The Sanderling

Sanderling has been recently renovated. The rooms, lobby and restaurants are tastefully decorated all to enjoy as a seaside retreat. Fully staffed. Friendly and helpful from front desk to beach setup staff. Looking forward to next trip down to Sanderling!

I was really looking forward to this experience since it was a special gift for someone, but unfortunately, the customer service left us disappointed. Before our appointment, we called several times to let the spa know we were running about 4–7 minutes late. No one answered our calls, and when someone finally did, we were told that the missed time would simply be taken off our massage. We understood the policy, but it was frustrating considering we made every effort to notify them in advance. When we arrived, there didn’t appear to be any other clients waiting.. it was just us on a weekday. I even asked if there was an option to purchase additional time or add-ons to make up for the shortened massage, but the front desk associate immediately said no. Given that the spa wasn’t busy, I was hoping for a little flexibility. The front desk staff also came across as quite rude and dismissive. I was polite throughout the interaction, and because this was meant to be a special present, I was hoping for a more welcoming and understanding experience. A little kindness and consideration would have gone a long way. We weren’t asking for special treatment..we simply tried to communicate ahead of time and hoped for a bit of flexibility. Unfortunately, the customer service didn’t match the relaxing experience we were expecting.

DC makes excellent drinks and creates a great vibe. The missing piece is music and a singer. Renee has an amazing voice. She should be the lounge singer.

We have been to the Sanderling countless times in the past, most recently about 5 years ago. This week we returned and were so shocked at the state of things that my first question to myself was if they had changed management. Where to start? Prices increased several years back but the service hasnt increased with it. Arriving to our room the hallway (north building) smelled like trash, and theres a random pile of like 30 hangers directly in front of our door that i had to move to even be able to access the room. There was a playpen left in our room, presumably from the prior guests. The screen on the screen door is busted out. Menus and hours for the restaurants and room service are not readily available. Asked the front desk and they pointed me to their website which still didnt list a room service menu. So we decided to eat at the restaurant "The lifesaving station" instead. We discovered it had no AC at all. Felt like 79 degrees inside, no air flow, sat at our table for 30 min and still didn't have drinks and waiter hadn't taken our order. Left to get dinner elsewhere. Kids wanted to roast marshmallows at the firepits which they enjoyed in the past and is still listed as a resort activity. Nope the hotel says the smores kits are out of stock. Back to the room...the overhead light is broken. The AC started at 74, took all day to get down to 70 but then completely turns off overnight. You can turn it back on but then 15 min later its off again. Wake up hot and sweaty in the AM and call front desk to see if someone can come look at our AC. They said yes, but then no one ever showed up. Wanted to make coffee in the room but only 1 packet of coffee is stocked. Are we supposed to choose only one of us to get coffee? Update: ac repair man showed up as we were leaving the room at 11:30am and said he bet the system had water in it because they were having that problem with many of the systems. There was even a firetruck at north building as we were loading our car to leave. I asked if the building was on fire. They said no, that there was water in the fire alarm which triggered the alarm. Why is water getting into everything in this building? I spoke to one of the managers on the way out and he was very nice and apologetic. He gave us $150 off of our $800 due to our inconveniences which we appreciate but which still does not repair this terrible experience. The saving grace in this whole trip was the at the front desk and in the lobby and at the lobby bar all of which were so kind and welcoming. They are the jewel of this resort. but management needs to get their butts in gear and get this resort back to its prior standards.

Our room was musty smelling, we were to have an ocean view room, paid extra for our dog which they were to have all these special things for , sand in the lobby , the deck off our room look like it was ready to fall in . It was so bad we left a day early . Lisa the manager apologized and saw our concerns for what we thought we were getting. The website pictures are NOT what you get .