Our February 2017 vacay consisted of a 5 day visit with friends in St Croix and then an island hop over to St Martin for 6 nights on the French side. We booked our flights on Liat Air for Feb 10th - it is a 50 min flight and cost $70USD each. Liat Air has informed us that they are no longer flying on Fridays and our flights have been moved to Wed Feb 8th. We have 21 days from notification to accept the change or get a refund. Researching alternative flights has me believing 'you can't get there from here' unless you want to blow your budget - $465 USD each - leaving St Croix at 6AM and landing in STX at Noon. - Two things wrong with this - the considerable increase in cost and the time spent getting there - spending an extra 5 hours and taking 3 flights does not sound pleasant to us. Please note that we are Canadian and with current exchange rates the difference in the fares is actually $1120 Cdn.
So now we are onto plan B - take the Wed flights - perhaps arrive in St Croix one day earlier so that our visit with our friends is not so short and spend 2 days on the Dutch side before we go to our reservations at La Playa on Feb 10th. The challenge with this idea is that most places want you to book 7 nights. I have found Mary's Boon will rent 2 nights.
Our questions:
Do you have any recommendations of a short term rental?
Is Mary's Boon close to restaurants and night clubs?
Is Mary's Boon a nice place?
Any and all advice will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Pixie

Mary's Boon is a decent place and has an onsite restaurant and is located on a nice beach. It is not really within walking distance of a main restaurant area but Karakter beach bar/restaurant is just down the beach.

You might also try Turquoise Shell as they may do a 2 day rental and they are on the same beach and are within walking distance to several restaurants.

Good luck.

To expand a bit on what ruralcarrier has told you, we've stayed at Mary's Boon and quite like it. We often choose to spend our beach days there being 'boonies' for a day, but that said, we would not enjoy staying in the below-grade rooms there and I would just suggest you get a room location in writing. Many say the room doesn't matter but truthfully, to us it does. Beyond that, we really like Mary's Boon and have chosen to stay there a few times over the years.

The obvious, booking the two extra days at La Playa, I'm sure has been considered and vetoed for whatever the reason. Did you consider the Holland House Beach Hotel on Front Street? I haven't stayed there but it would put you in the heart of Philipsberg and right on the beach there, making for access to lots of fun places along the Boardwalk to eat and celebrate.

The month of February can be very busy on the island, particularly the middle of the month, so I'm thinking Sonesta Maho, which is possibly all-inclusive, or Pasanggrahan, both of which are considered hotels as opposed to timeshares might also be doable. We haven't stayed at any of my suggestions within the past five years but we've eaten meals at all of them and we enjoyed each place for different reasons when we stayed there. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Your airport abbreviation (STX), I assume you mean to be ST. Maarten, when in fact that is the abbreviation for St. Croix. Regardless, not sure I would do that at all, especially for that kind of price.

Mary's Boon would be perfectly acceptable for a two night stay. It is an older hotel, with a more Caribbean feel. Do be aware, as Pat said, of the 'below grade' rooms. I would NOT accept one of those rooms, but I would think they should have plenty of other choices available, even if not ocean view, unless you want to pay a fair amount of money. They had been having some complaints regarding maintenance of the rooms, but I certainly would not have any hesitation at booking there. They have a really nice beach there, and they have their own restaurant, as well as Karakter next door. Not really walking distance to any other restaurants (at night), but a very quick car ride to many different places, and I assume that you will be renting a car.

Thank you to everyone for your advice and input. I spent most of the morning perusing and trying 'what if' scenerios. Originally we thought that we would stay our extra 2 days around the Simpson Bay area on the Dutch side as we are already booked onto the French side for 6 days. We so appreciate all of your comments and suggestions on hotels.
In conclusion we have made a total about face as we were able to procure a special price at LOVE hotel in Grand Case. We had wanted to explore Grand Case and discussed that this would be an opportunity. We still want to explore the Dutch side of the island but have decided that will be another adventure.
This forum board is invaluable to us newbies who are trying to absorb some tips from you more frequent SXM visitors.
Thank you once again for all your help.
Cheers
Pixie

Good for you! Enjoy your stay!