TL;DR: I am really disappointed by the way the reservations team has treated us so far, after an experience they acknowledged was unacceptable. Based on this experience as a whole, despite the kind and extremely hard-working existing staff, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a relaxing vacation that is worth their hard-earned money. The people who work the grounds at the Regent Grand are all wonderful. They are doing their best. But the hotel is terribly understaffed, and it shows in an experience that is not worth the cost. I wonder if it's a more recent problem, since I note that the last positive review was more than six months ago in June 2023. The most glaring problem with our stay was mechanical issues in our room (Room 503), which was about $3,000/night not including all the taxes and fees. For such a hefty price, a nice room isn't enough -- everything needs to be in good working condition and if it's not, it should be fixed immediately. But we had several issues in our room including a ceiling fan that did not work and a pretty major plumbing issue. The ceiling fan issue was never resolved our entire stay. It took a lot of hounding the staff, apologetically but with the knowledge that we had paid enough that we shouldn't be having to deal with this on vacation, to get the plumbing issue resolved, and it was only resolved on our last day there. Again, it is really the cost of this hotel that makes it so egregious that we had to deal with these issues and had to do so much work to get things fixed. Aside from those larger issues, there were a lot of small disappointments and things that again just didn't feel right for a place that is so expensive. It was almost always a long wait and again took many requests for even simple things like getting towels either in the pool or beach area or getting more water bottles (no other drinkable water available). People on the staff told us directly that the entire place was short-staffed and that was why it was so difficult to get anything done. But when you are charging guests SO much money, you absolutely need to hire enough people and pay them competitively enough that you can give people the experience you've promised and CHARGED FOR! We visited other hotels with comparable prices and they had double, triple, the amount of staff working. Privacy and peace may be part of the Regent Grand's whole deal but that is not an excuse for abandoning guests to fend for themselves amidst real room issues and the need for basic essentials like drinking water. Also, the hotel had a chance to redeem itself -- we made sure to raise the issues we were having several times with the front desk while we were there, but even though they were again trying their best, they basically kept telling us that the problems were due to short-staffing. When we said we should at least get some kind of refund or compensation for the lackluster experience, we were referred to the Reservations Manager. When I spoke to her on the phone the morning after we returned stateside, she gave a couple lukewarm explanations but acknowledged that what happened during our stay was unacceptable. She promised to get back to me the same day with information about being compensated for all the things we didn't receive during our stay. But I still haven't heard back from her. In a sensitive situation like this when people have paid so much money for an experience that was not worth it and at times felt honestly like a rip-off, it is a really bad look for the customer service managers to give people the run-around and string them along rather than being honest and taking accountability for problems caused by under-staffing. I am really disappointed by the way the reservations team has treated us so far and based on this experience as a whole, despite the kindhearted and HARD-working existing staff, I would not recommend this hotel to anyone, especially given the price point. I hope to hear back from the reservations team about what they are willing to offer guests whose experiences are not up to standard, to incentivize guests to keep returning and to recommend this hotel to others. If that happens I will be happy to be able to update this review to reflect the fact that the staff who are currently working here are lovely and, with appropriate support and compensation, could provide guests with a worthy, first-class stay. …
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.