Worst of the Worst

I'm shining a spotlight on 2 hotels this issue, the Sands Ocean Club Resort & the Sand Dunes Resort Hotel, both in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

I have no doubt that these two hotels are fine, upstanding places. In fact, Sands Ocean Club is currently ranked #77 out of 212 area hotels over at tripadvisor, and Sand Dunes Resort is ranked #114 -- not bad, but not great, either.

We've currently received several bad reviews for both, so I thought I'd let you read for yourself!

Sands Ocean Club Resort reviews

Sand Dunes Resort Hotel reviews


I'll be out of town all next week -- many of my coworkers and I will be attending the Search Engine Strategies conference out in San Jose, California. We're looking forward to it!

See you next time...

Worst of the Worst

Hello, and welcome to another exciting installment of "Worst of the Worst". In today's episode, we hear from "Samantha", who had a bad experience with the timeshare sales folks over at Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa near Universal Orlando.

Absolutely UNACCEPTABLE Behavior!!!!
I DID NOT ACTUALLY STAY @ THE RESORT, HOWEVER, AFTER THERE UNACCEPTABLE TIMESHARE PRESENTATION I WILL NEVER, EVER, GO THERE AGAIN. THEY HAD ME DROP MY KIDS OFF(3, AGES 5,6,9) FOR "APROX. AN HOUR" WHICH TURNED INTO 3.5 HRS!!!AS SOON AS MY FRIEND AND I BEGAN SPEAKING W/ ALI(THE REP) WE ASSURED HIM WE WERE ONLY THERE FOR THE UNIVERSAL TICKETS AND NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING A TIMSHARE. HE SAID HE UNDERSTOOD BUT HE HAD TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS OR HE WOULD GET INTO TROUBLE. AFTER SHOWING US THE PICTURES AND EXPLAINING THE PROCESS WE GET ON A GOLF CART AND TRAVELED APROX. 1/4 MILE AWAY FROM WHERE WE BEGAN, HE SHOWED US THE CONDO, WE SAID IT WAS NICE...WE GO TO A DIFFERANT BUILDING AND WE BEGIN TO RUSH HIM BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SO LONG THAT MY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN AT THEIR DAYCARE-WHICH HE IGNORED!! HE BRINGS OUT A MGR. WHO CALLED US LIARS ABOUT VACATIONING AND ASKED IF WE SAID WE WERE INTERESTED IN PURCHASRING TO MAKE ALI FEEL GOOD, WHICH WE NEVER DID!!!WE STATED FROM THE BEGINING WE WERE NOT INTERESTED!!!SO AFTER BEING HORRIBLY RUDE, HE LEAVES AND ALI GETS KRISTIN TO HELP US, WHO WAS EVEN WORSE THAN THE OTHER TWO-SHE ACTUALLY THREW HER FOLDER AT ME AND SAID "YOU PEOPLE ARE MESSED UP!" WHY? YES, BECAUSE WE WERE NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING A TIMESHARE, IT DID NOT MATTER THAT THEY HAD KEPT ME AWAY FROM MY KIDS FOR OVER 3 HOURS OR THAT WE SAID NO VERY NICELY-REPEATEDLY, FROM THE VERY START, THEN THEY GET UP FROM THE TABLE AND LEAVE US THERE. WE HAD NO IDEA WHERE WE WERE, HOW TO GET BACK TO MY KIDS, OR EVEN WHERE THE PARKING LOT WAS!!! IT WAS HORRIBLE AND BY THE TIME WE FINALLY LEFT THERE THE TICKETS THAT WE STILL PAID 194.00 FOR WE HAD 3.5 HOURS LEFT TO SPEND AT UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!! WE HAVE CONTACTED THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND THIS PLACE IS UNDER INVESTIGATION NOT ONLY FOR MY COMPLAINT BUT FOR THE MANY SIMILIAR COMPLAINTS!! TAKE MY ADVICE, YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH A COMPANY THAT TREATS YOU AND ESPECIALLY YOUR CHILDREN THE WAY THESE PEOPLE TREATED US-WE LEFT IN TEARS! TO MAKE UP FOR OUR MISTREATMENT WE RECEIVED A PHONE CALL FROM THE COMPANY TO SAY THE EMPLOYEES HAD BEEN REPRIMANDED AND TO ME THAT'S NOT EVEN GOOD ENOUGH-THEY SHOULD BE FINED AND HAVE THEIR LICENSE WITHDRAWN!!

Yes, she wrote it all out in caps -- crazy, huh? Well, as someone said in reply, it just goes to show that there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Now, the last 4 reviews we've received for the Westgate have all been negative. In fact, the hotel is currently ranked #162 out of 289 properties in Orlando over at TripAdvisor. You've been warned.

See you next time!

Worst of the Worst

We get a lot of great reviews over at Resideo. Some positive, some negative, but all good in the sense that there's nothing like hearing about some else's first-hand experience with a hotel!

We received the following review of Poindexter Oceanfront Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC today, and I thought that highlighting some of the more noteworthy "This place stinks" reviews might help some folks make a more informed decision about where not to stay.

So, our first installment is from "Janice":

We Wont Be Back
We arrived to a room that obviously had not had the corners swept in a very long time.The best parts of the room were the view and the clean sheets.When we returned from our outing the next day,we had no clean towels, shampoo,soap,or coffe to use in the coffee pot in the morning. When we called the desk,we were told we had to ome downstairs if we wanted these things beause there was no one to bring them to us. Note: our room was on the 9th floor. The next day wasa repeat of this fiasco. The next day, I left a note on the mirror,which had not been cleaned ,requesting the articles that we would need that day. When we returned that evening, they had been left in the room,and the note was still on the mirror. During our 4 day stay our room was not vacuummed,floors were not swept, bathroom and mirrors were not cleaned. The balcony could not be used due to the amount of bird droppings. We looked for a piece of paper in the nightstand to leave a note for the management expressing our dissatisfaction. Instead, we found a piece of moldy pizza!! I guess that says a lot for the housekeeping. I bet that its still there!

You can view the original review right here.

So, whatcha think...is this a valuable feature for me to continue?