Four Points by Sheraton Resort & Casino at Palmas Del Mar

Elite '09

71

147

Anjali M.

Philadelphia, PA

8/4/2008

We stayed here for three nights and this place was pretty comfortable.  The people at the front desk were really nice about giving water bottles, advice, and maps for us to use on our trip.

Weekend stays include a really loud entertaining band on Friday and Saturday nights which was really fun unless you wanted to sleep before 2 A.M.  This hotel is the only hotel in Palmas del Mar with a casino (it's a bit small but I suppose it serves its purpose).

Getting around to the beach and everywhere else was really simple.  Golfcarts and paths let you go where you want.  The pool is nice in the back as well, though I really enjoy going into pools deeper than 4 feet.

OH, a warning: be careful when putting in the address for the hotel in a GPS system...be sure to call the hotel to lead you off the main highways and ask the security people in the front how to get to the hotel.  We almost ended up in some really random community high in a mountain with narrow roads.  Very random indeed.

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review

 

0

22

Bob P.

Billerica, MA

6/29/2009

This place is pretty bad. It's absolutely beautiful outside, being located in the fantastically landscaped Palmas Del Mar community. It's a golfer's fantasy. But once you look past the pretty scenery, you'll find that this hotel is lacking in many areas.

First, the guest rooms. Boy are these run down. My room had no fridge and the deadbolt on the patio door was busted, so I had to use a ghetto pin thing to keep it from being opened from the outside. The ceiling in the bathroom needed paint badly, and there was often not enough hot water in the shower. Their housekeeping staff was pretty forgetful too. On one day they forgot to give me any face cloths. On another day they forgot to give me any hand towels. Checklist, anyone? The worst part about the room is that there was virtually no sound isolation from the hallway, meaning you could hear every hallway conversation and all the music from the main lobby. Lots of noise continuing past midnight every night.

It shouldn't take 45 minutes to microwave an $18 steak.

That's what I have to say about the hotel's only sit-down restaurant, Sebastian's, which is pretty bad. I went on a quiet Monday night when the restaurant was only at half capacity, but they were running extremely slow anyways. The guys next to us had to wait half an hour for their appetizers. I had to wait 45 minutes for my "medium" steak which was very well done, chewy, and had no juices on top... which to me means it was microwaved or otherwise reheated. The wait staff, although not rude, was pretty much uninterested in the guests and took forever to do anything like fill water or run your credit card.

Then there's the hotel's "bar", which is supposed to be a wine boutique. All of the tables outside the bar had a flier advertising a 5-7pm happy hour, with no additional details. So I went in and asked the bartender about it, and he asserted that there was no 5-7pm happy hour. So I picked up a flier off the table and handed to him, and he went and asked a manager about it. The manager told him it was "$2.50 for beers, $4 for rum drinks". What, no wine specials in a wine boutique? Anyways, I went back the next evening to take part in the happy hour. When I got the check, they had charged me $3.50 a beer, $6 for my Captain (rum) and coke, and $4.50 for my Bacardi (rum) and ginger ale. When I called BS, the bartender (same guy) asserted that he'd previously said $3.50 a beer and $4 for HOUSE rum drinks, which included DonQ rum only. Seriously, screw you guys.

The property outside of the rooms is pretty nice, with a decent pool, jacuzzi, and a one minute walk across the golf course grass to get to the beautiful looking beach. However, the beach has a terrible seaweed problem. On all but one of our trips to the beach (we were at the beach a lot), there was a ridiculous amount of seaweed floating in the water that all got caught in your hair and stuff. Maybe in the winter the ocean is better, but damn. As for the pool, it's pretty sweet. Gets as warm as bath water, but not much you can do about that. My only gripe is that their list of pool rules posted in both English and Spanish says no glass allowed, but nothing about coolers full of cans. Yet this security guard lady kept going around telling people they couldn't have coolers in the pool area. So we'd just move our cooler 15 feet away into the grass and that was fine. But WTF?

The front desk staff at the hotel were fantastic, but the rest of the employees in the hotel (like at the restaurants and such) just didn't seem to care much about their jobs. One example was when I asked the front desk lady for pool towels. She told me she was out but that someone just needed to run to housekeeping to grab a new batch that was ready. She couldn't abandon the desk so she asked one of the random housekeeping guys to go get the towels. He chatted with his buddies in the main lobby for a little bit, went behind the main desk, came out a little bit later, chatted with his buddies some more, and then disappeared. 10 minutes later I gave up waiting and went to the beach with my room's shower towels.

Also beware that the hotel charges $12 a day for self parking.

This place isn't all bad. They give you one free bottle of water per day in the rooms, have a free internet terminal down in the lobby (which is NOT deep frozen or the like, so beware of keyloggers!), and the Casino has a decent number of slots (only 3 tables though). But for the money, unless you're an avid golfer, I would strongly recommend going elsewhere.

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review

Elite '09

10

187

Danielle E.

Boston, MA

1/6/2009

I'm from Puerto Rico, and my family lives at Palmas del Mar. My husband and I stayed here last weekend, and were very pleased. We stayed in one of the suites, and it was very comfortable. The decor wasn't completely awful, and the bathrooms are lovely and up-to-date. My only qualm was that on Saturday nights the casino has a live band, and they keep playing well into the wee hours. If it weren't because the lead singer was so out of tune, I probably wouldn't have minded. The pool could be deeper, but the fact that they're open 24/7 is a big plus. The jacuzzi is awesome, but they shut off the heaters at 11 pm, and there's no lighting inside it after dark (like I can't see my feet kind of dark). Decent prices. Check-in and check-out were fast and stress-free. I stayed on a second floor, but didn't have to lug my bags anywhere - they have bellman staff at the ready. David's Cookies is OK, but it's all there is for breakfast. Sebastián's I have issues with, but this was even back when they were in San Juan. Again, the only place in the hotel for dinner, so I was stuck with it. I suggest you rent a golf cart/car if you stay here. The casino is pretty small,  but serves its purpose. This hotel needs to step it up soon, though, with two new hotels in construction (one is a Mandarin Oriental - yay!). I know they are remodeling the 3rd building as we speak, but they need to open up more restaurants if they want to be able to survive the de-monopolizing about to take place. Marilyn at the front desk is a doll, and will help you out with anything. Stay away from Chris, he's a bit of a moron...

• Add owner comment
• Bookmark
• Send to a Friend
• Link to This Review