Les Boucaniers Martinique - French West Indies

This is a lengthy review as this is a very unique resort. I am someone who travels extensively and frequently, and have had many experiences in the 4 star and 5 star range of Caribbean resorts on various islands. This resort is a mixture of some good and not at all up to par. It should be noted, for the expensive price of this resort, the service is shockingly poor. I was not expecting butler service but I certainly wasn’t expecting to be treated so poorly by the wait staff in the restaurants. They were outright rude and would raise their voice at you and I even had a juice cart intentionally rammed into me rather than to say excuse me. They treat you like an inconvenience and I have been here for 4 days and have not experienced one nice restaurant staff. If you are expecting quality customer service, you will be sorely disappointed. As an English speaking Canadian, they refused to even attempt to speak English and I was happy we knew enough French to get by. As a manager, I would fire a significant amount of staff here for their blatant disrespect of the visitors. To honest, we have only met a couple of tourists who speak English, 90% of people are French or French Canadian and the culture is not one of manners, kindness, or warmth. I have been walked into, pushed and people just physically jump lines at the bar and for food. We continue to be friendly despite our treatment. We are travelling with friends and we are all shocked at how we are being treated. A couple of bar staff, lifeguard, and a handful of others have been nice to us.
The resort property is large. Across from the plantation buildings (quiet side), where our rooms are, there is a narrow stretch of beach in front of it. No bar, no Wi-Fi and no bathrooms. Great place to visit for a couple of hours but not to stay for the day. There is one large pool that is nice and there seems to be plenty of chairs to choose from. Again, the bathrooms are not beside the pool and you have to walk across the patio area and through the bar to get to the bathrooms. There are no pool bars or beach bars and it’s a bit of a hike by the lobby to get dry towels. There is a bar in the main building and a bar about a 10 minute walk down the beach. they are very strict on their meal times and there are no snack bars to get snacks throughout the day. There’s one buffet restaurant and one à la carte with very set mealtimes. I will say the food is varied and has been very good. If you’re looking for blender drinks, you’re not likely to find any. It’s mostly just drinks with ice in it. If you’re looking to be served coffee at your table at breakfast, everything is self service. I would say this resort is very camp like, quite tired looking. The rooms have been somewhat updated. Air conditioning works great in the rooms and the cleaning staff are really doing a good job. It is a clean resort and well kept. The lobby is not what you would expect. Several Buildings are wood like with zero opulence (if that’s what you are looking for). The Village Chief (Siad) walks around and talks to visitors with his protege (Tom). Both are very nice and we shared our concerns with him. We still have 4 days to go so we will see if our experience improves.
For the same price, we can stay at a much fancier resort with butler service, beach/ pool bar service and room service. We would not return or recommend this hotel due to the terrible treatment from staff, how far it is to walk to get towels and drinks, only 2 public washrooms on the whole resort (none near the main buffet), and it being completely self serve everything. I prefer resorts that offer towels by the pool or beach, bars close by, all day snacks (if hungry), kind treatment, and bathrooms near beach, pool and restaurant. I don’t think we are hard to please but this has been an expensive disappointment. We are making the best of it because it offers a lovely beach and good food.

Being in many Club Meds before in 3 continents, this was our family’s first Caribbean Club Med experience. The resort is big and widespread, very well managed, clean and organized. The biggest issue I personally witnessed (and I speak French) is the language - Club Med, though natively French, is owned by a Chinese/global group for a decade and appointed a new CEO last year. I understand Martinique is part of France however let’s keep in mind that French is not the common communication language as in the 18th century. Being so close to the American continent, I expected GMs and GOs to be more diverse, not all monolingual French. I recommend Les Bouccaniers to make life easier for non-francophones and cater to them as well - unless they would like to continue depending on French GMs travelling on 10 hr flights. North & South American GMs are closer. Let’s also not forget the potential Chinese/Asian customers.