Marriott's Monarch at Sea Pines

We were not told that they were under renovations and our unit was covered with scaffolding! We could not use our deck! It was miserable! They have a responsibility to warn vacationers about these things. Even thought we exchanged a vacation with RCI, we still should have been told!

We are Marriott Vacation point owners and visited the Marriott Monarch 3/24 -3/31/18 as Marriott Vacation Club owners. I received an email via Trip Advisor that the Monarch is renting villas available to the general public. Be aware, two of the four buildings are going through extensive renovations. Scaffolding is covering all floors of the exterior, sliders were blocked not to open more than 4 inches, patios were not open for use. We met several families, some elderly and some with children telling me the fumes from fresh paint and carpet were noxious in the renovated suites. In my opinion the new renovations were not ready to be leased out. Our villa was directly across from a reno-building (pic provided). Upon check in, we were so disappointed (and embarrassed about how we elevated Marriott Vacation Club to our friends with us). We were given the chance to tour a newly renovated room, with paint/carpet fumes and locked slider and decided to stick with the crappy view, but open slider and fresh ocean breeze. Word up: renovations are planned for the other 2 buildings next year! Staff was great and considerate and apologetic. The problem is the delay of renovations. Positives, ocean front and bikes comped. The reviews posted I believe are true. Photo below view from our deck.

My family and I have been staying at the Marriott Heritage Club, about two miles away on the other side of the island. The Heritage Club closes its lobby on its check-in day (Friday) at 5 p.m., which makes simply no sense, but that’s for another review. The Heritage Club requires check-ins at the Monarch on Friday nights. We drove to the Monarch on March 30, and upon check-in, were told that our keys would work at the Heritage Club, Monarch, and Harbour Club, and that we were welcome to use the facilities and activites at any of the properties. As Heritage Club has no beachfront access, but does have great views and parking near the harbor, we thought it was a nice way for Marriott to address the different features of its properties. This past week, we’ve had a wonderful time going between the properties, and enjoying the fantastic activities put on by the overworked Activities Coordinator, Ms. Karen, who is spread between three (!) separate properties. She has truly made it an enjoyable stay. However, today, our final day, we were at the Monarch and an employee from the Office of Loss Prevention walked up to every guest outside at the pools and asked them for their names and reservation dates. We let him know we were staying at the Heritage, and had been told we were allowed to use the facilities. He then informed us that this was not the case (despite the fact that all week we had been doing so and were told so upon check-in). I let him know that even the activities sheets we were provided noted that activities occur at different properties. He let us know that there was no such sharing agreement “for future reference” and then stood over us. I asked him if it meant we were being asked to leave and he indicated yes, and that the properties were separate and standalone, and didn’t have reciprocity agreements with one another. I am a Marriott Platinum Elite with lifetime Platinum status. I own timeshares with Marriott Vacation Club at multiple other properties. I am a Marriott shareholder as well. I have easily contributed over $7m in revenue to Marriott and its subsidiaries through the years through arranging for my teams to stay with Marriott. I have never felt more shamed due to a lack of communications on the part of Marriott. An outstanding vacation was ruined on the last day due to one employee who claimed he was just doing his job. Yes, the property is undergoing substantial renovation. But while that’s being undertaken, management at this property needs to undergo a serious re-training and renovation of its staff. The underappreciated staff aren’t getting the recognition they deserve. Those that literally threaten and escort guests from the property need to be dealt with – they are more of a risk for loss than any potential guest.

I booked a unit at Marriott Monarch last December. We own several other Marriott units elsewhere, so I used some of my "points" from those units for the Monarch unit. I reserved an oceanfront room, which requires the highest number of points. About a week before our scheduled arrival I started seeing bad reviews online based on construction there. I called Marriott several times to discuss the situation and ask to be placed at another Marriott property. They were unable to accommodate that request, and we already had travel plans in place for the trip. Three days before our departure date, I received a notice in the mail of the construction, and a telephone call offering to let me cancel my reservation and get my points refund it. However at that point, as previously mentioned, we already had travel plans in place. I asked about a discount on our points and was told they would not do that, even though our "ocean front" room had scaffolding in front of it, white plastic across the windows, and no access to our balcony, because "maintenance has to be done periodically to keep facilities updated". Units that required less points than ours had better views and usable balconies. The white plastic did come down after a couple days, but the scaffolding remained and the balcony remains closed off. We have been making the best of the situation and spending a lot of time outside,but what disappoints me most is Marriott's cavalier attitude. We have owned with them for approximately 25 years and expected more.

After a fantastic stay in 2017 here, I booked 8 months ahead for another stay this March. As renters, not owners, the hefty price tag of $479 per night seemed worth it after the absolute epic trip from spring 2017. We arrived to an explanation at the desk that we would be the first to stay in a newly renovated room, but that the patio would not be accessible due to scaffolding in place, which was a disappointment but I assumed we would be given a rate reduction or some other compensation. Once in the room, we encountered white plastic taped across all windows from the outside with no ability to see outdoors in our Oceanview room, significant problems with the master bathroom, and very strong paint smells coming from inside the room (and then outside the room when we tried to air out the room). We were interrupted by workmen asking to gain access to the room and were not accommodated when we requested that they stop the work in the room because of it's disruption. In fact, one worker turned on a drill and drowned out the sound of my voice while I asked him to hold off. We made multiple contacts with on-site management, customer care, the contractor, desk staff, and eventually upper level management. Over the course of several hours we were not able to gain answers to our requests to be rebooked on another property, booked into another room at the resort, or receive a refund and be left to find other accommodation. At one trip to the desk, I witnessed a contentious owner's meeting taking place in the lobby. Back at the room, I heard another guest who was irate and yelling at the contractor. Over time, were offered a stay at a Marriott property in the harbor, with no rate reduction there and the use of all the facilities at Monarch. However, we were not interested in a location that required a drive to the beach, lacked children's activities on-site, and we had lost faith in Marriott by the time the offer was made. When we were finally told we would receive a refund, there was no longer a similar beachfront property available for our 2 adults and 2 children for our intended stay duration (there had been a Hilton resort room available in the early afternoon when we first began to understand that we might not receive help from the Marriott management). On-site management and staff were appropriately apologetic and appeared to be working to the extent of their ability to help, with the exception of a front desk staff member who interrupted me several times to say that she did not think they could accommodate something that the previous night's staff had clearly agreed to. While we were not made to pay anything for our 22 hour stay, we were told multiple times by insulting customer care and upper management that we "should have known" and that "it was on the website". As we packed to leave, the fumes coming from outdoors were so strong that my children needed to leave and wait by the car, as my son developed a headache and nausea after a short time exposed. Aside from the refund, we were offered some additional points for our rewards program that equaled about $149 towards another Marriott stay. Construction was never mentioned in the 2 e-mails I received in the days leading up to our stay. Marriott ruined our one big vacation of the year. I think that had the responsiveness been quicker and less insulting, it could have been salvaged. So very sad that this location is tainted for us now. My daughter sobbed for a good part of our drive back north.

If your spring 2018 travel plans include the Marriott Monarch, consider other properties. According to management, a massive renovation project fell behind schedule this past winter. As a result, the room assigned to my family reeked of paint fumes. The plastic sheeting covering our oceanfront villa’s windows exacerbated this problem by preventing ventilation. The interior paint was not quite cured. A warm coffee mug stuck to the window sill on which I’d set it while marveling at the workers applying paint from 5-gallon pails to the building exterior from the balcony of our master bedroom. The commercial grade air ionizer the staff brought into our room did helped somewhat, but it was too loud to run continuously. A worker knocking at the door said that he needed to replace a chair as part of the Monarch’s remodel. His crew screwed the villa’s sliding glass doors shut over my wife’s objections. After less than 24 hours of what we’d intended to be a several-day spring break stay, my wife and I concluded that our family could not remain in the room. The Marriott staff was apologetic, but relatively unhelpful once we rejected the management’s offer to relocated our family to a lesser Marriott property with no beach front. After that, we spent the better part of a day haggling with the property manager, his supervisor, and his supervisor's supervisor. They asserted that we should’ve known there was construction. I contended that no reasonable person would believe that the air inside a room would be unfit to breathe. Marriott finally agreed to comp our one overnight, cancel the remainder of our reservation without penalty and give me 25,000 Marriott Rewards points (about a $150 value). My family was treated poorly. It seems that my wife, Kids and I were a hindrance to the work that literally was going on around us. Our vacation became a casualty of Marriott’s rehab.

Okay, based on previous reviews and being here now......there is construction going on. THANKFULLY, we are not in a building under construction. However, if we were I am sure we would not be happy. There are 2 buildings undergoing construction on site. I really do not understand how they place people in there because there is scaffolding all along the outside which is ridiculous looking, so I can only imagine what they are doing on the inside. In my opinion, based on what I see, nobody should be placed in those buildings. We are in a building without construction and is very clean. The furniture is a tad dated but in good condition. again, the unit is very clean and not lacking any basic things like silverware, pots, pans, etc. It is a slightly smaller than other Marriott's I have stayed at so keep that in mind. The staff is very friendly and there seems to be tons of activities for the guests, but we have not really participated in any so I can't speak of them. The property is right on the ocean. The grounds well-maintained. They have 2 pools, 1 heated and 1 not. The nonheated one has had leaves in it since we got here so that should be addressed. We had an issue with the 1 of TVs upon arrival and was handled pretty quickly and ended up being an error on our part, but the gentleman was very nice. I would come back here and to the area.

Our stay is VERY disappointing. Half of the building is under construction. Other buildings have scaffolding. Some guests are expected to stay in rooms without balconies! Tape, scaffolding and hazardous conditions prevent their use. There is nothing that tells you this. The expectation is that when you arrive that only the primary car can be on grounds. Any other car is expected to be placed over a mile away! We are in the “best” building and our guests have scaffolding outside the window! Either Marriott should close the hotel during this period OR give serious reductions in the rates. A lesser manager has given us a modest discount, but the general manager has never contacted us. I have to track her down today! Had I known these were the conditions at the hotel we would have reserved somewhere else! This is just out and out deception! I have stayed at this hotel before. It was lovely. My husband is a platinum elite member with Marriott, so we are loyal customers. We brought friends to share the experience and are truly disappointed by the conditions and the lack of hotel response. We drove 8 hours. Our friends flew a long way. We were actually told we were welcome to cancel our reservations and find somewhere else! Disgraceful!!

I was turned away from the gate because I had a kayak on my vehicle. No explanation. I thought the guard was kidding...but he was not. Sent a note to management for an explanation...no response. What is the specific reason this is not allowed? Aesthetics? Snobbery? Gouge for on-site rentals? All of the above?