Martinique Whitsunday Resort

SO DISSAPPOINTING Our stay at this resort was one of the most disappointing accommodation experiences we've had. On our first morning, we received a noise complaint by email. After asking for clarification, we were told the complaint related to our conversations on the balcony we had the prior afternoon, when we checked in and caught up with the rest of our group. We were effectively advised that guests were not permitted to have conversations in outdoor areas of the property. We have the correspondence confirming this. This was particularly difficult to understand given the resort had emailed guests two weeks before our stay warning of excessive noise from its own renovation works. The irony was difficult to ignore, especially considering the manager, Susan's, involvement with a regional tourism board, so you would expect a little more professionalism. Beyond that, our room was dirty, multiple appliances were broken, and there were takeaway containers floating in the pool. The resort's response to our concerns, combined with the poor standard of cleanliness and maintenance, was awful. If you enjoy to have a relaxing holiday with some warm conversation on a balcony, with your nearest and dearest, while sipping a beverage as the sun goes down, then avoid this establishment at all cost. NOTE: Should you choose not to follow my advice and brave the dirt and despair, then please ensure you take the afterhours number that the transfer operator offers you.... they know you're going to need it and they are expecting your call, for a change of pick-up address, halfway through your stay!

Genuinely one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve had. What should have been a simple, relaxing stay turned into something that felt deceptive and incredibly poorly handled from start to finish. We were threatened with eviction for having a normal conversation on the balcony in the afternoon while it was still light out. No party, no excessive noise, just talking. The response from staff was completely over the top and honestly quite intimidating. Things escalated when we raised concerns and were directed to Booking.com to sort it out. We were reassured and effectively pushed into checking out early under the premise that we would be refunded, which simply did not happen. It felt misleading at best, and like we were being deliberately managed out without any intention of following through. They are very manipulative. After looking into it further, it seems this isn’t an isolated incident. There appears to be a pattern of guests being threatened with eviction over completely reasonable behaviour, which raises serious concerns about how this place operates. To top it off, the basic standards were lacking. The pool had rubbish and takeaway cups floating in it, which says a lot about the level of care and maintenance. The tiled floor outside is also extremely slippery and unsafe. 2 of our guests slipped down the stairs during our unpleasant stay. It’s also concerning to see management associated with local tourism bodies, given the experience we had, it reflects poorly on the broader Airlie Beach hospitality scene. Between the aggressive treatment, the runaround regarding refunds, and the overall lack of professionalism, I would strongly recommend staying elsewhere. There are far better options that actually treat guests with respect.

The 1 star I gave Martinique was generous and was entirely for the view and the view alone. It is a shame however that enjoying the view from the balcony and breathing a word of a sound is completely off limits. A group of friends and I had travelled over 11 hours to Airlie Beach for a weekend to celebrate my engagement. there were 6 of us total and we were completely transparent with the hotel prior to our booking that we were a group of girls (aged between 25 - 50 years old). The view was incredible and took away from the incredibly filthy apartment we were given; however, we were so excited to be there that we didn't mind how black our feet were from walking barefoot in the room for the 10 seconds we were there. Our group arrived at the hotel straight from the airport at 4:30pm, spent 30minutes out on the balcony, chatting away and enjoying the view before heading back inside to quickly get ready for dinner, we then returned later that night, being incredibly conscious of our noise as we made our way to our apartment. The next morning, we were up and heading out at 6am to explore the beautiful Whitsundays. Despite not spending more than 8 hours in the room, 30minutes of which we were actually awake for, we received an incredibly rude, passive aggressive email from the nasty, abrasive hotel manager Susan. She claimed that we were on our first and final warning and risked being evicted for a noise complaint that was reported by someone at the hotel. As you can imagine our group was incredibly confused and after further clarification, we had realised the 'noise' we made was our 30minute conversation out on the balcony at 4:30pm in the afternoon which is entirely unreasonable. Despite being incredibly frustrated by this, we did our best to smooth things over with Susan who requested that if we would like to have conversations in the room, we would have to leave the premises to do so or we would be evicted. (I wish I was joking). Upon further discussion with our group, we decided we would spend 1 final, very quiet night and leave the next day, requesting a refund for our final night which Susan happily agreed to, again in her usual horrendously rude manner. Unfortunately for Susan, she was unable to ruin our weekend because just at the bottom of the hill was the most amazing resort; Waters Edge Resort that was able to accommodate our group and made us feel so welcomed, the atmosphere was so friendly, the rooms were actually clean, the staff were incredible and the view was even better! Upon leaving Martinique, we called our respective hotel shuttle bus companies and advised them of our hotel change, to which they all responded that this is a regular occurrence for guests at the Martinique who are often evicted for noise complaints during daylight. Upon leaving Airlie Beach it then became clear that our turmoil with Susan would not be over, after rejecting our refund request and lying to our booking agent that we were evicted. We will never return here, have filed multiple complaints and recommend that anyone coming to Airlie Beach avoid this hotel and the 'lovely' Susan at all costs.