TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Esmeralda Resort and Westin Hotel

Can anyone give me their opinion of the Esmeralda Resort please.

Also, any update on the Westin property and when they plan on reopening, if at all.

Thank you.

We have a reservation at Esmeralda in 23 days but who is counting?

The work at Westin is so slow. Mostly in part that it is so difficult to get supplies to the island!! Wife worked for corp headquarters in Stanford CT. We loved it there!!!

We stayed at Esmeralda the first week in January. They have repaired all but one cottage, I believe. I don't know if you can request a certain room but ours was in the cottage furthest from the beach. Our room was outdated with a college sized refrigerator and the coffee maker that they advertise is merely a pot to heat water. Each cottage has 3 rooms with a small pool that is shared. You are able to enjoy free chairs at 3 different beach locations.
Breakfast is included with fruit, pastries, juices and coffee. Their restaurant, L'Astrobe, is located around a pool in the middle of the resort. We had dinner there which was delicious and the service was great.

I might consider staying there again if I could stay closer to the beach. It's fairly pricey so I would have to think hard about it.

David--Believe what you want about the Westin, but if they WANTED to get it repaired ASAP, they would.

Regarding Esmeralda, I know when Jim Ruos used to handle it, you could definitely request specific rooms. I assume you can do that when you make the reservation yourself.

It is not difficult at all to get supplies here. You order, you pay, you ship.

We have stayed there several times with almost all of the bookings done by Jim Ruos. He would usually get us a room in one of the units behind Astrolabe which we found to be quiet and more secluded. Also close to the beach.

We will probably book it again on our next trip. Hope that helps!

My information about getting supplies is from TWO major business owners . This is the information I have gathered!!! You can order anything, that doesn't mean it's going to arrive on time, or at all! Anyone had TSA go through your luggage to go shopping??? You don't think this happens on the docks too????

David--I recognize that on SXM, it's not like going around the corner to the local Home Depot, but there is something else altogether going on at the Westin. Not to mention the fact that we are now 2.5 years post Irma.

Correct. Kind of like with another t/s on the island, way behind others in getting back open and not all due to lack of supplies.

" Anyone had TSA go through your luggage to go shopping"
Happened to us.

Thank you

Didn't seem to have "supply" issues years ago when it was built.

I would think with after Irma there is a much larger drain on supplies than before and when it was build.

The other major problem was at the time of Irma, Starwood hotels was bought out by Marriott. Lots of unanswered questions about the property. IMHO. Had Starwood not sold, it would have been up and running to it's fullest!!

Yes, there continue to be a lot of rumors that the Westin will be re-branded and my feeling is that this is the reason why there is nothing going on there.

Many properties have rebuilt already and some are in the process of completing e.g. Royal Palm, Flamingo, Alegria (now Morgan), new Adonis, new Secrets on the French side just to name a few. Not sure accessibility to supplies can be a reason.

Don't believe that the Westin was actually owned by Starwood, so that's not really an excuse either.

It was a franchise hotel under the Starwood brand. Before the Marriott bought Starwood the portfolio of owned hotels worldwide was quite small and that was by design. The company was tasked with disposing all owned hotels as the new philopshy was there was more money in managing, leasing or franchising. I worked at corporate headquarters.