Kiawah Island Golf Resort

"My first visit to The Sanctuary inside the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina. It's a beautiful property that is right at the beach. It's one of many properties within the resort. The staff was very helpful and attentive from the moment I drove up to the front gate and was given my parking pass to the valet parking about a mile away at The Sanctuary. My room was very spacious and stocked with various treats and libations. The staff was there to offer suggestions and answer questions for almost every situation. I went for a weekend retreat and was not disappointed by the program sponsor- Karen Hunter or resort."

"I just returned from this trip yesterday and it is still on my mind. I lived in Charleston for almost seven years and I am still trying to process how I never knew about this gem of a place. The grounds, food, service, and amenities were exceptional. I stayed at The Sanctuary and it was one of the most pleasant and beautiful places that I have had the opportunity to visit. The staff was top tier. They were very accommodating, friendly, and personable. No one ever seemed bothered by my questions or appeared to be in a rush when interacting with me. They were patient and professional during my entire stay. There was a variety of food choices and everything that I chose was delicious. The grounds were beautiful and well kept. It was an excellent choice for the retreat. I am not sure if our event organizers could have chosen a better venue because The Sanctuary was absolutely perfect. I will be returning and hopefully it will be soon."

"We rented 2 houses for a bachelor party and the larger house the main fridge was blown. It was not addressed or fixed over the 48 hour stay. The freon smell was terrible and hazardous to health. We could not store groceries, watch TV, or cook in this house. They only gave a very small credit to our account (less than 10%) of the rental. I own airbnbs and if I was on the other side of this situation, I would have been crucified by the renter and airbnb. The whole resort is overpriced including the green fees, restaurants, food, and beverage. Automatic 20% tipping on these large bills. Save the hype, head to Hilton Head. There is more to do and a variety of dining. SAV is the same 1 hour drive to HHI as CHS is to Kiawah Resort. The only saving grace is that Ocean Course is gorgeous and the caddies were fantastic."

"Discerning travelers beware! At the time of reservation you must specify your preference of bedding, otherwise, you like us, may find yourselves in a room with two queen size beds versus one king. Apathetic front desk management offered two undesirable alternatives: downgrade to a garden view (aka birds-eye view of the porte cochere) with a king size bed or relocate in the morning. Suffice to say a subsequent stay is not in the cards given lackluster customer service and the absence of standards typical of properties with a Forbes 5 Star designation."

"KIGR website booking says Kiawah Island Villa 4844 Turtle Cove, Villa Registration Desk gave us the address of 4844 Green Dolphin Way. Closest full grocery is Harris Teeter at Freshfields Village. The Nest on Kiawah has some items. Pulling in to KIGR, first time visitor, navigation of guard lanes is difficult, staff could slow way down, this isn’t a race to get through your spiel. It would be nice if KIGR had a way to view folio during stay, instead of only emailed at checkout. Bicycle hand brake didn’t work on tricycle. They should add road signs on the bike path so bicyclist know where to turn. Villa has no elevator, killed two spiders inside, make dinner reservations as soon as you book your stay, call 25 minutes before you want complimentary on island dinner transportation and they will tell you how long it will be. Lots of deer walking in road and on side, barely lit roads at night, so be careful. Found someone’s hair dryer then realized the villa hair dryers are in bathrooms in wall. Mini shampoo, conditioner, body wash and circular hand soaps are provided with towels and wash cloths. Secondary bedroom closet was taken up by villa stuff, so don’t expect to be able to use the closet. Villa has cracks, dirty handprint on door, paint running down wall, pantry smelled, had marks that weren’t cleaned. Papertowels, laundry detergent, dishwasher pod, coffee for coffee pot and trash bags were provided. I would take a shower, dry off and walk from the shower in to the kitchen to the living room couch and by then, the bottoms of my feet were black from dirt, the kitchen cabinet completely fell off and hit the tile floor, found someone’s keycard, dirt and clothing tag build up under the couch, rug had hard pieces in it including a screw nail, dryer was on low and got really hot and looked super old, beds were hard, pillows were super flat. Screened in porch floor was dirty, leaves and spider cob webs were built up along screens and the outside temperature gauge was drilled in upside down! None of these issues were pictured in the villa photos when we booked but it would have been good to know the truth. I really do not believe that this villa was cleaned and there is no excuse as no one had it booked the day before we arrived and now they have plenty of time to deep clean and fix all of the issues as there is a 3-4 day span of no booking after we depart. Scheduled a time to have it cleaned, they didn’t arrive, so I called again and were told the person was on their way to clean the floor and anything else we needed, to let them know. Not a fan of smelling cleaning chemicals, which I had to as they arrived after the time slot we gave that we would be out. I advised the kind cleaning lady of issues, the living room build up under the couch was left and I was told to let the front desk know about the washer and other things so they would let the property owner know and I advised that I already had yesterday. She swept open areas in living room and hall and kitchen, then mopped. From the amount she swept up, I am unsure when it was last swept and mopped as we were only here 2 days by this point and are clean people who would not have brought that much grime in with us. The couch has pills from being so old and the cushions are deflated and not comfortable. The cabinets above the microwave were so greasy and the cabinet tops below the counter were sticky from previous users’ drips. There was one old wet potholder and not another to go with it. The kitchen scissors were missing, they brought out a regular pair of scissors. Honestly, I cannot wait to leave this overly expensive gross villa to go home to take a shower and be able to walk around without my feet turning black from dirt and feeling disgusting using the kitchen to cook and eat. Overall, we can pay less and stay somewhere with higher cleaning and comfort standards. We won’t be spending our money here again - regardless of the manager’s future generic reply “hoping you’ll return” that will be coming after this post."