For a hotel that describes itself as "luxury," Elbow Beach was a huge and expensive disappointment. First, the rooms are extremely overpriced and are not well-kept. The "deluxe oceanview suite" was not a "suite" in any sense of the word. The bathroom had a single sink, a curtain shower/tub combo that was extremely claustrophic, and had the nice touch of yellow water/variable temperatures, and a running toilet. The air conditioning vent was constantly covered in condensation and the hallways were littered with old furniture. With that said, the view was wonderful and maybe that was worth the extra $150/night "upgrade" from the "standard room." Second, the service is not what you would expect from a "luxury" resort. You are nickle-and-dimed for every little thing (e.g., you have to pay to use their tennis courts even if you are a guest (and, as the tennis staff pointedly told us, if we didn't return the towels, we would be charged $10), a bottle of water at the beach costs $8, etc.). We were constantly left waiting at restaurants where we had reservations, and had to wait an addition hour (until 4:00) to check-in with no apology or attempt at accomodation. Third, the spa, which is absolutely gorgeous, is not exactly practical. Instead of having a locker room with a steam room/sauna, everyone gets a private suite, except unless you pay an additional (and substantial fee), you only get that "private suite" during the time you are paying for a massage, at which time your masseuse is waiting for you behind not-so-private windows. In other words, enjoying a relaxing shower or anything else that normally comes with a spa experience is not possible. Finally, the beach is gorgeous and the hotel does have a lot to offer (quite a few restaurants, nice tennis courts, etc.), but I imagine a fair amount of Bermuda resorts can boast the same. I love Bermuda and will likely return, but would never return to Elbow Beach.

The beach on the hotel was beautiful. The resturaunts were very good. The room...well the room is nothing to write home about...and thats putting it nicely. I'm usually not one to complain about hotels. I am one of those people who love traveling (even though I dont get to do much of it) and i am fine staying at any decent place. I will make this short and only tell you about a few of our problems. Firstly, the power went out on the floor I was on every single night. Secondly, it took 6 phone calls to get a cot into our room...they seemed to excpect four people to fit into a king sized bed even though we booked a room with two double beds (which they stated that we didn't). Thirdly, there was an unbelivably huge cocroach right outside of our room. We were unfortunatly not staying in the newly renovated rooms, which I'm hoping are alot nicer for your sake.

I don't normally write to the senior management of a hotel chain, but the quality of our room and of some of the wait staff was so atrocious that I felt that I needed to do so. Plus, the mother of the bride of the wedding that I attended received such abominable service from the hotel, to include providing the bride and groom with an ant-infested room and then moving them to an unrenovated room with stained carpeting and dingy furniture, forgetting to order the champagne, refusing at first to provide contracted services (and then only doing it after significant protests had been lodged). Accordingly, I felt compelled to suggest to the Mandarin Oriental's corporate management that they either divest themselves of this property, fire the on-site management or retrain the entire staff. Would I go there again? Not to this property, under this management.

Here's a sample of my experience at this property:

With regard to the quality of the accomodations, a catalogue of the condition of my room at checkin:

1. Stained carpet

2. Chipped furniture -- nightstand, desk, perhaps more; I stopped looking

3. Dirty walls

4. Duvet cover with ink marks on it

5. Moldy grout on the floor of the bathroom -- orange in color

6. Broken stopper in the bathtub -- the broken pieces were sitting on the side of the tub

7. Chipped bathtub

8. Inoperable climate control knob -- it had been stripped

9. Dirty safe

10. Sloping and dusty floor -- or perhaps it was just a very poor job of installing the carpet

Other guests at the wedding I attended also commented to me that they had received rooms with stained carpet, worn furniture and moldy curtains. Some even had cockroaches in their rooms and ants in their beds (the latter, as noted above, was experienced by the bride).

With regard to my interactions with the staff of the hotel, the vast majority were quite accomodating and helpful. This included the front desk staff, the concierge, the sales people in the on-site stores, and the wait staff at Mickey's and the Lido Cafe. Further, the food was outstanding and the beach quite breathtaking.

Unfortunately, some of the staff were notable by their rudeness and lack of commitment to serving their guests. This included the manager on duty when I arrived, who indicated that all the rooms in the main hotel were similar to mine and declined initially to provide the advertised small discount for inconveniencing guests who were in unrenovated rooms on floors undergoing renovation (as both I and my adult children were). It also included the wait staff in the Veranda on June 13, who looked visibly upset that my husband and I and our children wanted to have breakfast in the Veranda room and who subsequently failed to bring the breakfasts promptly -- we waited about 45 minutes -- and then when he brought the breakfasts, failed to bring my husband and daughter their full breakfasts but charged them for full breakfasts. (They had ordered eggs, which are supposed to come with sausage and bacon. They received the eggs, but not the sausage and bacon. I subsequently insisted on an adjustment in the bill, which the waiter made after scowling at me.) I would also note that some of the charges were different from those listed on my confirmation, a discrepancy that I resolved to my satisfaction ultimately but which never should have occurred.

My husband and I had to find last minute accomodations, so we booked through Cheaptickets. The hotel's "undesirable" rooms are contracted out to travel sites for booking. For the same price/night, we could have had a pool or bay view if we had booked directly with Elbow Beach Hotel.
The main hotel building is older, but the room was clean and air conditioned. The resort grounds are excellent: groomed walkways with lots of flowers, many delicious dining options including beachfront dining, and a superb beach service with complimentary towels, lounge chairs, table-and-umbrella stands on a private beach. Had a fabulous stay and will certainly return - except next time, we'll book with the hotel directly!