La Playa Orient Bay

We stayed at the hotel for 7 days. Very good location - 120m-150m from the room to the beach. The air temperature was 27-28 degrees, water 24-25 degrees. Near the hotel, at a distance of 2-3 minutes walk, there are 11 restaurants with good food, but not very cheap. There was a lot of seaweed on the beach, but they were removed in the morning (a tractor took out the seaweed, but for some reason only from the beach of neighboring hotels). The hotel has very friendly and helpful staff, except for the beach worker and the hotel manager. I was surprised that usually companies spend significant amounts of money on advertising, and the hotel manager made every effort to lose customers. There is no shade on the beach at all, the umbrellas are very small (one umbrella for two sunbeds) and it only covers half of one sunbed from the sun. Many umbrellas are old and rusty... It seemed to me that they still remember Napoleon Bonaparte :))). When checking into the hotel, each guest is given a card for a beach towel, which must be taken and returned only at the reception (150 m from the beach). You don't want to lie on a wet towel all day, you need to go and change it every time, but after two times the manager forbids changing the towel - she says that there won't be enough for other guests. The hotel positions itself as a 4 star, but the breakfast is 2 stars! There are no vegetables at all for breakfast (and this is in the south), no fish (and this is an island in the sea). There are only eggs, bacon and fried sausages (these are from the hot), only one type of cheese and one type of yogurt, but very tasty bread. There was a lot of mold in the room. We asked to remove it, after the second request they changed our room, but for some reason to a lower level. There are no slippers or robes in the rooms. Terrible internet, which requires a reboot after a short time. The entire hotel area and rooms are very clean. They bring 1 bottle of water, 1 tea bag and 1 coffee capsule per person to the rooms. If guests want an additional tea bag, they must pay 1.5 euros. The whole atmosphere of the hotel feels frugal and poor. I really regret that we went to this hotel!

I’ve traveled a fair amount, including to several Caribbean islands, and I’ve never had an experience remotely this bad before. We found four cockroaches in our room over the course of our stay, which immediately made the whole environment feel unhygienic and unsettling. We repacked our personal belongings in the suitcase and zipped it up in fear of bringing roaches home. Additionally, the shower in our room turned cold after 5–10 minutes every time it was used. Inversely, the fridge did not stay cold, spoiling all the groceries we bought within 2 days. We asked for a power converter to use for our hairdryer—they gave us the wrong one without warning, which led to the hairdryer sparking and nearly exploding in our hands. I am generally not picky at all when it comes to mattresses— but this was truly one of the most uncomfortable beds I have ever slept on. We asked for a mattress topper, which was extremely flimsy and did nothing to help. Housekeeping also tried to shove us out of the room early in the morning and visibly rolled her eyes at us when we asked her to come back in 20 minutes. The beach was a major disappointment as well, since it was covered in 2–3 foot high walls of seaweed, which began to smell after a few hours in the sun. We were told it’s “cleaned daily”, which was clearly not the case as it hadn’t been touched in days. Other hotels next door, who actually cleaned the seaweed daily, did not have nearly the same buildup. We were also kicked off the beach before 5pm every day—because why let guests enjoy a beach resort that they paid for? The attached beach restaurant/bar was not bad, especially the bartenders Karl and GP. But even there, the kitchen would randomly close early because the staff just... didn’t feel like working, claiming that the seaweed was creating “uninhabitable work conditions.” Which is a little comical considering guests are paying for this expensive beach vacation. Likewise, the resort has a policy that you are not allowed to bring your own food/drinks to the beach - this would normally be a fine policy, but given that the restaurant closed at random times throughout the day, and we were still prohibited from bringing any other outside food to the beach, it became a huge annoyance. There was a woman working at the restaurant - who we later found out to be the manager - that was also extremely rude to us, especially to my girlfriend. At the end of the stay, we talked to the hotel Manager, Katy, about these concerns - who turned out to be one of the most disrespectful people I have ever met in my life. Rather than listening or trying to understand what went wrong to improve for the future, she repeatedly interrupted us, dismissed our feedback, made condescending remarks, and made it clear through her tone and body language that she didn’t take anything we said seriously. She offered excuses for every issue we brought up—blaming us for the shower and roach problems, downplaying the seaweed buildup, and denying that the restaurant ever closed early. At no point did she acknowledge our experience or take any responsibility. The entire conversation felt combative and unprofessional. La Playa may look decent in photos, but it is run-down, roach-infested, mismanaged, and led by a manager who seems better suited for arguing on Facebook than running a hotel. If you care about basic comfort, cleanliness, or not being treated like a nuisance, do yourself a favor: book literally anywhere else.

Imme and my family live la playa I would stay Shay without a doubt

Lovely property right on the beach. Rooms are large & have a great kitchenette & refrigerator. Bar & dining are excellent. Great buffet breakfast with many options including eggs, pancakes etc. You have chairs & towels provided & there is drink service to the beach. The area near by has a grocery & several dining options. What would be nice in thè area is maybe a little more shopping options & maybe a bar/lounge for the evening other than Bikini Beach or the irish pub. Driving to Phiilipsburg or Marigot is not for the faint of heart. The beach area is clean & well kept, however in June it did suffer from seaweed as did most of the islands in the Carribean. The hotels etc do what they can but it is mother nature.

The hotel was very nice. Room was spacious and clean but there is barely a view of the ocean because of how the buildings are situated. The food was decent, it was the same breakfast every day. Staff was lovely and helpful and there are plenty of dining options behind the property. Beach was nice but unfortunately there was a lot of seaweed the week we were there so we went to other beaches instead-not the hotels fault.

The main problem is the seaweed on the beach. It really detracts from the overall experience!

My favorite hotel that I return to every year.

A hidden gem!

Terrific property, very clean and with outstanding service. The staff, led by Manager Katy is very pleasant and willing to help at any time. Highly recommend this hotel.

Own beach area with everything a few minutes walk from hotel room, including many restaurants with great food, reasonable prices.