South Seas Resort

“Beautiful location, excellent facilities but let down by the service”

Firstly Captiva is a lovely island - beautiful beaches, relaxed atmosphere and awe inspiring sunsets. South Seas facilities are also excellent. There were multiple pools including two with water slides, a lazy river and plenty of seating. The beach areas were well tended with beds, umbrellas and to… more

Firstly Captiva is a lovely island - beautiful beaches, relaxed atmosphere and awe inspiring sunsets. South Seas facilities are also excellent. There were multiple pools including two with water slides, a lazy river and plenty of seating. The beach areas were well tended with beds, umbrellas and towels available. There are multiple restaurants, watersports and even a complimentary trolley bus to take you around the large resort (and shout out to the two trolley drivers who are super friendly and helpful). There is some ongoing development but this didn’t impact our stay. The apartment we had appeared recently renovated and was well equipped. Whilst the location and facilities were excellent, the service did let South Seas down. To give a couple of examples: - We arrived at 4pm and were told our room wasn’t ready and that check in wasn’t 4pm, it was “from 4pm”. When I enquired from 4 until when, I was met with a shrug. I was told someone would text me when my room was ready. I came back to reception at 5pm as I hadn’t received a text and was told the room was ready. I asked why I hadn’t received the promised text and was met with another shrug and told “that’s housekeeping’s responsibility”. Sometimes rooms aren’t ready on time - I get it - but just apologise rather than trying to make out that there isn’t an issue. - The housekeeping, as others have mentioned, is basically non existent. They only come every other day and then only empty the bins and replace the towels. There is no cleaning floors, bathrooms, kitchens or making beds. We stayed for 4 nights, house keeping came once and sheets weren’t changed at all during our stay. Given we paid nearly $1,000 a night including taxes/fees etc for a two bed apartment, I expected daily housekeeping to include a level of cleaning rather than just bin emptying & towel replacement. Finally some of the prices are extreme - you know that you are on a resort on an island so expect to pay more but in some cases it just felt like an attempt to profiteer. Finally, when I received our bill I noticed that one of the charges we’d made to our room had been changed - an additional 22% tip was added. Whilst only a dollar, this felt dishonest. I attempted to address this with management twice but didn’t get the promised call back. In summary, a lovely location and a resort with great facilities so if this is important to you (eg our kids loved the pools) then I’d say go for it and just try to minimise spend on resort by hitting the supermarket before coming across the causeway and eating out at the independent restaurants on Captiva or Sanibel. If service is important to you, try somewhere else!

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