Marriot strand

I recently stayed at the Marriott Beach Resort Curaçao and, unfortunately, my experience was far from what one would expect from a 5-star establishment.

Service Orientation: Quite a few number of staff lacked motivation and seemed quite lazy. Requests were handled slowly. For example, when I asked for a late check-out, I received no feedback at all. No one was asking us helping with the bags, if you want to get towels (which are only available at one place although the resort is huge) you have to get the attention from the guy as he preferres playing with his smartphone. In a 5-star hotel, I expect prompt, courteous, and proactive service that ensures a seamless experience.

Breakfast was disappointing. There were long queues, and the staff were too lazy to clean the preferred tables. Items on the buffet sometimes ran out, and I had to ask multiple times before they were replenished. The space was too small to accommodate all guests comfortably.

Gym was too small and overcrowded in the mornings. Towels were sometimes missing, and the equipment was not well-maintained.

Overall, the resort did not meet my expectations, and I hope they address these issues to improve the guest experience. After my experience, in the areas mentioned above you sometimes rather have a 3-star all inclusive feeling than being in a 5 star resort.

At a 5-star hotel of an internationally recognized hotel chain, which charges more than $300 per night, I have certain expectations as a guest. Unfortunately, the Marriott Bonvoy did not meet these expectations in any way. At check-in, we were not asked if we wanted our luggage brought to the room. The gym is far too small for the number of hotel guests, some equipment was broken, and on 2 out of 4 days, there were no towels. After waiting for more than twenty minutes, a few were finally brought. At our first breakfast, we had to wait 20 minutes to be assigned a table, and the waiting time was in the blazing sun with no shade. The buffet was already quite depleted, and I had to ask several times for it to be replenished. The service staff did not think to do this on their own. The next day, we had to ask twice to be seated outside. The initial refusal was because no one wanted to clean the empty tables. Overall, the staff was very unmotivated; for example, I felt that when I fetched towels, it bothered the staff to take a short break from looking at their phones. However, there were some friendly staff members. The facility overall is outdated. Construction work is taking place, causing noise. All in all, for this price, it is far too overpriced.

The service was exceptional and the food was as well. We spent the day at the pool and beach taking photos and enjoying the warm weather. The staff was excellent and we enjoyed a pizza and nachos for lunch. This is a must visit resort in the future.

My family and I vacationed at the Curacao Marriott in July 2024. We had a wonderful time and met the most incredible staff! Precious at the front desk greeted us with her warm smile. Jamey and Joshua tended to meet our every need with a pleasant attitude. The bartenders at The Salty Iguana—John C. Gernie, Maurice, and Dylan—were entertaining and personable. They also served the best hamburgers. I can not say enough about the hotel, its cleanliness, location, incredible (adult) pool, and the people of Curacao. You made our stay a memorable one.

Denise

The good and the bad,
Good
1. The location is good and has plenty of beachfront.
2. The rooms are clean and modern.
3. The grounds are pretty well kept.
4. Staff is nice.
The Bad
1. The restaurants and bars are expensive, to the point where I didn't Dine here.
2. You can hear everything in your room, babies crying, people talking and doors slamming.
3. The ocean is rocky, I mean real rocky, you 100% need water shoes.
4. Upkeep could be slightly better.
5. The entertainment here might as well bit even exist.

My #1 complaint, the family pool, is not filtered during the day. By mid day, it is cloudy and disgusting.

While staying at this resort in early August, things were going well despite the small number of dining options. However, on my fourth night at the resort while eating at their beachfront restaurant "The Salty Iguana", I had a startling disgusting experience when I found a worm in my hamburger (that I had been actively eating). This carelessness from the kitchen staff was unacceptable and I found myself struggling to eat at the resort for the rest of my stay. I informed the waitress and then the manager of the restaurant who offered to comp my dinner however due to paying for the all inclusive meal plan nothing was done to rectify the situation.

The room was large with a very large bathroom. They do skimp on the towels and washcloths and a bit lower than standard Marriott. Two nice pools with plenty of seating and cabanas are free to use. Private beach is nice but is small. There are 3 places to eat on-site. The food was very good at C-Spice. The best part of the hotel is the main lobby area, especially in the evening. They sometimes had live music, and there is a constant breeze that blows throughout. They had these great swings for two. I personally would not recommend this location if you have small children or teens. It's very laid-back and for adults. You will want to rent a car if you want to go anywhere on the island. Taxis are expensive, and there's no Uber or Lyft.

Perfectly placed property accessible to many island adventures that Curacao has to offer. Rent a car through Hertz on site and go explore! Staff provided exceptional customer service…show kindness to receive kindness. Start a conversation and learn what to add on to your bucket list. Rooms were clean and spacious with plenty of storage. All restaurants had quality food and selections for a resort setting. Appreciated having shops on site for extra beach essentials. Nice beaches…wear aqua socks for all Curacao beaches. Coral is not cut out like Waikiki. Prices were standard and reasonable for this stellar blue paradise!

We experienced a rather unpleasant circumstance yesterday upon arriving at the hotel. The Assoc Director of F&B, Keisha handled the situation extremely well and I want to complement her.

The situation that arose at our arrival at your property, where one of your hotel guests who came in a large group, and who was drunk, made inappropriate and repeated conversations to my 12-year-old daughter. I immediately called security and had the individual identified and later they were relocated to a different part of the property.

I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I am and whoever agreed to let this tour operator bring such unruly and drunk party goers to a family resort such as the Marriott Curacao.

This is my daughter’s first experience out of the country. She happens to have Dutch heritage on her mother’s side, and I wanted to show her a beautiful island, wonderful resort property, and a beautiful city of Willemstad. That was put into jeopardy because your hotel made a decision to allow drunks to party without being reprimanded.

I am disappointed at your security staff for not taking more serious action earlier as you had received other complaints about these guests.

We also won’t be staying the extra two days as we prefer to depart on our previously scheduled plans.

I hope you have a good day. Thanks for allowing us to stay at your property.

We stayed at the Marriott Beach Resort during our first time on the island.

We utilized their all inclusive package, and thus spent a lot of time using hotel amenities, eating, and drinking at the resort over our 6 day stay.

The pools at the resort are amazing, especially the harmony pool. The foliage and trees create great natural shade, and really add to the atmosphere.

The beach is beautiful, but some portions of it are extremely rocky and tough to enter at. However- most of the beaches we visited were rocky, so I wouldn’t fault the resort for that. Once in, the water was crystal clear and there were quite a few fish to see! There were also plenty of chairs and space to lounge.

The food was good, not great, and while nothing particularly blew us away, it was all solid. Lack of really outstanding food options is one reason this isn’t a 5 star overall review.

That being said, the drinks and service were great. The bartenders at Tipsy Iguana (namely, John, Dylan, and Angelo) and servers as C-Spice really stood out to me as friendly, attentive, and a pleasure to be around.

I do wish that the bar and market were open later however. I believe a 9pm close time for the pool/beach bar is very early, and I think 11pm is a far more appropriate time to close, especially at a 24 hour pool.

The rooms were also pretty. Great aesthetics and big very nice bathroom. Our partial ocean view was great. It was also nice to have a fridge/cooler. However- I found the beds to be less comfy than I would have expected, and the AC seemed to have trouble keeping the room *cold* at night. I couldn’t help but find myself thinking that I would have been more comfortable in my own bed with my AC blasting at home.

Lastly, the location on the island was good. Only about 15 minutes from Willemstad, 45 minutes from the farthest west side beaches, 30 minutes from the dolphin academy, just close to most tourist attractions in general.

Overall- we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort. The service and staff were wonderful, rooms and food were good, and atmosphere and location were great. We would definitely stay here again, but might choose to not do all-inclusive so we can find more food options off resort.

Also: for what it’s worth, our flight got cancelled on the way home, and dozens of people were pushed to this resort while we waited for our new flight the next day. The hotel was very accommodating and did a great job handling this rush. Additionally, I couldn’t help but hear others talking about how the Marriott was much nicer than other resorts they had been staying at. I did not hear a single other passenger talk about being disappointed at this resort when comparing to wherever they were staying previously.