Marriott's Aruba Surf Club

If you want ocean chairs not the hotel for you unless you’re young and a computer whiz. If you want hotel employees that are hospitable this is not the hotel for you.It is impossible to reserve beach palapas even those with a glimmer of the ocean. The techies know how to get on early and get the close palapas while you are watching the spinning icon because there are too many guests trying to log on. Then you go to the hut for a cancellation waiting 40 minutes when a person shows up late and gets a 100 row palapa that you thought you would be getting because you were first in line. When you point out the unfairness you get rude passive aggressive responses equivalent to the middle finger. Poor training by marriott and judgement allowing this employee to interact with its guest. I suspect something else happened for this guest to get this preferential treatment but I have no proof. Last time i will come to this hotel don t need hostility,aggravation and rudeness on vacation. Atleast at work i get paid for dealing with rude people not paying $1000.00 for the mistreatment. I was invited to a sale s pitch with all kinds of bennies—not in a million years If you want a stress free hotel stay avoid this place As a long time marriott owner I have other options which will not involve the Surf club

Owners for 20 years. Fun place

I wanted to love this place. There were 4 of us. My kids are 20 & 18. We got there on Jan 2nd. When we arrived we all thought: oh no, what did we get ourselves into? It was PACKED! So many little kids everywhere. Thankfully, by, the 4th most of the people checked out. The crowd was definitely more manageable after that. The good: The property is beautiful. The room we had was a 1 bedroom in the Lighthouse tower. Having a kitchen was great and the whole place was really nice. The view off the balcony was beautiful (the ocean and pool area). The other Marriott properties were nice as well and we walked to all of them. The food at the pool was good. If you have an umbrella/palapa, you scan QR code and can order food to be deliver to you. Marketplace was great for coffee, sandwiches and snacks. We got text messages about our stay and they were quick to respond to any request. The bad (our personal preference): the beach/water is way overcrowded. The boats come right up onto shore for water activities and it doesn’t look like there is a lot of safety involved (Heard a boy had a leg amputated around Christmastime after getting off tube ride). We were able to get a palapa the night before we needed it but was Very stressful process, felt like I was buying concert tickets. They are also so close together. The pool area is very loud with all the activities(great for kids not for someone who wants quiet). In order to get a pool chair, you need to be down there before 7 to put your chair tags on. From 7-9, you can leave them empty but then someone needs to be there. We got down at 6:50 and we got the last 4. We probably should have stayed at the Ocean Club but I didn’t know that at time of booking. Surf Club would have been great for us 10 yrs ago.

Very safe clean & enjoyable property

Unpopular opinion. Not a fan of the Marriott surf club. We were told there was room service, we could use the pools (and beaches) at all 3 resorts which was false. Then today, our check out day was a complete nightmare. We requested noon check out (typically 10a) and were granted this request last night so we planned our morning with that promise. Housekeeping started knocking on our doors just after 9a 3x and then got a phone call demanding we vacate our room. We stated we were granted late check out the night before. The operator was not only incredibly rude but refused to honor what we were told last night. My husband and I along with our two children had to scramble to pack and leave at 1030a. It was THE WORST customer service experience of my life! We travel A LOT and will never recommend this resort to anyone. I will be contacting Marriott Corp about this complaint. We are not looking for any kind of refund or compensation but I will post reviews about our experience and stated as such to staff onsite. Good riddance Marriott Surf Club.

Not what expected