I cannot believe the good reviews about this place. WHile the rooms are cleaned daily, the hotel itself is worn and dirty. The carpeting needs to be shampooed. In certain areas it smells. You can see the runway from this hotel. It is not fun to see the planes take off, it is annoying. I called my cousin from the room and she thought I was at the airport. The night club can be heard from the rooms and it goes on until 4am. I could tolerate that, but then this hotel keeps roosters, YES roosters in a planting area next to the rooms. So after hearing the club all night you get woken up by a rooster at the crack of dawn. The air conditioning does not remove the moisture from the room properly. SInce I was on the ground floor and did not have the option to leave the patio door open the choice was between damp and suffocating or cold and clammy. This part was unbearable and made me want to go home. The beach area near the hotel has huge signs that warn of bodily harm and death as a result of the low flying aircraft. I could go on and on about the hotel area,but I would like to tell you about the island itself. After seeing someone almost fall out of a bus, we made sure on the next bus ride to securely close the door. We were called back by the bus driver who accused us of slamming the door and threatened us with paying for damages. (there were none) He then left us to stand at the wrong area for the transfer bus. We later decided to take a taxi who drove too fast and caused us a bleeding injury, yet we were forced to pay for the ride, with a five dollar discount. rude, rude people. If you go here,stay in Marigot or Phillipsburg NOT Maho. Or better yet go to Aruba which is friendly.

Finally I made it to Sonesta Maho. Have been wanting to visit for a while now. My husband and I stayed there from 29th March - 2nd April 2008. At first, I was a bit skeptical when I read some of the reviews but it was worth it.

The beach at the resort was indeed small and the waters were rough at the time of our stay. But, I absolutely LOVED watching the planes come in and take off. This made it wonderful for taking pictures and got to experience jet blast from the planes when taking off.

Our room was Ok, nice comfy bed and great bathroom. Although it was close to the Airport, it was not as noisy as I had imagined.

The only bad thing is that I did not enjoy the food as compared to that offered by other all-inclusive resorts I visited. We did not eat at the Point Rsetaurant since you have to stay 7 nights in order to get the vouchers, otherwise you have to pay, it is not in the all-inclusive plan.

We did the island tour for $20/person. It was great. We drove around the country and stopped off for shopping in Marigot and Philipsburg. The beaches around the island are magnificent. We spent a day at Simpson's Bay. The beach was much calmer here. The Great Bay beach is also awesome.

We also visited Orient Beach on the French side. It was very windy here which makes it great for parasailing and riding the waves. There is a nude portion on the beach to the far right but if you are not going to take it all off, don't venture there!

I

We were leery of staying here due to the some of the bad reviews but I think it's all about the room you get. We upgraded to the Premier Oceanfront and absolutely loved it.

Room was clean and modern with a nice balcony. Try to get a room on the ends of the hotel and you will get an added bonus of a high vaulted ceiling on floors 8, 9 and 10.

All the staff were very friendly throughout our entire stay. The maid went out her way to make sure and say hi everytime we passed her (posssibly hoping for a a better tip) but truely seemed interested in make our stay the best she could. The only problem was about an hour wait when we called at night to unclog the toilet.

The grounds were clean and well kept. The pool was great with the swim up bar. Lots of "all inclusives" spend the day there. Drinks were better at the pool than some of the local bars. The beach isn't much but was fine for walks - really the only reason to go to this beach is for the planes that land right over head which was really cool. Don't worry about the aircraft noise, there are only a handful of loud big planes each day in mid afternoon.

The location was great for nightlife. There are 5 or 6 good restaurants right next to the hotel. Each night at 9pm the dancers in the casino show come out and perform in the street which is fun. Some of the best and latest nightclubs are walking distance (but the Q Club is closed awaiting new management). We were not bothered by the noise - could only hear it if we were outside on the balcony. Casino was fun too.

My tips:
Upgrade to the Premier Rooms (top 3 floors) or at least to the tower building.

Ask for a room on the end if you get a Premier Room.

Do not stay in the older wings especially if you are facing the back - there is a water treatment facility back there
(we did get a whiff of it a few times but it was not a problem).

Get a car and go to the many other beaches on the island - Mullet and Orient were our favorites. It cost $5 per day to park in the hotel garage.

Go to Bliss, Bamboo Bernies and the Sunset Beach Bar at night - all walking distance and open very late.

Overall, we loved our trip and this hotel. I would choose this hotel again and do not believe all the bad reviews.

I just returned from a week at the Maho, on a family vacation with my wife and 2 daughters 14 & 11. We have travelled to many different places (i.e. Mexico, Costa Rica, Hawaii, St Thomas, Curacao, and many others in the caribbean.).
The Maho is a nice 3 1/2 to 4 star resort, it is very busy and there is lots to do during the day besides sitting in a lounge chair. We went with the all inclusive mostly because of the kids, food was very good. My kids are picky eaters and they were happy at every meal. You get to eat off site twice during your visit and once at the point restaurant which is excellent. Drinks were all good, but we are not big drinkers.
The room was nice, but not what you would call fancy. Be sure to upgrade to an ocean/pool veiw room, otherwise you end up overlooking the water treatment plant. I know because this is the type of room they give you as a courtesy room to shower in if your flight leaves late.
The grounds are well kept and the pool is very nice. The beach is small but nice, alot of it does seem to be eroded away, but it is nice and you can sit there and watch the planes fly right over you to land. Plane noise is not as bad as some have posted on this site, it's actually pretty cool to watch as they come in and take off.
We rented a car right at the hotel from Hertz, you really need one to be able to see the whole island. One word of caution, be careful with the lady at the car rental desk, she has trouble operating her calculator and tried billing me for an extra $120, maybe it just needs new batteries or something.
One tour that i must recommend is the Swaliga power-cat tour to Anguilla. This is an excellent tour, captain and crew are great and the tour is well worth the money. They take you to some of the best beaches we have ever seen, and they get you there super fast so you have more time to spend at each spot than with a regular catamaran.
The only real complaint i have is not with the hotel, but with everyone that we encountered working at the SXM airport, they are the most miserable rude group of people, no matter how nice you try to be to them they just can't seem to return the favor.
Maybe they are just sick of tourists, but it seems to me that without the tourists there wouldn' t be much of a St Maarten economy.
All in all we had a great time at the Maho, nothing to really gripe about unless you went looking for it. I would recommend this hotel to families looking to go to this island. Just relax and enjoy yourself and it's a great time!