This resort is best for families who want to visit a new place and not break the bank. The resort is clean and the pool is perfect for the kids. The rooms are clean, but the beds are hard. If you like a soft bed you might have a tough time. I found rum helped. :)

The food was surprisingly good. I read the reviews and some people hated the food. I'm not sure how that was possible, but to each their own. We ate at two of the specialty restuarants, the Japanese and the Jamaican. We enjoyed trying new things and stepping outside of our comfort zone. The Jerk Hut did not disappoint and we loved eating there. The Barefoot Grill was perfect for lunch by the pool. My son enjoyed being able to go get a burger and fries whenever he was hungry. It made lunch so easy!

I found the staff to be nice and helpful. As I got to know some of the people who worked there and after talking to tour guides it gives you a new respect for the people and how hard they work. What I found appalling was the way they were treated by the guests. I'm pretty sure that if I worked there I wouldn't always have a smile on my face after being treated so poorly every day! We said hello to every worker at the hotel, smiled, and guess what we were given the same in return. A gardener on our last day he was so sorry to see us go. I was actually embarrassed at one point listening to people be so rude to the waitress. As I left the manager asked how we were and I promptly stuck up for the poor waitress.

As other reviews have said this is not the Hilton, it is not a 5 star resort, it is a Holiday Inn. If you could afford the Hilton or a 5 star resort then go there. If not, be polite and be respectful and enjoy your vacation. You are on vacation by the way. You could be at home working and not be laying by the pool with a rum drink in your hand.

Attempted to check in with a party of four - two occupants in each room, rooms booked together and nearby through a third party agency. When attempting to check in past the check-in time, only one of the rooms is available, with no explanation or apology offered on why the other room isn't ready (we were later told they had a late checkout). We had to wait a few hours for our room. When we did get our room, it was on another part of the resort, away from our accompanying party. We were told our room would be moved the next day. This never happened. Every time we talked to the person working the front desk, we were told they'd take care of it. They failed on every level even to do the most basic of investigating to find out of our party could get the rooms as booked within the 24 hours we stayed. Eventually, we talked to our travel agency rep who was on-site, who contacted the same front desk manager numerous times - again, not obtaining any type of response from the front desk manager even after being told the issue would be take care of.

During that night, we realized neither of our rooms had hot water, except after running the water for 30 minutes. The wi-fi, which was to be free with our oceanfront upgrade, didn't work in either room. The next morning, the power would go our for five minutes here, ten minutes there, which obviously shut off the phone and A/C. However, when the power would eventually be restored, both the phone and A/C unit would need a maintenance worker to reset it in order to work. Judging by the service we had already received, I'd doubt you'd get any type of service in this area.

Eventually, we asked our travel agency representative to be moved to a different hotel - simply because the non-existent service we received this far. The front desk manager simply failed to do anything to address our situation and deliver us our reservations as booked, in addition to telling us many times that it would be taken care of.

The setup of the hotel also leads to a major problem - most rooms in building 1, building 2, and building 3 are impossible to get any type of rest. The main pool, located between building 1 and building 2, houses a massive sound system that has DJs and activity coordinators shouting through the entire day and most of the night. So, if you're in any of those locations, especially building 2 or building 3 in an oceanfront room, you won't be able to rest until well after midnight.

In all fairness, the rooms and buildings are clean. The showers and sinks were fresh with no dirt or mold and sheets, bedding and towels were all newer, despite the hotel looking a bit 'dated' at first. The bar service is decent as well. The food served was average (at least the buffets we tried - you can't book any of the restaurants within 24-hour advanced notice, so you're stuck with the buffet your first and perhaps second day after arrival).

My wife and I decided to take a last minute trip somewhere for Valentines day weekend (F, S, S M). As an employee of a major airline our decision was based purely on what flights had open seats allowing us to fly standby. Montego Bay was one of the cities that had enough open seats and the Holiday Inn Sunspree had rooms available so this is where we went.

We arrived in MOBAY mid afternoon and proceeded to HI via taxi for $30usd. The trip from the airport to HI took about 15mins. We arrived before the 3pm checkin time but we were given a room in bldg 5 as we asked for. The room is what I would describe as a typical hotel room. Nothing fancy but nothing to complain about either. We were in room 5305 which is closer to the adult pool and beach, which is exactly what we wanted. This room is on the third floor and closer to the street side of the property than the beach. We had a pretty good view of the beach from the balcony. Some have said these rooms are to far from the main pool and restaurants, but we didn't find that to be the case. 2min of walking and you can be anywhere on the property. Overall we were satisifed with our room.

The property: Overall it is a nice property and the staff keeps it very tidy which is actually a large task given all the kids there. The adult pool (where we spent most of our time) was nice and we found chairs without a problem. It did get more crowded as the day went on. The Adult beach was nice, a little wider than the others but there were never enough chairs to go around. One of my pet peves is how people put stuff on chairs to save them while they go do other things. This is not specific to this property but it is due to the fact that there just aren't enough chairs to go around. The main pool was very crowded most of the time, mainly by families. We avoided this area as much as we could. The other sections of beach are very narrow and again, not many chairs to go around. The little island looked nice, we never went over there, but again, crowded and not enough chairs. Yes there is a theme here.

The food: Well its an AI and thats all that needs to be said. The main buffet was unimpressive at best, but we found something to eat when we ate there. We were able to eat at two of the ala carte restaurants. Getting reservations were not a problem, in fact we were able to get a reservation the same day for the italian. The Japanese was good, we had sushi for app and steak and shrimp for main course. Was it worth the extra $40? Jury is still out on that. We also ate at the jerk hut and the food there was good. Overall it was what I expected.

The shopping: We checked out the shops on the property and those across the street. The shops on property were much more expensive than those across the street, but I think the quality of the merchandise was better as well. We ended up bying some stuff at the shops across the street. The coffee was about half the price of the shop on property. My wife didn't like how pushy the locals were off property. I must admit, even a polite "no thank you" didn't seem to be enough for them. I guess this is something that MOBAY will never overcome.

Departure...Our flight was at 8am so we were ready to leave the property at 6am. Checkout was easy and done in a couple mins. We forgot to turn in our beach towels the night before but it wasn't a problem giving them to the front desk. They charge you $20 for each towel if you don't turn them in. We waited about 5 mins for a cab to the airport which was an unknown at such an early hour. The fare back to the airport was $30 and we were there in plenty of time to catch our flight.

Final thoughts.....we don't think we would pick this property again. Mainly because the dining options are limited. I think they could do a better job of developing a better choice of foods in the buffet as you will be eating there like it or not. Same for the snack hut, pretty much cheese burgers and not much else. The beaches were just to narrow and small for our liking and the lack of chairs didn't help. On the plus side, the adult pool is nice. I suspect that this property is suited well for families and they would find it acceptable. We knew this before we went and don't want to give the impression that this is a negative review. The property and staff are nice and we thought it worked out well for our short getaway.

Mike in Tulsa

My husband and I usually do 5 star resorts but got such a good deal this hotel has had really unfair reviews it is very clean and friendly and the jerk bar is fantastic well done Trydell who cooks and serves with a smile best jerk ever. Rooms good we were in block 2 bit noisy with show etc but not enough to request a move the two issues we had with the room were sorted immediately with follow up call to check all ok. Rooms could do with fridge but wasn't a real issue. Food was good always tasty as we tried all a la carets can safely say Italian the best by far, also extra 20 dollars for lobster n steak well worth it. My Husband dives wherever he goes and had no issues but this hotel does not focus on diving do not as geared up as some hotels. We did trips via taxis at hotel ask for Gilbert lovely man who took us all over with great information and good price, make sure u go to Rosé Hall House at night real spooky tour,,,
My advice is go and enjoy this place is great not quite sure what those moaning about want if you want total luxury then go to Sandals if you want a fun good holiday in a great hotel go to the Holiday Inn Sunspree