JW Marriott St. Maarten Beach Resort & Spa

We stayed at Dawn Beach Club which was beautiful. Having a 3 bedroom condo with a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, laundry room, dining room table, and living room was perfect for our group of 7. The pool was gorgeous and the private beach was stunning. Everyone who works there is so kind, always smiling and are extremely helpful. The food was delicious! The grilled & coconut shrimp were favorites in our group. The drinks were yummy. The service by the pool was superb. The security/medical staff came to help with my husband’s cut foot and they went above and beyond what we expected. We just asked if they had bandaids (the one thing I forgot to pack) and they came up, cleaned the wound, went downstairs to cut a fresh aloe leaf and showed me how to cut it and apply it to his foot. I requested the front desk to find me a masseuse and they found Nelly who came the same day I requested the massage. Nelly game me one of the best massages I’ve ever had!

If you’re ever in St. Philipsburgh and someone offers you a scratch ticket, don’t accept it. We got scammed into a free cab ride to the Westin where we would collect our prize. Of course, it’s a timeshare scam. We were told half an hour but soon realized that if we stayed, it would have likely taken up to 3 hours. The people we came into contact with at the Westin are horrible. The woman trying to sign us up for the time share didn’t believe my wife and I were married because she hadn’t changed her last name!! Asked to see wedding photos as proof! Seriously? Then asks my wife why she didn’t change her name… I was honestly very close to giving her a piece of my mind in a very profane manner. But I kept my cool and simply said we’re leaving after about 15 min. Which, pissed her off. The place is literally a dump that’s under construction. It’s also quite literally in the middle of nowhere.. Stay in Simpson Bay. Easily the best location in St Maarten Dutch side. Don’t go to the Westin for any reason. Don’t book there, don’t look at timeshares there… Brutally rude staff and you couldn’t get me to stay there if it was free. Nor could you pay me to stay there… Go literally anywhere else…

The area was always incredible but now the recovery is creating a resort that will rival any on the island. It took us 14 years of going to find oyster pond and now we can't think of any place we would rather be. The renovations at Dawn Beach Club are top of the line. The service is above and beyond. The friendliness of the staff made us feel welcome from the very first minute there. The future is bright and only getting brighter. The area seems secluded but had everything you need closeby.

The timeshare aspect of this facility is a total scam they have basically children recruiting prospective timeshare purchasers on the street with all kinds of lies and cheats stories they’re affiliated with a beach shop there that sells T-shirts and such the owner is a very pushy almost convincing he probably sell snake oil at a carnival on weekends. We consider ourselves versed in the timeshare scams but still somehow let ourselves get pulled into it with the stipulation that we were not going to stay and did not want to but nobody wanted to hear that they were intent on selling it very friendly at first but when finally they found out that they weren’t able to sell it to us they got very nasty very indignant and I thought we were going to get a left there because it is a good cab drive from downtown Phillipsburg not a walk and want to make back so you’re at their mercy to get a cab they paid for it and rightly so. Don’t let the thought of something free for nothing get you in trouble with these people.Thier sole purpose is to sell you a timeshare and roughly $60,000 plus roughly $250-$300 a month in maintenance with a 99 year lease And you can pass this weight of a financial expenses on to your children. Everyone is entitled to make a living but not the way these people do it when you’re on vacation you shouldn’t have to deal with people like this!

We were approached in Philipsburg by a couple of representatives of the Dawn Beach Club with scratch cards where we could win big prizes. We are very familiar with the approach of time share representatives, so we said we were not interested. They were pretty insistent, and so on a lark we scratched the cards and lo-and-behold we were big winners of a free iPhone. We said that's nice, but we're not going to drive all the way there for a 90 minute presentation when we already own a condo on the island. They clearly said we only had to show up, there was no requirement of a presentation. We asked again, and they said "no presentation". We decided to go because we hadn't been to Dawn Beach since Irma and wanted to look around anyway. We showed up at the Westin, asked for our iPhone, and were told we had to sit through a 90 minute presentation. We said "no, we were told we wouldn't" and give us our iPhone or we would write a warning review on TripAdvisor. Well, here we are, no iPhone and here's the review. By the way, NEVER stay here. Dawn Beach used to be the most beautiful beach on the island but is now a swamp of sargassum sea**** as far as the eye can see. You couldn't swim, the beach is covered with sea****, and it smells like rotten eggs. Good luck Dawn Beach Club.