My husband and I spent a week at Ku. It was our first visit to Anguilla. I am quite dismayed at the overly negative comments here. This is by no means a run down hotel. It is a mid-priced, very small property that shows wear and tear at the end of the season. Superficial repairs like door painting, fixing chipped tiles, etc must be done during the two month closure period. With only 28 rooms they cannot afford to take a room out of service to make this type of repair. The ocean breezes take their toll on beachfront properties.
Look at what you get: All the appliances were brand new; the stove was new and spotless. All the utensils were of a decent quality, twice daily houskeeping, including dishwashing! I washed my own dishes the first three days, because I always wash the dishes, until one of the front desk girls told me the housekeeper nomally does it. Fresh towels and beach towels twice daily too. The room was cleaned thoroughly every day including washing the floor with some sort of bleach.
The pool is beautiful, not that I ever went in it. With the beach at your door, why go to the pool? The bar was nice especially on Sunday
The restaurant has good to great food ( I do not like the outdoor resin chairs with the tablecloths though) with prices that are better than most of the upper end restaurants on the island.
There is complimentary internet, although there is only one computer. I only had to wait one morning for a few minutes before signing on.
The market has the usual sundries as well as some food products. Granted they are expensive, but typical of hotel convenience.
Lastly, Ku has a workout room with very nice, although limited equipment.
Considering the best room at Ku is one-third the price of the least expensive room at CJ or CuisinArt, I believe Ku is an excellent choice.
When cost is not an issue, a suite at any of the 4-5* properties would be a treat. But for the rest of us plain folk, KU is just great!
Staying on Shoal Bay East is awesome and Ku makes it doable.

I booked our vacation back in January through internet and website research....sometimes we prefer 3-star if it's on the nicest beach of an island. We love Jolly Beach in Antigua because of the location... It is similar to that except Ku isn't all-inclusive. You have to buy every meal and if you're familiar with Anguilla you know the cost of food on your trip can really add up. We knew this going in and didn't mind because we wanted to try several of the good restaurants on the island. It would have been nice if they would have provided continental breakfast to make it a little easier on guests though. They have a really convenient market on their property to buy a few food items and other necessities. The bar drinks are good, and the Kuyah restaurant is just so-so but they charge quite a bit for the quality of food I thought. Breakfast was pretty good and the red pepper snapper at dinner one night was good. We ate one breakfast and one dinner there.
You are paying for location when you stay at Ku...Shoal Bay East is truly STUNNING. People say it's busy but Anguilla is not busy. You can find your own spot on Shoal and it's a long stretch of bright white sand....there's a vast reef and calm water that goes on and on. We visited Mead's, Maunday's and Rendezvous and Shoal Bay East is the best by far. The only one that comes close is Mead's...it is so quiet there you can hear a pin drop. But it is small...with calm pretty water and white sand. But there is construction going on which is a bit of an eyesore....We actually cut our Ku stay short to stay at Cap Juluca on Maunday's for the last half of our trip. We wanted to experience another part of the island... super luxurious hotel but they're big on climate control so the room never got cool...we've stayed in places like that in the Carib. where the rooms are designed to allow the breeze to cool off the room. Except I LOVE a cold a.c. and I have to say Ku had an awesome a.c. in their room!!! The rooms at Ku were clean and neat, but everything is a little run-down. The employees at Ku were apathetic to pretty much everything. And no one was super friendly as we've experienced in some other places...but like I said you're pretty much paying for location at Ku. I agree with the other post about being angry if i had to pay high season prices at Ku. Overall we had a great vacation in Anguilla, and we might even stay at Ku again in the future. After experiencing the beach there I feel like I need to go back:)

I'm still undecided about Ku.

We went during high season, in January of this year, and thank goodness it wasn't for a special occasion. My fiance and I love the Caribbean and we are frequent travelers. When planning this trip, I was trying to find a hotel that was really nice yet affordable. I did know that Anguilla is an expensive place, but I stupidly assumed that expensive means knock your socks off.

I am definitely used to boutique hotels- they are usually smaller, not as updated, but more often than not there is something charming about them (ie a hip/modern ambiance, the decor , impeccable service, etc) that sets them apart.

I do not understand how Ku can market itself as a boutique hotel. If it were located somewhere like Daytona Beach or Sarasota, it would be fine. It is like any other beach motel you find in Florida. Other than being right on a mind-numbingly beautiful beach and having the talented and creative services of Myra the bartender, there is absolutely nothing special about this place.

Someone else who wrote a review hit it right on the nose- they need a facelift to make it worth the price they are charging.

We were on the 3rd floor of the unit that is next to the bar and closest to the ocean. Our room was comfortable and clean, but there was nothing remarkable about it. The kitchenette had old formica cabinets, the couch was an outdated whicker piece, the toiletries were something you'd find in a Motel 9, the shower stall was a plastic unit you would find in a trailer home, and the bed was just average.

I can't say enough kind words about the talented Myra the daytime bartender- I have never tasted such yummy and exotic combinations in a cocktail (she says it's the nutmeg that does the trick!).

If you are not expecting much from this hotel, and can go during off season, it would probably be a better experience for you.

Having said that, I have to clarify that my fiance didn't mind the place as much- he feels like paying a premium just for being right on the beach was fair and reasonable.

I liked Ku but i didn't love it..and if i had paid high season rates,I would have hated it.

We arrived a day late..THANKS,USAIR,but the reception staff was very gracious.

We were directed to one room but when our "bellman" entered it, it was OCCUPIED!! We hightailed it out very quickly but I kept thinking..Geez, someones else's room! They put us in another one..and then came back and told us we were supposed to be in yet another different room.
Not a huge deal, we were fine with it for $185.00 but for 450.00 a night, I would have been upset.

Our room was 125, third floor facing the pool ,restaurant and glorious Shoal Bay East. The room was quiet and mostly clean. Nothing specific to "pick on" ,just a general feeling of surface cleaning.
I think Ku wants to bill itself as a high end resort..and it could! But they'd have to spend some money to do it.

They would have to replace the plastic tiles with marble and get it professionally installed. They would have to make sure their appliances were sparkling clean and updated. They would have to spend a little more money on the minimalist decor and make certain that everything was of the highest quality.

The room was comfortable ,for the most part.The BED was VERY hard..but I slept through that..:)..The air conditioning worked..The shower drained..but there was a sort of shabby feel to the room.
We were not unhappy, again, for 185.00 a night . I would go up to as high as MAYBE 250.00..but more than that, it was not worth.

With Serenity for competition, I would step it up ,if I were Ku.