Marriott Frenchman's Reef - US Virgin Islands

A bottle of water, two candy bars and a soda. We placed our items on the counter and it appeared that the girl in front of us was in line, so we waited. The woman ringing people up was motionless and seemed like she didn't really want to be there.

She could tell that we were waiting to be rung up but obviously didn't care to tell us that this person wasn't buying anything. After about a minute, we realized the girl was only shopping so we moved our items to the other counter and proceeded to check out and exit the store.

In hindsight, I think I heard a faint "sir" as we were leaving but at the time it didn't click. Apparently I left one of the candy bars on the counter. I begin my write-up of the Frenchman's Reef Marriott Hotel with this story because it encapsulates the trip experience as a whole. The staff at this hotel continually makes half-hearted attempts at helping and in the end you're left with a disappointing feeling of something missing.

I'm not one of those tourists that try to pick a trip apart-I'm aware that there are a lot of "moving parts" that go into making a resort run smoothly. More often than not, a leisure traveler will encounter one or two negative experiences and I always try my best to not let the small things ruin a trip. Unfortunately, the Marriott Frenchman's Reef's negative aspects far outweighed the positive and I feel it important to share my experiences so others can make a more informed decision.

Like so many before us, we responded to an offer to visit the St. Thomas Frenchman's Reef Marriott hotel at a deep discount, in exchange for sitting through a 90-minute timeshare presentation for its adjacent property, Frenchman's Cove. We arrived at St. Thomas on-time and the taxi ride to the property (or at least, what we thought was the property) was quick.

Herein lays the first systemic problem. When we booked the trip, we were told that we would be staying at "Frenchman's Reef," and our confirmation sheet stated as such. Prior to departing, we also received a call and e-mail from a "personal Marriott concierge," whose e-mail signature read "Frenchman's Cove." Had we done enough research, we would have probably known to take the taxi to the hotel but there was no easy way to distinguish the two (not to mention we now had two sheets with two different property names on them). Needless to say, we were a bit confused when it came time to leave the taxi and we would soon find out that we were dropped off at the wrong location.

The awful staff interactions started early I'm afraid, as the staff member greeting guests at Frenchman's Cove was unable to tell by our paperwork if we were at the right place. I can assure you the last thing a road-weary traveler wants is to deal with inexperienced people, senseless trips lugging baggage through the wrong property (The Cove's lobby is on the 5^th floor), having to go back where you started, wait for a shuttle in blinding sun and heat, and start the whole process over. In cases like these, indifferent staff amplifies an already frustrating situation.

On average, more than half of the experiences we had with the Marriott Hotel staff members were not well. Sadly, the common thread among all of them was poor customer service training (in my opinion a simple, 1-week concept to train). Let me give two more examples and then I'll move on to the property itself along with our experience regarding the timeshare folks.

The first example (and lesson to Marriott), deals with waiting in line. People just want to be treated fairly. The sad truth is that most travelers are not fair to each other-they cut in line in airports and are otherwise rude to each other, especially when time is involved. The expectation is that once you arrive at a vacation destination, it should serve as a "fairness oasis."

Marriott's "Adventure Desk" is one place where there are a lot of "customers" and very few staff. This, combined with an extremely inefficient desk layout (folks can come from all sides, effectively creating four separate queues), means that the people manning the desk need to be diligent to make sure they're serving people in the order they arrived.

Surely the reader can see where this is going: cutting in line. Some people speak up right away when someone cuts, some don't, and some rely on the person "behind the booth" to have the wherewithal to not allow it to happen. My wife decided to go to the other side of the desk after the second person (who showed up after us) got help before us. Thirty minutes later when I pointed out to the Adventure Desk guy what happened, he didn't care one way or the other. Again, simple customer service-the smallest apology can go miles.

The second example is one I hope doesn't happen too often because it was inappropriate and downright scary. Housekeeping staff let themselves in after knocking a few times-everyone knows that (having "do not disturb" signs helps, and this hotel didn't have them). It's also no secret that a majority of hotel housekeeping staff (at least in the US), are immigrants from Latin America, many of whom do not speak English. I have the utmost respect for these folks because the compensation they receive cannot come close to the work they do.

It's for that reason that I rarely speak up about shortcomings with housekeeping staff; if anyone needs a break, it's these workers. However-one does not need to have a firm grasp of the English language to understand "no" and offer some general respect for privacy.

One day I was in the bathroom when our housekeeping arrived. She let herself into the room even after my wife shouted, "one minute." Then I heard her say, "no, my husband's in there. No, my husband is in the bathroom." I quickly locked the bathroom door and sure enough, a moment later the latch was being pulled. She repeated, "NO. My husband is in the bathroom," and it must have registered at that point. My wife and I found this shocking behavior.

Sadly I can come up with quite a few other bad experiences. I find it unfortunate for three reasons: 1) Rude, inexperienced, or poorly trained staff can tarnish an otherwise wonderful trip, 2) It leaves a bad impression on the quality of people the St. Thomas Marriott employs, providing a negative lead-in for the timeshare offers, and 3) The experience sheds a very poor light on the Marriott name in general.

Speaking purely on the hotel property, there are many nice things to say, and a few that are not-so-nice. First and foremost are the beaches. This hotel is pleasing to the eye. It is situated on a wonderfully clean, white sandy beach. Abutting this beach is a pool, seaside bar & grill (Coco Joe's), and tennis court. The lobby is also fully equipped with an island motif and everything one needs to feel like they are escaping reality for a few days.

The hotel's "Windows on the Harbor" restaurant offers spectacular harbor views, and despite the high prices (expect to pay no less than $50 for a breakfast/lunch/dinner for two), was one of our favorite places to eat.

Rounding off the list of "plusses" is the grounds and landscaping. It appeared to both of us that great care is taken to ensure that the greens are well maintained. Some parts of the hotel were undergoing construction but we didn't find it too much of a visual or auditory distraction.

It may seem petty or dim-witted to comment on the hotel elevator but it really needs mentioning. In short, it's broken. We were on the fourth floor and whether we wanted to go up or down, the elevator would almost always pass us by. I thought I had it figured out when I got it to open after continually tapping the button but it proved to be completely intermittent. It would take saintly patience to tolerate this for more than a week, let alone a day. Also, there is apparently no freight elevator in the building because we were always sharing space with the staff and their laundry or trash bins. This was more awkward than unpleasant.

The food while tasty was grossly overpriced. With taxi rides averaging $10-$20 per person each way, the hotel's guests are a bit of a captive audience, as any potential bargains found elsewhere will be offset by the cab fare. Even though there were adequate on-site restaurant options, it was difficult finding a bargain. The hotel gift and sundry shop was also on the pricy side, with bottled water averaging $2-$3 for a 16oz bottle, and candy bars going for $1.50 (US). Our suggestion: "slum it" with some cereal and milk from the gift shop a few days out of your trip; you'll probably save $50-$75 in the process.

Also worth noting: a Caribbean buffet is offered at Coco Joe's each Wednesday night with live music. Bring your appetite so you can justify the $70-$80 it will cost you and your spouse/friend/partner. I only learned about the buffet because I overheard the bartender mention it to some fellow guests-the little "activities bulletin" failed to mention it.

On Thursday, we had to meet with a Marriott rep for our obligatory timeshare presentation. This having been our first such present, I cannot offer much in the way of an objective opinion. I did find it interesting though to share some of my experiences with a coworker, a seasoned timeshare presentation attendee.

I used to be in sales many years ago. In a way, I like to think I had an advantage of being able to see through some of the pitch but these guys are good. We were quite impressed with the delivery and professionalism of our "guy." Perhaps I should back up - this is a "no pressure" presentation (or at least they tell you that, and you'll *feel* no pressure). What you get is an extremely believable, logical, passive aggressive sales pitch. You will leave there wanting to buy this timeshare, or at least be convinced that if you had the money, it would be a good investment. But one has to keep a cool head - who wants to sign up for a $20-$30k commitment without at least an attorney's review or researching the competition?

The ironic thing is that looking beyond all the shtick and "hot air," all of the points I thought were good, proved to be the same points my coworker was given each time he went on a presentation. I will probably have to go on more timeshare vacations to know if it truly was a good deal.

I don't want to leave readers thinking that we had a completely awful time; there were just some gaps in service that turned out to be particularly frustrating. I would not discourage people from booking a trip to the Marriott Frenchman's Reef-this is simply one experience out of countless. Hotel improvements wax and wane and I expect the staffing situation to only improve with time.

Even though I find it personally gratifying to communicate my experiences to the general public, I'd also like to stress the importance of not over-analyzing vacation options. You can spend weeks trying to weigh destinations based on thumbnail pictures and reviews such as mine online but in the end, a trip is what you make of it.