Slow season let down

the caribbean is beautiful, there's no question. It wouldn't matter where you stayed, however, if that is important to you than maho is perfect for families. I wouldn't recommend it for couples or adults only. Go to the sister resort (great bay). The marketing spin on the planes flying over, is just that- a marketing spin so that you won't be annoyed by the noise. If you wouldn't want to live by an airport, then vacationing beside one is just the same. Fortunately, the planes stop flying around  [... read more]10pm but start up again around 6:30am. The resort is very nice. Most of the shops aren't open by maho but life is buzzing at the sister resort-great bay, but be careful of that too, cuz it's geared to the uniformed traveller. Know what you're buying cuz there's a lot of garbage out there being sold at top dollar. The staff is fantastic at Maho. I would highly recommend the resort on that point alone! Everyone is super friendly and truly are concerned about your stay on the island. The food was also excellent. Book all your excursions at the hotel. Don't do it on the flight (sunwing). I found that to be a rip-off. I booked two excursions and was supposed to receive a 10% discount on my second tour and didn't receive it. I was also supposed to get snorkelling included on my guided tour to St. Barts and didn't receive that either. But i digress. The picture at the left is also deceiving. There is only one pool. The long one shown in the picture isn't there, it's now a walkway. The pool is clean, but is closed more than it's open (the swim up bar). And they treat the pool at 10pm and it's recommended not to go swimming at that time. Again, this is very family oriented. The view that i had from my room was pretty lousy, but somebody has to stay on that side of the hotel i guess, but, i wouldn't pay the upgrade for a different view. I'm not spending a lot of time in my room, so it didn't matter much to me. Maho would be smart to utilize the back of the hotel for a roof top lounge complete with gardens. I think that would have been amazing and would give those with or without children a nice place to go to relax.

Downtime

We chose this location for downtime. We were not looking to be entertained. If you are looking for quiet time to kick back and soak up the sun this fits the bill. There was no nightly entertainment. The season hadn't wound up and most of the surrounding area was closed. The room had been refurbished and bed was super comfortable. The staff in the restaurants were attentive and went out of their way. We often asked for things not on the menu or that we had had from a different restaurant. It  [... read more]appeared with a smile. Not 5 star but would give 3.5 to 4.

Great resort

From the moment we arrived we were treated very very well. The resort is beatiful and clean, the food is very good, especially breakfast and the pizza. Pool area is nice to relax and lounge around, the beach is very nice and water is gorgeous. The ability to see the planes coming in is the highlight in my opinion, the noise isnt really a bother as they dont run early or late. Buffet dinners were always good with a lot of selection, bbq night was a hit. Directly outside the hotel are Restaurants, [... read more] shops, a grocery store, Tantra night club which is a good party place a lot of locals go there. Sky beach was the more fun of the two clubs though with its open air rooftop bar along with nice booths on sand with bottle service. Casino royale is directly across, as a casino regular I wasnt impressed though it was quite all the time and lacked atmosphere, black jack was also resort rules which limits your ability to win. Overall though its a great resort in a great location. Room Tip: Request a renovated premium room facing maho bay 6th floor or higher

Sonesta maho beach=Awesome Holiday

We booked another week through Jack Gentile and TripCentral for St. Maarten and what an amazing holiday. The service, food, rooms were amazing and of course the friendly Island lived up to it's name. We will be going back again and again!

Fantastic resort

This is my second time at Sonesta Maho and again just a fantastic resort. the staff very friendly,grounds well kept, great food and drinks and close to the airport. They are doing some updating and renovations but not a big issue.

Changed for the Worst

In August 2010 we stayed at this resort and we were more than satisfied. It seemed to be a nice in respectful age averaging around 35. Good music, good food, good vibe and a unbelievable view of the ocean and sunsets as we had told all of our friends and family. In September 2016 we returned to this resort only to be met with much disappointment. The view of the ocean is now obstructed by another hotel that has been built since, plopped right down in the middle of the property blocking any su [... read more]nset which may have existed. The food and restaurant choices have changed and have now become bland and more like a chore just to sustain. Most of all though, visibly, the mature, professional clientele has been replaced by a new wave of late teens and early 20 year old's that have absolutely no respect for anyone else vacationing other than themselves as you could hear them screaming in the hallways at 3am and yahooing around the pool all day. In fact this appears to be supported by the management as all day and night the heavy base around the pool area was none other than a rap type yo, yo, yo style of music. Maybe I'm getting old, I'm 45. Also, to our surprise but in the end not really, just the icing on the cake the hotel was under heavy, heavy construction. There were concrete saws and drills running all day everyday including Sunday. The Sonesta Maho is adding an additional building on the property and has gutted the entire 9th floor of the existing hotel including windows and balconies and this will be going on for some time. In fact, we were so disappointed and upset that we were unable to disconnect from the big city in which we live in, that we left the resort for 3 days and stayed at the Westin Hotel which clearly has maintained the respect of the clientele as to maturity and professionalism. I guess the price of the Westin is indicative of that. Unfortunately we had to return to the chaos at the Sonesta Maho for the last night before our flight home only to call hotel security at 4am as some cream of the crop couple were blaring their music in their hotel room which you could hear all the way down the hall. We would go back to St. Maarten for a vacation in a heartbeat but wouldn't go back to the Sonesta Maho if it was free.

Good Value

The Sonesta Maho Beach is a good value. We have certainly been to higher end resorts but like anything in life you pay for what you get. The resort grounds, rooms and staff were are well worth the money. The food was for the most part good. The stone oven pizza was fantastic. You can't beat cold cans of Heineken versus warm draft beer. Try and get to The Point restaurant as it was by far the best place to dine. You couldn't ask for a better location as everything you needed was simply steps [... read more] away. As always the island itself is really fantastic and for those of you who have not been there you should make the trip.

Average Hotel

I had this trip from 04-12 Aug 2016, we had 2 rooms for 3 adults and 1 kid located at 7 floor. We arrived at 3 P.M and there was Champagne upon our arrival from the hotel but things was not organized because there were more than 70 people waiting for check in and there was a mess in the lobby, no one knows where should go, what is next, where to line up. Staff were so slow, not willing to work, you spent 35 minutes even though it is your turn for check in. The next day I complained to the front  [... read more]desk manager about this and he seemed he know this efficiency issue, he just smiled. Normally spending an hour for checking in was unacceptable, after that the staff told me that both rooms would not be ready until 4 P.M, then I had a question, why people check out at 11 A.M and rooms still not available until 4:30 P.M ? At night there were disco and club at the street close to the hotel, it won't be quiet and calm until 4 A.M in the morning so the first day was a disaster. Again the same situation happened in the dining room, we had been waiting for server to order drinks but no one cares, some of them pretended not seeing you waved to them. You asked for toothpick after dinner and they will pointed to the location so that you can get it by your own, very poor services. Staff seemed to work in a very unhappy environment. Despite of poor services, the food was so delicious and quality picked material, you will have fish everyday and night in your buffet, steak and lamb stew were also tried in this trip as well. Menu were changed every single meal from lunch to dinner everyday. If you got tire of buffet you can also go to the Ascot Bar and Grill for their steak and fish, also thumb up !! Beach was wavy there everyday as I noticed but it did not bother me much because I was excited in taking photograph of airplane landing and takeoff day after days. My wife and my daughter traveled to Philipsburg by bus for shopping, swimming and water activities. It cost only 2 U.S for person in each trip compare to 20 U.S for taxi, you can catch buses right in front of the street from the hotel. Special thanks to the front desk manager Kevin and Shaquille, they were really helpful to us, conclusively this hotel was not as great as it advertised but honestly the food was so great and above the other local restaurant, no matter appetizer, main course and dessert were well made to the order flawlessly. I will ell my friend about this hotel despite of some bad services.

Aside from the airport, nothing special

Having visited many resorts in the Caribbean, this was the least friendly hotel I have ever stayed it. Prominent Norwalk virus (27/30 in our group affected). Could not self serve at buffet, staff did it for you and were very unpleasant doing so. Beach very short, little seating, planes were awesome though! 5 min drive from airport was a plus

We all got sick…

On the surface, everything looked beautiful until one my one we all got the Norwalk virus. 20 out for 32 people who were there for a wedding got ill. Unfortunately that put a big damper on the wedding fun.

Was a decent resort

Very clean hotel and we'll situated .hotel.can be a bit confusing at first . Rooms are nice and food is decent . Beach is a little small better to go to mullet Bay down the street .not a wide range of entertainment but the staff is great

Great Resort, Fabulous Island

This is our second time to the Sonesta Maho and would definetly visit again, but not in May....seems to be the rainy season. The grounds were beautifully kept, the lobby was always clean and nice and cool, our room (5th floor pool view) was great.....comfortable bed, lots of pillows, nice little balcony, and was kept very clean. The food was usually pretty good at the Restaurants on the resort. We did come across remnants of the norovirus and my husband got the bug. 24 hours later it was done an [... read more]d he was back to his old self.....the staff and management at the resort did everything they could to try to stop the spread of the virus, I was very impressed! There is hand sanitizer everywhere around the resort as well as they checked in on us regularily to make sure all was well and to see if we needed anything! Koodos to you all!! The ocean at the Maho was great! The location is great and lots of activities right outside the front door of the Maho and only approx. 20 minutes to Phillipsburg. We also rented a jeep and toured the beaches on the island.....beautiful beaches everywhere!! The people on the island are super! They all move one speed (lol) island time, but they are very nice and usually had smiles. You never went hungry or thirsty! Next time we go it may be for 2 weeks as there is so many things to do and see on the island. Fabulous resort ( better than the Sonesta great bay) Thank you to all for helping make our vacarion GREAT!

Very disappointed

I stayed at the Sonesta Maho for a wedding of a girlfriend of mine and she had 18 guests there for the week. We were never told by the resort upon our arrival that the Norwalk virus was running through the hotel guests throughout the resort. We only discovered it through other guests that explained why they were serving food rather than having a buffet. Needless to say 16 of the 18 guests of the wedding party got very sick including 2 babies. Not only did we have to deal with that but also the s [... read more]taff were very unhappy and not very helpful. We felt half the time we were putting them out if we asked for anything at all. The island itself was beautiful and the weather was awesome, but I would not stay at the Sonesta Maho again nor would I recommend. They handled the whole Norwalk virus very, very poorly.

Dated Resort

I found the overall resort to be dated. The rooms were very clean which was nice and the housekeeping staff was great. The restaurant and bar staff seemed to be slow and overall displeased with being at the resort. It often seemed they served whatever drink they wanted regardless of what was ordered. It took a long time to get service typically including silverware to eat, coffee and water, as well as other drink orders. The overall quality of the food seemed subpar and repetitive. The resort ha [... read more]d a virus going around which we were warned of during check in, and 75% of our wedding group ended up sick including people when they returned home. I was sick for 4 of 7 nights, despite regular hand washing and hand sanitizer. We also attended the Nexus excursion presentation as requested at check-in and waited for 10 minutes without anyone from Nexus ever showing up.

Choose somewhere else

The grounds were beautifully kept however construction was happening near the pool so you heard equipment. The staff was more unfriendly than friendly and the Norwalk virus was present but no one really mentioned that and 30 people out of our 36 on our trip got sick. Food was ok

Could be a great resort but most people got sick.

Grounds are well kept, maids do a great job, most of the staff is friendly and helpful, food is ok, pool and bar service is very good but half of everyone there suffered one or two days with an intestinal virus. We had a group of 12, 6 of us got sick on different days, just enough to put a damper on the trip.

Don't go here

The entire resort was contaminated with nirovirus. Our whole group of six became extremely ill. The staff were unfriendly and uninformed. The buffet was not self serve therefore it was very inconvient meals that should have taken mins took forever

Sonesta Maho Beach

Beautiful island. The resort was good. Nothing too fancy but nothing bad either. I would stay there again. The hotel itself could use some work and make sure to get an ocean view. The island view is terrible (view of industrial workings of the hotel).

Disappointed

couple things driving my decision not to return, fortunately both are fixable. We were at the back of the hotel, when we booked we didn't think this would be an issue.However when we arrived the smell ,noise and sight was unacceptable.This was discussed with the front desk and the Sunwing rep with no resolution... not surprised as there were many others complaining of the same issues. Furthermore on departure at the airport I was astonished at the amount of folks there talking and discussing wit [... read more]h other passengers that they would never return. this issue could be corrected by enclosing the water treatment and updating the fans and exhausting away from the hotel, cost a few $ but would drive the complaints down considerably = return costumers! The other issue was the attitude of the staff ( again overheard by many others). to be fair not all staff, the chap handing out towels and the buffet staff were all cordial enough. The chap on the beach clearing is not happy to be there, miserable and made us feel as if we were a nuisance . Also the bar staff, again it was as if we were a bother to them... if the manager were to watch them from a distance, notice how often they have their back to the counter, not very welcoming. This could also be corrected , there are many courses available on people skills and dealing with customers. I'm not sure that this will go anywhere , however with the number of people I heard complaining and thinking the same way as myself from nothing more than a business mentality it should be forwarded to the manager. regards John Vanderhorst

Beware of false advertising

We received excellent service from April, Hamilton Trip Central however upon arriving at the resort we had a room with a view of a dirty roof and air conditioning units, 30 ft. neon lights and a 4am nightclub. It took two days of our vacation to move rooms, with the assistance of Trip Central. I posted a complete review on Trip Advisor also with the heading, "Beware of False Advertising".