Steve B.
Hotel Websites completely misleading
We booked "The House" hotel in Barbados for a relaxing beach holiday, (we booked via BA) based on the hotel’s website & BA’s. Their website clearly shows a nice sandy beach stretching the whole width of the hotel. Upon arrival, it became immediately apparent that substantial construction work was taking place at The House itself, in addition to the ongoing works at Tamarind. We had not been told about this in advance. It was also immediately obvious that the beach bore little resemblance to the photographs and descriptions displayed on either the hotel websites. The extensive beach shown in the promotional material simply no longer existed. The beach had been washed away during Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 and that restoration work had not been undertaken because of the refurbishment of the Marriott properties. Despite this, The Hotel didn’t update their websites or removed the pre-hurricane photographs. For almost two years they continued to market the hotel using images and descriptions that no longer reflected reality. Had the true condition of the beach been accurately represented, I would never have booked this holiday. They are still putting posts out on Facebook showing the beach that doesn't exist, despite being told by numerous people to stop misrepresenting the truth. The remaining section of beach was extremely narrow, steeply sloping and largely unusable. The sun loungers were positioned on an incline, making them uncomfortable and rendering the tables impractical to use. This limited beach area was also directly adjacent to the construction site. The construction work itself was by far the most serious issue. It took place throughout the day, every day, including weekends, and frequently continued until around 10.00 pm. The beach was directly in front of the building site with no screening whatsoever. The constant noise from drills, hammers, angle grinders and construction equipment, together with builders repeatedly shouting to one another across different floors, made it impossible to relax. Dust and debris from the site regularly blew across the beach and surrounding public areas. There was nowhere within the hotel public areas where guests could escape the noise or disruption. Marriott should have closed this hotel whilst the building work was going on, updated their website & not put their staff in the position of having to defend this situation. One further minor issue that just shows that Marriot Bonvoy cannot be trusted is regarding the use of facilities at their other properties. Most are free, but if you want to eat at The Colony, you pay but get a 30% discount. What they don’t tell you in advance is that you have to pay $150 each to join the Colony club for the day. I will never book another holiday in a hotel owned by Marriot Bonvoy, they are dishonest & mis represent the reality of what you get.

