On my 13th visit to The Body Holiday, it seems that everything that could be mismanaged at the resort is being. I've visited this location almost every year (sometimes twice a year) since 2010 (only stopping during covid). The air con has always been a problem, so much so that we have had to move rooms on more than one occasion on separate visits, but this time was much worse. The Wi-Fi continues to be terrible and only available in certain locations. The management view is that guests prefer this, as they can relax a bit more (this is not the case and most of the guests I have spoken to over the years are adamant that this is something the resort is skimping on, and has always been (more on the aircon and Wi-Fi later)). I have now been to the resort 3 times since covid and there has been evidence of severe cost-cutting at the resort on all 3 visits, but this year’s race to cut choice for guests went much too far in this regard. The main restaurant previously used for breakfast, lunch and dinner was closed completely every lunch and a number of evenings too. That meant the food choices for guests was severely reduced. The choices in the clubhouse included the same (or similar) a-la-carte choices (pizza, a wrap of some sort and a fish dish), while the "buffet" had one meat and one fish dish to choose from. Previously the main restaurant had a daily themed lunch menu with a number of meat and fish dishes to choose from. When the main restaurant was closed for the evening, there was a taster menu at "Windows", touted as an experience, but in reality, small portions of not particularly exciting food and a number off the menu if you didn't eat either meat or fish. In the clubhouse, where the main dining choice was, there was up to a 20 mins wait in a queue to get food. They did provide a “healthy choice” in the temporary café area for lunch, but again this was severely limited. The food in the Tau restaurant, which you are only really able to use once per week (unless you can tag along to someone else’s booking), was excellent. Exacerbating this was the poor service in the clubhouse at lunch and some evening meals. It wasn't due to the lack of staff, but the ones that were there (including the supervisors) milled around ignoring guests and generally doing very little. Every day it took time to get someone's attention to get anything (drinks, food orders etc) and a coffee took 25 mins to arrive once ordered, then another 15 mins for sweetener that had been asked for when the drink was ordered. This was a daily occurrence. Cold drinks were left on the bar to warm up and the late afternoon and evening service wasn't much better. With the large turnover of staff, it seems not enough training is being given. Onto the entertainment, which was incredibly poor, almost non-existent. Previous visits had live bands almost every night of the week. This visit had one live band and 2 nights of individual singers with backing tracks. The live band must have been paid in food from the clubhouse, as I can't believe they would have actually been paid money for what they produced. The other evenings saw a person with a laptop pretending they were David Guetta. Oh, and this entertainment was for at most 1-2 hrs at most per night. Other resorts I have visited have live entertainment daily and don’t cost anywhere near as much. There was one day when the resident jazz musician plays in the afternoon and, with his new jazz/trance music playing, was very good, but that was sadly an all too brief highlight. Back to the aircon, which I discovered on this visit is just a con. There were numerous calls to the front desk to inform them the aircon wasn't working. The thermostat shows you lower the temperature down, but also shows the temperature of the room, which didn't change much below 24C throughout the time I was there, even though I put it down to 19-20C on the thermostat. I now believe that these "thermostats" in the rooms are not connected to the a/c at all and are just for show. A friend in another room had the same issue. The courtesy room I was given on my last day also had the same issue. There is an immediate change in temperature when first entering the toom, but that fades away quickly and I woke up every night sweating. Having called out the maintenance team on a number of occasions to the room we were in, finally one of them managed to get the room temp lowered by 0.5C, but then water dripped from the ceiling all night, down the walls and behind the paint in the bathroom. The maintenance man who came to fix this spoke to a manager on the radio and she seemed to cast doubt that this damage was an issue. We were offered another room, but we only had 2 days left and was not prepared to put up with the upheaval of packing everything away to move to another room at that point. Finally, I would like to talk about the staff, who are in general fantastic. From the therapists who provide the daily included treatments, the bodyguards (entertainment and fitness staff), the maintenance team (a/c aside), the restaurant and beach staff who cater to your every need and the specialist staff who have been providing tennis, golf and archery lessons to guests for a very long time (special shout out to Neil the tennis pro, who is not only a great coach, but also a great representative of the resort - also Stephen in the Piano Bar, who is a fantastic cocktail specialist and (he won't like me saying this) a very funny and talented magician). Also, Alfred who plays almost every night in the Piano bar is also a very accomplished pianist and can play virtually any song, including 100’s that he knows off by heart. These people have always enhanced the holiday and made it special. At every resort there is staff turnover, but this year the people who we get to know every year have dwindled to just a handful. New faces can be a good thing, but having so many new staff is indicative of a management team that treats their staff poorly and does not understand what makes this resort tick to keep new and returning guests happy. Just one example to give regarding how poorly this company treats their staff and why I would urge anyone going to the resort to go to all of their included treatments, not just because the therapists are very good at what they do. These professionals don’t get paid for no-shows. The resort still pockets the money for these treatments, they are included in the daily charge, but they don’t give any money to the therapists if someone doesn’t show up for these treatments. These therapists get a fraction of the cost of the included treatments guests are charged, but even then (and this isn’t just a recent thing, this has been going on for years) they won’t pay staff for being there and through no fault of their own, the guest doesn’t show for the treatment. GO TO YOUR INCLUDED TREATMENTS. Despite some of the very poor staff practices over the years, as I said at the start, I have been going to this resort for a long time and loved previous visits, otherwise I wouldn’t have kept coming back. The penny pinching and cost-cutting experienced on this latest visit wouldn't be acceptable in a 2/3-star resort, let alone one which is marketing as a 5-star resort. The prices have gone up exponentially, yet the guest experience has been eroded to breaking point, at least for this regular returnee. Where is the guest's money going? It's certainly not on food, entertainment, maintenance, staff training or services. The management has always been chasing the American market, but at the prices being charged, Americans will come once, find out the a/c is terrible, the Wi-Fi is virtually non-existent, food choice is terrible and entertainment is a joke. Returning guests are not treated as loyal customers, so won't come again (like me - until this penny pinching is reversed and everything improves). At this price bracket, there are so many better choices in the Caribbean, in St Lucia as well as other islands, at present. You once had a fantastic product, but it's being mismanaged to ruin. Unfortunately excuses for decisions being made that can only be attributed to cost cutting are being spun into something else by the management team. They are not dealing with idiots; they are talking to intelligent and knowledgeable individuals who can see through the lies and corporate bs. Sorry The Body Holiday I gave you my body and all you gave me was stress and annoyance. Until I see some much-needed improvement in what you are offering I won't be returning, and I won't be the only repeat visitor either.

Pros: Beautiful beach and sea with above average snorkelling for the Caribbean Nice rooms, clean and modern Hotel and surrounding areas spotlessly clean and tidy and in excellent condition. Some great classes run with good instructors. Anthony the guest presenter really improved this resort and its whole vibe as he got everyone involved and the classes started to fill making them more enjoyable. Cons: Not enough food choice. Restaurants have very limited menu unless you pay for the upgraded menu even the buffet only had one meat choice. Very expensive for the level of room and service provided. Mini bar only has 1 bottle of water per day which is poor for an all inclusive resort. Not even close to other resorts in this price range. Air con broken or ineffective in some of the restaurants and exercise class locations. Quality of spa treatment varied greatly depending on who you got as your therapist. Some waiting staff were very rude and looked miserable. Overall the resort is beautiful and I see how people return often but I did hear a lot of returning customers grumbling over cost and food choice while there this time. The activities are great but not on par with holidays by Neilson or Mark Warner in Europe, especially the water sports which are good fun but very limited as there is sometimes a long queue of people for a 2 minute ski or tube pull which was surprising because the resort was less than 50% full. Some of the staff were brilliant especially Donna & the bodyguards. The real highlight was when Anthony turned up and started motivating everyone to get involved in the activities. This changed the whole vibe of the resort as when we arrived we were the only participants in some of the beach fit classes and spin classes but once Anthony and many of his returning guests arrived the next spin class was full and beach fit had 15 plus people which made it so much more enjoyable. I had an incredible back and neck massage from Cheryl on the last day and a great Serenity massage from Trisha. Dwayne was by far the best beach operative and always kept bringing us drinks and helped with beach towels etc. On the days he wasn't around it was really noticeable how much harder he worked compared the others on duty as we didn't see them. The welcome drinks at the Villa up the hill was great and the sunset boat ride on Friday night was really good fun. Overall a really good holiday and I wouldn't rule out coming back if I knew Anthony would be there but the cost is prohibitive as I have visited alternative locations which have better activities, food choice, rooms and service for less money. However the Bodyholiday does all of it well