Royal Palms Poor Customer Experience

[Scurrent]

Our family booked a private cabana at the Royal Palms Beach Club in Grand Cayman on January 31, 2013. It was recommended by prior guests, and we felt that the Cabana would provide maximum room and privacy. We were also required to spend an additional $50.00 in food/beverages, a minor sum for this island.

 

Upon arriving shortly after 9:00, the facility was just as pretty as in the website. The pool was well maintained, and our hostess Juliet warmly greeted us and set us up in Cabana #1 by the pool. Juliet was the bright spot in our visit, and could not be more helpful. The bathrooms however, were dirty and poorly maintained during the course of the day.

 

Shortly after arriving the facility began to fill up with cruise passengers. To our dismay, several groups of passengers began to populate the cabanas without paying for the space or purchasing any food as we were required to do. I questioned the staff who had no answers and took no remedial action. My wife questioned why we had paid the $50.00 when we could have just as easily “squatted” in the cabana as the other groups did for our entire stay. At least two of the groups squatted in the cabanas for the entire day, buying little more than one round of beer at the bar.

 

We went to enjoy the beach shortly thereafter, as our “new neighbors” were not bothering us. When we returned, a group of squatters had taken over our cabana and moved our belongings onto a chair. I complained to this group, who claimed they spoke no English and laughed. I reported this to one of the wait staff who also told me she only spoke English, and would not speak to this group. We then returned to the ocean to swim as we now had nowhere to sit.

 

When we returned a second time, this family family had moved from our cabana, but now had taken all of the chairs from our cabana. The now spoke very good English, and told me that the chairs were theirs, and not ours. We again complained to your staff, but no action was taken. We now had our cabana back, but with no chairs, only a bench.

 

By this time, another Brazilian party joined their friends in the cabanas, again without paying. However, this group brought several rowdy children between the ages of 4 and 8, who completely took over the pool facility. This is despite the fact that there were several signs indicating “adults only” at the pool. We again complained, with no action being taken by your staff. The children continued wallowing in the pool, screaming and splashing until we left.

 

At the end of the day, I did speak to manager Natasha to complain about our experience. She indicated she was “truly sorry” but there was nothing she could do about the situation. Management took no action to adjust our bill in any way. After settling our bill, we left early by 2:00 to get away from the squatting neighbors and screaming children in the pool.

 

My dismay in the above situation is the fact that what Royal Palms advertised and sold us varied exponentially from the experience we were actually given. Even more disconcerting, the staff took little action to address our complaints. We did correspond with Royal Palms management, who advised us that this was an "abnormality" and apologized, without more. However, this abnormality resulted in a very poor customer experience, with no resolution to the issue. I strongly recommend, based on my experience that cruise passengers avoid this facility in the future.

[Colorado Kat]

I am so sorry this happened to you. Was not Juliet available to help you reclaim your cabana?

 

It sounds like Royal Palms management should refund you your $50.

[hawkinsmartin]

I agree you should get a refund but thank you for sharing your experience and I am sorry it was a bad one. I personally have experienced similar situations at other resorts and I understand your frustrations. We laugh about it now but I know how you feel.

 

Again thanks for your excellent review.

 

Martin

[tnf]

Our family booked a private cabana at the Royal Palms Beach Club in Grand Cayman on January 31, 2013. It was recommended by prior guests, and we felt that the Cabana would provide maximum room and privacy. We were also required to spend an additional $50.00 in food/beverages, a minor sum for this island.

 

Upon arriving shortly after 9:00, the facility was just as pretty as in the website. The pool was well maintained, and our hostess Juliet warmly greeted us and set us up in Cabana #1 by the pool. Juliet was the bright spot in our visit, and could not be more helpful. The bathrooms however, were dirty and poorly maintained during the course of the day.

 

Shortly after arriving the facility began to fill up with cruise passengers. To our dismay, several groups of passengers began to populate the cabanas without paying for the space or purchasing any food as we were required to do. I questioned the staff who had no answers and took no remedial action. My wife questioned why we had paid the $50.00 when we could have just as easily “squatted” in the cabana as the other groups did for our entire stay. At least two of the groups squatted in the cabanas for the entire day, buying little more than one round of beer at the bar.

 

We went to enjoy the beach shortly thereafter, as our “new neighbors” were not bothering us. When we returned, a group of squatters had taken over our cabana and moved our belongings onto a chair. I complained to this group, who claimed they spoke no English and laughed. I reported this to one of the wait staff who also told me she only spoke English, and would not speak to this group. We then returned to the ocean to swim as we now had nowhere to sit.

 

When we returned a second time, this family family had moved from our cabana, but now had taken all of the chairs from our cabana. The now spoke very good English, and told me that the chairs were theirs, and not ours. We again complained to your staff, but no action was taken. We now had our cabana back, but with no chairs, only a bench.

 

By this time, another Brazilian party joined their friends in the cabanas, again without paying. However, this group brought several rowdy children between the ages of 4 and 8, who completely took over the pool facility. This is despite the fact that there were several signs indicating “adults only” at the pool. We again complained, with no action being taken by your staff. The children continued wallowing in the pool, screaming and splashing until we left.

 

At the end of the day, I did speak to manager Natasha to complain about our experience. She indicated she was “truly sorry” but there was nothing she could do about the situation. Management took no action to adjust our bill in any way. After settling our bill, we left early by 2:00 to get away from the squatting neighbors and screaming children in the pool.

 

My dismay in the above situation is the fact that what Royal Palms advertised and sold us varied exponentially from the experience we were actually given. Even more disconcerting, the staff took little action to address our complaints. We did correspond with Royal Palms management, who advised us that this was an "abnormality" and apologized, without more. However, this abnormality resulted in a very poor customer experience, with no resolution to the issue. I strongly recommend, based on my experience that cruise passengers avoid this facility in the future.

 

 

Sorry this happened to you, we also rented a cabana that same day near the beach. We had no problems at all our waiter Jose was great!

The cabana next to ours was empty for a while then people came and sat there until the people that had paid for it came and told Jose they had it rented so he had the others move.

We would rent a cabana again at Royal Palms

I agree the bathrooms were not kept up, no towels to dry your hands after you washed them.