Morningstar Buoy Haus Beach Resort at Frenchman’s Reef, Autograph Collection

Why book?

Subtly stylish and surprisingly unassuming, with low-key, warmly attentive service, this private-feeling, 94-room boutique retreat in St. Thomas sits just steps from the pristine turquoise waters of a quiet, protected cove and the curve of the soft-powder beach that fronts it. Bonus: It’s got just enough of a South Beach vibe to make it seductive while still keeping things family friendly.

Set the scene

This spot is special. Though you’re a quick 20-minute drive from St. Thomas’s international airport, and even closer to the major harbors and historic downtown areas where cruise ships dock—and there’s a 392-room Westin next door that Buoy Haus shares some amenities with—you’d almost never know it. Even on a recent visit that fell over a spring break week, the place barely felt crowded, whether on the beach, by the 120-foot-long pool, or at the three open-air restaurants. Buoy Haus’s series of two- and three-story white-stucco-and-clapboard bungalow-style buildings, topped by white-glazed tiled roofs, sit at an angle to the beach and water, the better to maximize views of the peaceful cove.

The place brings in a mix of couples both younger and older and families with school-aged kids (especially over vacation weeks), which makes sense since the vibe can feel fun and carefree by day and more romantic in the evenings. The higher price point and boutique aesthetic here, compared to the Westin, means it attracts a relatively affluent crowd. We’re not talking Birkins at the beach; the scene is more straw farmers market baskets and leather-and-canvas totes.

Guests can reach the Westin side of the property by taking a lobby-to-lobby hotel shuttle—cutely styled like one of the local taxis, with bench-style seats installed under a canopy in the back of a customized pickup truck or by walking along a beachfront path and then climbing up a series of a hundred steps. You can also take an elevator to cut out all but about twenty stairs (but then you won’t see the iguanas who sun themselves each morning at the top of the tall waterfall along the way).

The backstory

A longtime Marriott, this property was newly redesigned and reopened as an Autograph Collection property in the spring of 2023. That was more than five and a half years after hurricanes Irma and Maria walloped both it and its higher-rise sister building, which is now that nearly-400-room Westin. The entire island took a serious one-two punch of a hurricane beating; residents managed without power for months, and without the livelihoods supported by the tourism industry for much longer.

Now part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection of independently branded boutique properties, Buoy Haus, along with the Westin, are managed today by Aimbridge Hospitality and owned by the New York firm Fortress Investment Group. Ownership spent $425 million on the redevelopment of Frenchman’s Reef, and today, the two hotels employ some 500 people, 85% of them from St. Thomas itself.

Further in the past, the rocky promontory on which the Westin sits was a naval installation, sited there because of its strategic location at the entry to a natural harbor. In the mid-1970s, the building housing the Westin opened as the very first Holiday Inn resort in the Caribbean, with Buoy Haus’s beachfront location opening as a low-rise motor inn shortly after.

The rooms

Decidedly beachy, but with a dose of urban—even Parisian—chic, the hotel’s 94 rooms—all of them virtually identical—combine warm elements (like honeyed wood tones, burnished bronze accents, woven rugs, and a feature wall painted a light clay-colored hue) with cooler ones (including soft, pale gray and ivory-hued upholstery, floors of large ceramic tiles, and crisp white bedding). Every room has a king-sized bed plus a sofa that pulls out into a queen, as well as a large desk/console area, a round, stone-topped table for work or play, and a woven-front armoire to hold everything you packed. The greatest feature, though, may well be the wall-sized sliding-glass door that opens to a private balcony or patio outfitted with a table and seats, plus a hanging, swinging basket chair. Half of the rooms have water views, while the garden-view rooms look over plantings of palms and other tropical flora, including bright-pink flowering bougainvillea. One of the hotel’s buildings has a series of joining rooms, their connections made through adjacent balconies rather than interior doors. There is also one true suite here—the Sea You Later Suite—offering a large living area in one of its two king bedrooms.

Food and drink

This is the kind of place where you sort of just want to drink local beer and rum daiquiris and eat fish tacos for days—and they’ve got all that, with fresh Caribbean catches like mahi mahi gently grilled and served in soft tortillas along with various other tropical delights at the Salt Shack. This three-meal-a-day waterside spot also handles service to the chaise lounges on the beach and by the pool. That pool, for its part, has its own swim-up bar, the better to enjoy your fill of summer ale from St. John Brewers and daiquiris spiked with the St. Thomas-made Botany Bay Rum.

The hotel teamed up with a local restaurant group for the finer-dining offerings located within the open-air lobby building: The ceviche and the Caribbean lobster lettuce cups, with a glass of Vinho Verde, proved themselves standouts at the Spanish-Portuguese SandBar, which serves lunch and dinner, while winners on the Latin American-meet-Asian menu from the dinner-only Isla Blue upstairs included Peruvian tiradito and sashimi-style yellowtail with crispy rice cakes. Buoy Haus guests can also eat at the Westin’s restaurants, with Shorebird—which does daily buffet breakfast and Sunday brunch—being the one most worth the trip over.

The spa

Buoy Haus doesn’t have its own spa, but you can book appointments from the extensive menu of massages, facials, body treatments, and salon services at the thirteen-room, 10,000-plus-square-foot Heavenly Spa at the Westin.

The service

Employees here lead with friendliness, and guests are made to feel not just welcomed but like staff are genuinely happy to see them. Hotel management seems to have gone out of its way to find, train, and promote great local talent, and people born with the so-called “hospitality gene.” Mention of an almost-six-year-old’s upcoming birthday was met with an in-room cake and candles after dinner one night, as well as a stuffed animal sea turtle at turndown.

This style of service extends off property, where the hotel has partnered with RED Hospitality and Leisure to create a menu of largely waterborne excursions and programming on a fleet of eight boats. The jewel in the crown of that fleet, the sixty-five-foot sailing catamaran the Flying Frenchman, takes several trips a day out for snorkeling and beach adventures to nearby locales including St. John, Buck Island, and Water Island, and it also does dinner and sunset sailings.

At both ends of the beach, meanwhile, attendants are on hand to outfit you with towels, chaises, and snorkel gear, if you’d like it, plus kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, and even small Hobie Cat sailboats. By the pool, you can book and pay for a shaded cabana or, without reservations (or the added fee), get set up on a chaise under an umbrella.

The Westin’s got three more pools, including an adults-only one with its own swim-up bar, plus pickle ball and a fitness center a bit larger than Buoy Haus’s own. Off property but on land, the hotel can help arrange zip-lining, an aerial tram ride, trips into town with stops at museums or for shopping and meals, and more.

For families

Beyond Buoy Haus’s great beach and big pool—and the very kid-friendly dishes readily available at pretty much every restaurant (with Isla Blue being a bit of an exception)—the Westin also has a daily kid’s club, with lunch included in the fee, and Buoy Haus guests are welcome to make use of it. The programming available on a recent visit was largely an indoor affair, with arts and crafts, board games, a big screen for movies, and some video games on hand, though exact offerings do change. The staff there clearly enjoy kids, which is no small thing.

Guest rooms’ queen pull-out sofa beds make extra space for sleeping kiddos, and the hotel can also have a travel crib set up for the littlest ones. The turndown gifts of stuffed animals and carved wooden sea turtles all spark juvenile joy, too.

Eco effort

The hotel provides reusable water bottles in rooms for guests’ use, and it has ditched single use plastic cups that once might have been used poolside and at the beach and other outdoor venues, replacing them with harder plastic, reusable versions. The resort also buys produce from local farms on St. Thomas.

Accessibility

The hotel is generally ADA accessible. An elevator in its lobby connects the ground level up to the Isla Blue restaurant, and the pool has a lift for anyone who would need help getting in and out, without using the stairs. ADA-accessible rooms in all categories at Buoy Haus are on the ground-floor since the buildings housing the accommodations do not have elevators to their second and third stories.

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