The St. Regis Longboat Key Resort

Having stayed at many a luxury resort in Florida, I will say that the St. Regis Longboat is my favorite by far. We stayed for a week over spring break and had 3 rooms for a multigenerational family trip. The facilities are incredible. Everything is well designed, clean, fresh and new. Our room was a 2 queen bed with bay view. There was plenty of storage for our family of 4, the bathroom had a huge shower and separate free standing tub along with a 2 sink vanity. We could have hosted all 10 of our family members on the balcony and had room to spare. The room was serviced twice daily; turndown service included slippers, water at the bedside and chocolate on our pillows. Underneath my glasses, housekeeping placed a cleaning cloth and they neatly rolled up and tied all of our charging cables. We felt spoiled. The staff are truly the highlight. Andrea and Dawn at Riva; Kayla in the Reef Rangers Club; Evie and Tammy at the aquarium; Jonathan at Aqua; Joe on the piano and all of the pool staff... everyone made our stay so much better. Everyone was so attentive, kind and patient. It's so rare to come across people nowadays who truly seem to enjoy their jobs and everyone at the St. Regis appears to be proud of the resort and the work they do. The staff are the reason we will be back. We also utilized the spa, another highlight of the trip. Facilities are top notch. There are his and hers facilities which feature a cold plunge, hot tub, sauna, steam room, snow shower (!!) and aromatherapy shower. There is also an outdoor pool which is more like a giant hot tub with jets and was perfectly heated. My massage was heavenly. Again, the staff were attentive and lovely. The pools - the zero depth entry pool kept our kids endlessly entertained along with many, many trips around the lazy river. The pools had coolers at each lounger full of cold water and a button to press for service which always brought a server to our chair within 5-10 minutes. What more could you ask for? The food was excellent - no one had a bad bite all week. The breakfast at Riva is outstanding. In a sea of bad breakfast buffets at hotels, Riva put together a buffet that is actually a highlight. Our kids are still talking about missing their morning Riva waffles. They also served coffee that is roasted in St. Pete, it was so good I had to get the name and ordered a bag for at home. Every cocktail was outstanding. Part of our family snorkeled in the lagoon. Our kids absolutely loved this experience, feeding stingrays and puffer fish. The marine biologists running the lagoon had endless knowledge to share and are also great at naming animals - notably their pufferfish Alvin, Simon and Theodore. The only complaint we could come up with was a lack of snacks - if you wanted something between lunch and dinner or a bite after dinner, there was a lack of options. Everything is a sit down meal. Towards the end of the trip, we were given a menu with food at the lob

I have waited to write this review to see if management would follow through on my issue. Unfortunately, they have not. First, the good: the property and setting are beautiful, and the staff is 90 percent wonderful. The bad: I got food poisoning from their guacamole and chips poolside. It was definitely food poisoning, not norovirus. I got sick within 4 hours of eating it. It was a horrific experience, but it ended quickly. I called the front desk and told them what happened when I woke up the next morning. They asked if there was anything they could do for me, and I told them I had ginger ale and toast on the way up. I thought perhaps they would comp it, but they did not. They sent up a "security staff" member to interview me. St Regis is supposed to pride itself on its customer service and guest happiness. I did not experience this at all. I had to be the one to ask them to credit me for the guacamole, then 3 weeks later, they finally credited me and called it "a goodwill gesture" That just pissed me off, and I wrote to the general manager. He assured me he would "personally handle it." Then, their claims adjuster called me and offered me $100. I ended up getting a secondary infection and had to be put on antibiotics. It was a very annoying ordeal. I am just disappointed that nobody seemed to really care. I shouldn't have had to ask to have the guacamole removed from my bill. It should have been a given. There is a wonderful Valet named Michael with whom I spoke upon departure. I told him my story, and he was so sweet he ducked into the hotel and bought me a beautiful coffee mug. He said, "I want you to leave with a gift." That meant a lot. He deserves to be promoted. Common sense and compassion go a long way. I won't be back, nor will I ever be able to eat guacamole again.

St Regis was picked for a beach getaway from the snow and cold at our home. Darren was awesome in making our stay extra special, comforting and relaxing! Great smile and the kind of service one would expect from St Regis. Darren and the entire staff were responsive to every request.