It would be incredibly frustrating to take a birthday trip expecting a dream vacation, only for it to become the worst experience of your life. That’s exactly what happened to a Michigan woman who traveled to St. Lucia to celebrate her special day. She paid $1,500 expecting luxury, but got the complete opposite.
She explained that she stayed at a 5-star hotel called Zoëtry Marigot Bay, but the rating didn’t mean much once she arrived. The first issue she faced came from a storm hitting St. Lucia at the time. Rain on vacation is one thing, but the real problem was that the water kept pouring into the penthouse through the ceiling. It got so bad that she had to put towels all over the floor to keep the place from flooding.
I understand why the Michigan woman expected nothing to go wrong; a 5-star rating usually gives people peace of mind. But there was a major red flag from the start: the hotel handled all guest communication through WhatsApp. That alone felt unprofessional for a luxury resort.
When she first complained about the water pouring into her penthouse, their response was simply to offer her more towels. They eventually moved her party to a different room, and when she asked for compensation, the hotel offered free massages. She wanted more, so she requested a meal voucher for a restaurant not included in her stay package, but they refused.
After the refusal, she told them she would post about her experience online. It definitely came across like a threat, because suddenly the hotel tried to appease her by offering a private dinner instead. In another WhatsApp exchange, she clarified that she wanted a “private lobster dinner” and also mentioned that she and her guest don’t eat meat. The staff claimed lobster wasn’t in season.
Instead of taking their word for it, she looked up when lobster season actually is in St. Lucia, and it was in season. So the hotel had lied. She ended up going to the restaurant anyway, but since they still wouldn’t provide the voucher, she paid around $100 out of pocket.
Unfortunately, the dinner wasn’t even good. She called it “nasty.” And things only got worse from there.
The room they were moved to had roaches. So the hotel moved them again, and the next room also had roaches. More problems kept piling up: the doors didn’t lock properly, the shower had no hot water, and the tap water barely worked.
The final straw was when she realized housekeeping was stealing drinks from her room.
“Worst hotel I have ever been to,” she said, and honestly, she has every right to feel that way. It is shocking how many things the hotel managed to get wrong.
People Reacting to the Michigan Woman’s Nightmare Trip
People were just as upset as the Michigan woman about how terrible her trip went. They already started advising her to try to get her money back. “Dispute every charge with your bank. They will honor it,” one person wrote. Others backed this suggestion, but some comments believed she wasn’t going to get this. “She can dispute it but more than likely will get denied. I’ve investigated debit card and credit card disputes… she ain’t gone win,” another person said. Some TikTok users focused more on the amount of money she paid as someone asked in disbelief, “FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?” Someone also questioned the WhatsApp part saying, “15 thousand and they use WhatsApp??” It turned out that using it outside of the U.S. is common.
It wasn’t just the hotel’s long list of problems that annoyed people the way the staff communicated with the Michigan woman also raised eyebrows. Their messages sounded unusually casual for a supposed 5-star resort, and many viewers felt the tone was completely unprofessional.
“$15,000 and they’re saying ‘Am sorry’ instead of ‘I’m sorry’??” one person commented. Another pointed out, “No probz??? That’s such a wild way to talk to guests.”
People were also thrown off by the fact that the staff used emojis in their messages, which only made the interaction feel even less professional.
Someone from St. Lucia even chimed in to apologize for her experience, writing, “girl as a st.lucian I’m so sorry you went through that. You should complain to corporate, and next time you decide to travel here, go to Royalton.”
Honestly, anything probably would’ve been better than the hotel she stayed at.
