The beach was very nice. This rating is mainly due to the food. Also our waitress Andea at the Caribbean restaurant was the best Read less

There is not much wrong with this hotel it’s just a lot of little things that need to be better. The diamond club Butlers are completely overworked and have too many customers to look after so I felt like the hotel didn’t get this right. The food was good but there is a slightly different way of life in the Caribbean, and you do need to wait a little bit longer for food to arrive lots of choices on the menu again somethings were not available, but you have to remember you are on a small Caribbean island. The beach was amazing and clean. One day a storm washed up seaweed and the next day it was gone and had been cleaned away. the local vendors on the beach did not hassle me at all and were happy to have a chat and move on. The water sports were unavailable due to the safety boat not working, but then management changed their mind and allowed people to go out without a safety boat to rescue them if needed…..questionable!!! The room was very good and the bed was extremely comfortable. The mini bar was not restocked everyday and I had to ask the butler for items. Some staff look like they didn’t want to be there and were not friendly, but others were great and went above and beyond. The hotel have employed new senior managers so I am sure that this hotel will be back up to scratch within the next two months. Read less

This resort has the potential to be 5* but is currently in dire need of proper management. Staff are nice - but need more training. Food is average. Bar service is understaffed and slow. Bottled water, room amenities and food items kept running out, and the app to book restaurants didn’t work all week. The water sports were unavailable for the whole week because the safety boat was being fixed. Hard to believe - on an island littered with boats - that they couldn’t have found a replacement. So our family holiday that we had planned to do kayaking and paddle boarding etc was ruined. No apology, no response from emails to the current GM except to send junior managers to tell me what I already knew - that their boat was broken. If management read this - or other recent reviews - they would know that they’ve ruined the holidays for many people recently. Totally unacceptable for a big brand chain hotel. Paul and Matara were our ‘butlers’ and were brilliant. The saving grace for the holiday. Read less