After financial shenanigans it looks like Marriott’s ‘regret resort’ – likely the worst property in the chain, by a lot – will see government-subsidized redevelopment. Until then, stay away from Carambola Beach Resort on St. Croix.
Carambola Beach Resort
Carambola Beach Resort in St. Croix wound up as an “unbranded Marriott” after deteriorating so badly that the Renaissance flag was pulled. This all started back when U.S. Virgin Islands government employee pension fund put $15 million into the resort during the Great Recession. (The Virgin Islands Inspector General concluded the arrangement was illegal, by the way.) $6.8 million was supposed to go to renovations to meet Renaissance standards.
The hotel defaulted. The pension fund cut the interest rate, later took over the property, then absorbed additional liabilities (including $12 million in “extra disbursements”). The Inspector General audit found transactions that were most generously described as gross incompetence, but probably weren’t – payments for non-existent work and missing documentation for 23 wire transfers totaling $7.6 million.
Four years ago Marriott claimed renovations were “underway,” the hotel would be Renaissance again once complete, and Bonvoy elite members would still receive Renaissance benefits in the interim.
In fact, Carambola may be the worst Marriott in North America. The property has collected large insurance proceeds while not reinvesting in the property itself. Guests reported a lime-green, neglected pool, pests, dirty common areas, broken and closed amenities, limited food, and maintenance issues in rooms.
Fortunately, the property is expected to close by summer to enable an “expedited” $50 million redevelopment. This is funded in part by Bill 36-0259, an amendment to the Hotel Development Act that lets developers keep hotel taxes to recoup investments of at least $25 million that expand room capacity by at least 25%. This has advanced out of committee but hasn’t yet passed.
The hotel, though, is still bookable at Marriott.com throughout the period. They’re still selling rooms, and the ink on the deal doesn’t actually appear final, so the status of the refresh while appearing more likely than when Marriott promised it four years ago is not yet confirmed.
The money for redevelopment comes from “a major international hotel chain with operations in Europe and Canada” though – Accor? – so it may not ever get reflagged as a Renaissance after all.
Still better than Little Saint James… *cough* (He’s all over The Files)
Who in there right mind would want to stay there ….
I’ve stayed at this property a few times – and the 1st one was by far the BEST and it was amazing. Granted, that was almost 20 years ago. Last time we stayed, it was semi-functional. Pool was usable, one of the restaurants was open – but it took some hurricane damage the season prior, so a handful of the duplexes had missing or torn screened porches, you could see mold on about 1/2 of the outdoor furnishings, and you could tell that about 1/2 of the duplexes were closed or not available for bookings; I think they were canabalizing them to keep the others in shape.
Our room was in good condition, though! Loved the outdoor lanai and huge bathroom. Bed was comfortable. No real complaints, but you could tell the resort needed some TLC.
Fast forward to just before Covid, and more hurricanes, and friends and I stopped by the resort to see how bad it was, and yeah – the pool looked aweful, restaurant wasn’t open. hot tub was closed (drained). Dive shop there had closed. lots of broken plastic beach chairs. More duplexes were closed off, missing furniture, etc. Looked like they maybe had only 7 or 8 functional duplexes.
(each duplex is a 2 floor unit with rooms on both levels, typically 4 per duplex)
St Croix has always been “off”. Even The Fred took a big dive in quality & service.
For tourism, St. Croix is one of the weakest destinations in the Caribbean. There are no true four-star or five-star hotels. Even the family-owned Buccaneer, often cited as the island’s best resort, feels tired and past its prime. Many of the people who move there to live do so because they can’t afford other Caribbean islands. There isn’t much of a local economy, poverty is widespread and crime is relatively high. The government as we saw with Epstein is at best incompetent and at worst corrupt.
Considering what airfare and hotels cost, travelers can find far better vacations elsewhere in the Caribbean.
St. Thomas is also overrated and noticeably rundown in many areas. St. John, by contrast, is wonderful. But overall, the U.S. Virgin Islands simply don’t compare with many other Caribbean destinations.
@Nick Thomas – The Buccaneer was tired and past its prime 15 years ago!
I can’t fathom why this hotel wasn’t just deflagged and kicked from Marriott.
Oh, right, what the CEO wants on his tombstone…
Nick Thomas with an excellent summary of St. Croix and St. Thomas. St. Thomas is okay but St. Croix is a dump. I can’t believe people vacation there.
Thank you thank you thank you
We had booked thinking we might hold our nose and just sleep there. The web pictures look great but reviews were … well. Kinda like your article. You helped us make up our minds. Thank you again!!
I had stayed there 2x but before the hurricane and Covid. Loved the resort and the property. The duplexes were so fun. But had heard lots of luv needed after the hurricane. Here to getting it all better soon
I have been there several times and always felt uneasy, unlike any other island with the possible exception of Haiti. There is a lot of poverty despite being a US Territory.
It seems that St Croix never actually recovered from the massacre of the four golfers at one of the local golf courses in the 70s.
It’s too bad because St Croix is actually a beautiful place.
Saint Croix is a beautiful place but unfortunately there are sections like many other places that are not up to par. Expensive yes and tourism is what keeps it going. We have vacationed there many times and have always found new things that we like to do. We are not fussy about accommodations as long as they are safe and clean, high end isn’t in our vocabulary, exploring and learning is. We always visit the Carambola but never stayed there. We love the area especially the beach. We were there last year and d the pool was open and clean, as was the restaurant . It’s just a shame what has happened before and to date what will happen. Hopefully for the better.
I’ve been bumming around the Caribbean for 40 years, probably visited at least 30 islands, and I love seeing posts like this along with the comments that accompany them. Why? It hopefully means you’ll all stay away!
We first visited Carambola in 2020. It was rough, FEMA had been using it for housing post-Maria, and it had only been returned to hotel use a few months before. The people of the island and the staff at the hotel were wonderful. We kept returning, more than a dozen times over the next few years and got to witness the renovations and upgrades. I was just there on property January 7th, and it looked nothing like your misleading picture. But yes, it’s closing at the end of May for a full rebuild and rumors say it will become an Accor brand. It’s one of the prettiest spots on the island; the final scene of the movie Trading Places was shot on that beach. The final scene of Shawshank was shot about 25 minutes SW of the resort at Sandy Point.
And FYI, I say all this as a Lifetime Titanium member; I’ve spent almost as many nights with Bill Marriott as my wife, well over 2000.
St. Croix is wonderful. The fact that it lacks big resorts and isn’t overrun with tourists is a feature, not a flaw. We love it so much that we bought a condo up the hill on the Golf Course about a year ago (yes, that one, the former Fountain Valley, now Carambola Golf Course).
Keep trashing it, it’ll keep folks away and preserve the paradise.
This place is an absolute DUMP. I stayed there in December and I can say this is the worst Marriott property I have ever stayed at. So disappointed. They don’t check their messages. I couldn’t get a late check out because nobody bothered to check. The pool is dirty. The walkways are all cracked up. The shower pressure is horrible. Air conditioner stopped working. Just an all around dump. They need to bulldoze the whole property and start all over again. And take those pictures down on the website because it looks nothing like any of the pictures. Never Again. Never. And before I got there I stayed at the Delta in Celebration Florida and that is the second worst property that I stayed at. Just unbelievable
St. Thomas is not a bad vacation place. Still has excellent shopping, great hotels and many amenities compared to boring St. Croix. Even St Kiits, Antigua and Anguilla have a far better tourist base than St. Croix. Antigua hosts up to 6 large. Cruise ships daily, ST. Croix can only accommodate 2. There are barely 5 decent resorts on the island and poverty is far more evident in St. Croix than ST. Thomas. Although ST. Thomas is more crowded its beaches are much better than ST. Croix and its a far more picturesque island.
because it is the only brand name and we strive to gain our brand name loyalty status, we only have stayed at Carambola every time we go to St. Croix. We have stayed there about 5 times, the first time was as a FEMA recovery worker, and I had assumed the hurricane was what had caused all the poor quality and poor service. But came back again and stayed there 4 more times and always the same, hit or.miss. a beautiful view and location is good because of view driving to the hotel and good only if you have a rental car. We always say we are going to try a different hotel but the others seem about the same, not that great for the price so we end up at Carambola using points and it has always been cheaper than the others. We have tried to reserve there recently for a vacation but they never have 4 nights in a row available and now I understand why this is.
I agree with Sosteel! Stay away from St Croix! I love the island and the Carambola!! We were there in February and the pictures in this article are completely FALSE! These are old pictures! Carambola is beautiful. The rooms we had were beautiful and up to date. The pool was perfect. Dive shop open and busy. Restaurants were excellent! I truly hate to hear that they are closing. I was hoping to go back in the coming year. Everyone on St Croix that we encountered were genuinely nice and polite! Some areas on St Croix seem a bit sketchy – but we have those areas where I live – so no surprise.
Stay away from St Croix!! We don’t want to ruin it’s magic!!
I’m confused? A private business ( Marriott corp.) massively mismanaging its property, expecting government handouts and charging a mint. And on top of it, people are dumping on the island? This is classic American thinking. Just suck the life out of something and dump it.
Governments, state governments should not be funding any of these private businesses.
Stayed there years ago. Loved it. Hurricane Maria hit that area hard. Resort never recovered.
St. Croix is fine for residents, but it’s really not a tourist destination. We’ve owned a home for 30 years and since the major hurricanes, it’s a shock that that ships still dock here. The recent military docking has probably helped a good bit. We love it and love the locals and the culture. Crucians may not be most welcoming (by comparison to other tourist islands) – nor are the expats/anglos that live here.