Choose Your View at Caribbean Resort

Don't book a garden view and end up looking at the parking lot.

ByABC News
July 29, 2014, 2:05 PM

July 29, 2014— -- It's your well-deserved a vacation, and you've booked an ocean view room.

The porter opens the door to your hotel room and you rush to the window, anxious to soak up the sea. But all you see is some -- albeit lovely -- landscaping. But if you position your body up against the window and crane your neck all the way to the left ... there it is! Your sliver of ocean view.

Sound familiar? All too often, rooms labeled "ocean view" are barely that. How about "garden view"? That can mean almost anything, including a view of the parking lot in the distance.

One hotel is attempting to solve the problem of getting less than what you booked by offering a "choose your view" feature. Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort has launched a virtual website that allows guests to see and explore views from the various guest rooms available at the resort before they book.

The site features 15-second videos with “island,” “water” “garden” and “beach” views, along with an interactive map for the location of the room on the property at the 478-room resort on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

For example, an island view room does, indeed, have views of the island, but travelers who watch the video will know ahead of time they will also have the parking lot in sight, something not easily seen from the room photos. The water view room video, on the other hand, shows the expansive view of the ocean waves and the resort pool from the room balcony.

The resort isn't the only property in the Caribbean to offer view videos. Marriott Aruba also lets potential guests choose a view.