Wyndham Vacation Ownership review: Wyndham Star Island

We’ve been Club Wyndham owners since 1999, but aren’t normally compelled to leave a resort review. I booked 3 suites to accommodate the family that traveled with us. We sought early check in for 2 suites. Daniel manned the front desk, was able to check us in early for 1 room and he completed the precheck for the 2 room. Daniel said that I would receive a text when the second room was ready. He was really great - thanks Daniel!

Before we got our bags into the first room, I received a call from the resort. The manager tried to schedule us for an owner’s update. I declined politely but she was pretty insistent. I continued to decline though she promised only 30 minutes for the presentation, a gift card and dining compensation. I thanked her for asking but refused to attend. About 20 minutes later, I was again called by the manager who increased the compensation offered for attendance to an owner’s meeting. Mind you, this is before I even received keys to my room. I again politely refused to attend and the manager never changed her sales pitch tactic nor did she lower her aggressive marketing tactic. We returned to the front desk to retrieve our keys during normal check in (4pm). Sadly, Daniel had departed for the day When I gave our name to the front desk, one of the staff rolled her eyes. She didn’t have a name tag on that identified her. We could only assume that she was the manager. I chose not to engage with her as other personnel were checking in.

In our room, there wasn’t any dish soap, the internet was non-existent and the normal toiletries were scarce. This was not at all typical of Wyndham. The room could use some refreshing but it was clean and the AC worked. We unpacked, walked the grounds and then left for dinner.

As we returned that night, we came upon another family EXITING our room. This was a single parent traveling with an elderly family member and 2 young children. Our room keys were negated. The front desk had assigned our room to another family. We then had to ask the other family to open OUR door so that we could call the front desk.

While apologetic, the front desk said that we were in the wrong room, but they would relocate the second family that showed up and new keys would be brought to us. I handed the room phone off to the second family so that they too could speak with the front desk. After 15 minutes of waiting, the second family repacked their vehicle and headed back to the front desk when no one showed up. We did receive new keys from a staff member within 30 minutes of our call and an apology. I asked if there was a manager available and was told that I would receive a call in the morning. That call never came. No acknowledgment from management of this major screw up at all. We were booked on the property for 5 days. Park passes, gift cards, personal property and identification were exposed to complete strangers.

Visible accounting is needed on the use of tennis courts by non-owners. Tennis academy classes dominated tennis court use during the entirety of our stay, increasing the number of non-patrons on the resort grounds and further limiting parking capacity.