Carambola stay This place was fantastic! Great views! I highly suggest the sea view suite. Very clean and the staff were super friendly! It’s secluded on the north end. They even have a gate guard. This gave us a sense of safety. The food was always hot and fresh and the drinks..let’s talk about the drinks! They loaded you up well. My favorite part was the pool. Never crowded and very clean! It’s a must stay kind of place!

Remote paradise This was my 4th time visiting St. Croix And my third time staying at the Renaissance Carambola. The property is beautiful and the staff are so friendly and helpful. It’s a little piece of heaven on earth. I loved my stay here and will definitely stay again when I return!

Absolutely DISGUSTING We chose this property based on it being a Marriott property. All I can say is Marriott better jump ship quickly. The location is prime, but the place is a DISASTER. We checked in and found the provided toiletries were half-used and dirty. There was a washcloth hanging from the fire sprinkler in the bathroom. There was only one clean washcloth for use. I used this to wipe the counter in the bathroom, only to find that it was dirty and covered with hair. Just outside of our room was a large bag of trash that was being ransacked by a family of mongoose. We went to the office to let them know of the issues and then decided to go to the pool. We couldn't find anyone to get towels from; we had to go back to the front office to get those. The pool...I can't believe we actually got in that evening, but it had been such a long day of travel and we were exhausted. It was so cloudy, we couldn't see our feet in the 3 foot water. I wouldn't have put my face in that water if you paid me. When we went back to the room, the trash was still there, only spread all out by the rodents. It took reporting the trash to THREE different people to finally get it removed. Then it rained. We stepped out of our room into 1.5 inches of standing water at our doorstep. My husband went by the office and asked if someone could possibly squeegee the water away from our door. When we returned later that afternoon, there was a squeegee propped up next to our door and the standing water. Thank you, wonderful staff, for providing us the tools to do your job. The "restaurant" was a joke. Those poor people had no idea what they were doing behind the bar. Everyone was running around crazy and nothing was getting done. Breakfast? $24 per person for what would be a continental breakfast at a Residence Inn, plus someone to make an omelet. You have got to be kidding me. EVERY SINGLE PERSON we talked to on the island said they hear every day how awful this place is. We were supposed to stay 6 nights. We left after 3 (which was us trying to be positive and think it would get better). Never again, Carambola; you are a disgrace.

DO NOT STAY. This was by far the worst experience I’ve EVER had in a hotel, and I’ve traveled the world. This was an absolute disaster. I opted for early check in (at 2pm) as our flight landed at 1:30. We went to the desk and were told our room was not ready. We were required to pay without having access to the room where we were surprised by an additional $250 in charges that we were told were $50/day in incidentals. We did not actually get into our room until 6pm. When we did, the door was totally open. When we walked in we were FLOORED. It was atrocious. (I will attach pictures of the room we were supposed to get vs. what we got). The room was filthy. The couch in the room was not just worn, but revolting. There is one restaurant on the resort and it has 14 (literally) items on the menu. Ranging from $15-25. The drinks were 12oz drinks for $14. The service itself was horrible and took well over half an hour to get only drinks and almost an hour wait for anything food related. (Although, we did encounter Katharina and another female waitress who were beyond nice and helpful! Even for recommendations off the resort!) The private beach was beautiful but had 8 whole beach chairs. We attempted a visit to the pool and what we thought was a dated pool with clear water turned out to be absolutely atrocious. We got in only to realize we couldn’t see our feet when standing in the 4 foot section. I’d like to say the hot tub was better, but naturally it wasn’t, as everything else on the island, it’s been “broken since hurricane Maria, back in 2017”. We were told we could only have 2 towels at the pool in exchange for the towel card that was given to us at check in (that we were not given.) Among the pool towel issue, there were 3 of us in our room (that held 4) and we were only allowed two towels. Since there were three of us in our room, we did ask for additional bedding and towels on our first day, we still do not have them and it is day 5. The two towels and wash cloths that were in the room were all different shades of bleached “white” and stained horribly. There was another guests razor in the shower when we arrived. We have gone to the office multiple times and called endlessly where we literally get hung up on. The king size bed that 3 of us have had to share (since we refused to even go near the pull out couch nor did we have the option as we were given no bedding for it), was spring and older than I am. It was terrible. We have all woken up with back and hip pain. (We did look for other rooms on the island, as well as a refund, to no avail. There was nothing available on the island.) We received absolutely NO housekeeping services during the entire stay. The remote control to the TV did not work and was held together by tape, and the room phone was in pieces and did not work. At one point, we had walked back into our room to find urine in our toilet. Astonished, we called down to the office, when we did get an answer we were infuriated to find that the woman “could not tell us if someone had gone into our room while we were gone.” At multiple points during our stay, the key cards did not work to let us in, which required us hiking back to the front desk to get them rekeyed. Conveniently, we found a staff member while we waited on the desk to rekey and she let us into our room. (Although nice, she did nothing to verify our identity or belonging to the room and let us in without question.) On day 5 of our trip it started to rain, which wouldn’t have been a problem if it was just outside, but as you can guess it was not. The rain was POURING in from our door (which also did not have a hotel lock to lock from the inside.) As a product of having no linens, we had nothing to mop the water that went clear across the room. We have called the office 3x today in hopes to get additional linen to mop the water with and have had no luck. Once we did find someone in a golf cart and requested extra towels for the floor, the man brought one. (This single towel, took over 10 hours to receive.) As if moping rain water off the floor wasn’t enough moping, the shower did not seal and puddled the entire bathroom floor. This stay has been absolutely disgusting, tragic, and put a horrific taste in our mouth of this “resort”, the Marriott, and the island. Quick addition: while typing this, a man just walked into our room unannounced, without knocking, to deliver 3 more towels. (Also notable, the resort did not have their own taxi service. In order to get a taxi, it had to be called into the office 2+ hours in advance. And the service was a minimum of $60 round trip for 3 people. $45 one way from the airport.)

Where do I begin.... I should have known this vacation would go left at this hotel when the reviews of other guests were the worse. But I wanted to give carambola marriot the benefit of the doubt because I absolutely loved this place, yes past tense. My husband and I have been coming here pretty much every year, for the past 7 years, with the exception of 1, after hurricane Maria. And by far this was our worst experience thus far. I didnt get my room until 6:15 pm If it weren't for Lissete at the pool/Beach bar this vacation would have started off the worst. I used to really, really, really love this place. I get it, it's a pandemic but come on....in August 2020 it was decent for a pandemic. But 2021 no bueno.. This was day 1 let's see how day 2 goes.....hopefully it will turn out better. Keep you posted...