Sandals ResortsReviews of sandals.com

Cost: $800+ per night (not including airfare) I did a lot of research and chose this resort due to the "endless" water sports and activities it promoted on their website, including unlimited snorkeling and diving. I have stayed at Superclubs and other all-inclusive resorts in the past and was very happy with them, but had read good things about Sandals, so I thought I would try something new.

The resort was a huge disappointment, due to the misleading claims on their website: Rooms Promoted: Windsor Honeymoon Club Level Oversized Junior Suite with pool and tropical garden view promoted as 5-star Actual: 2-1/2 star at best. The room looked nothing like the photos! The “garden view” was a view of the pink apartment complex and parking lot next door, with bars on the windows and car alarms going off every morning. The balcony was barely big enough for 2 people; the curtains were tattered and torn; furniture was worn and scratched; the decor was non-existent and amenities were cheap quality. The mini bar was never re-stocked, and the room was not cleaned one day. The nightly turn-down was non-existent. I have stayed at Holiday Inn’s that were nicer, and it absolutely was not a “suite”. Exclusive Island Promoted: Exclusive offshore island, accessible by shuttle, sailboat or kayak in minutes, with one beach for exploring the Bahamas' best snorkeling, the other for high-energy water sports. Actual: 1/3 of an island shared with another resort. Snorkeling dod NOT include snorkel gear as promised (we had to find a store and buy our own) and there were no water sports. The island was accessible by shuttle boat only for limited hours (no sailboats or kayaks as stated); the Island was completely closed one day, and 2 other days required a 45 minute wait for a shuttle bus to bring us downtown to the main docks, and a long boat ride (all of which took over an hour—a far cry from the “minutes” you promoted) Diving Promoted: Your website clearly states that “If you are a certified diver, we let you dive every day (except departure day) - twice a day with one tank or once a day with two tanks...it’s all included Actual: We arrived late afternoon on a Sunday. After a long check-in, the dive center was closed. We arrived at the dive center first thing Monday morning with our PADI cards and medical releases, as requested on your website. We were told if we hadn’t dived in the last 90 days, we would have to take a pool test at a cost of $80pp, and we could not take it until Tuesday. We took the pool test on Tuesday, and after passing, were told the first day we could dive was Wednesday. Wednesday morning we arrived for our first dive, only to be told the dive was cancelled for the day. Again, we scheduled to dive every day for the remainder of our trip. Thursday we had one dive only; Friday was cancelled; Saturday and Sunday we were able to finally able to do 2 dives. So out of 8 days, we were only able to dive 2-1/2. Watersports & snorkeling Promoted: Largest watersports operation in the Caribbean with over 270 specialty boats; Unlimited watersports including canoes/kayaks, windsurfing, water trikes, snorkeling, hobie cats, sailboats, wakeboarding & paddleboarding; complimentary lessons. Actual: Where was this? We saw a dozen or so kayaks and paddleboards, and a couple of water trikes on the very small beach. We were not allowed in the water due to wind for the first 5 days of our 8 day vacation. Snorkeling had to be scheduled a day in advance, and was cancelled every day we scheduled it. We were not allowed to use the snorkel equipment, so we had to find a store to purchase our own equipment to snorkel on the island they promoted. We were finally able to take out a kayak on the last day. The glass bottom boat and unlimited water skiing was no where to be found. Tours Promoted: Optional tours & fishing available Actual: We had our heart set on a day of fishing. However, all tours had to be scheduled at least a day in advance, and all started at the same time as the diving and snorkeling trips, meaning we could only schedule one activity a day. We originally booked a fishing day, but when our diving and snorkeling trips were cancelled for 4 days, we had to cancel our fishing trip in order to schedule a dive trip that wasn’t cancelled. We are an active couple, and would never book a vacation to sit around a pool all day. We booked this resort based on the large number of activities they listed on their website. Instead, we spent 5 out of 8 days stuck around a pool drinking watered-down drinks. Land sports were limited to 1 shuffleboard court with a broken scorekeeper, 1 bocci ball court, 2 tennis courts and 2 pools tables for the whole resort. After 3 days of sitting by the pool we went to the front desk and requested to speak to the manager about a refund so we could leave early. After explaining why we wanted to leave, including the room and the reasons stated above, one employee rudely said “so you don’t like the weather?”.(We never mentioned the weather, and didn’t have a problem with it.) They then told us to have a seat. After 15 or so minutes, we were told we were welcome to leave anytime, and call Sandals when we arrived back in the states. In other words, you are free to leave, but we are interested in helping you. The manager never acknowledged us. Since we had paid a large sum for this vacation, we decided to stay and try and make the best of it, although I spent the next 2 days in tears over the inexcusable customer service we received from this “5-star” resort. After returning home, I contacted Sandals about the issues above multiple times requesting a partial refund or credit. The response I received was "they were sorry for my disappointment, It is our hope that the positive memories of your Sandals’ holiday will encourage you to revisit a Sandals Resort..." They also offered to gift me a few bonus points if I would like to join their frequent guest program. Their standard response seems to be to use it as an opportunity for a sales pitch to book another Sandals vacation. This is by far the worse customer experience I have ever encountered.

Simple, don't go here. If there could be zero stars - that what they deserve. I tried for 6 months to get compensation.. then gave up. They ruined our honeymoon and any memory of what should have been a wonderful (and was expensive!!) time. If you’ve ever experience poor or disappointing customer service, the most infuriating element of it is when you don’t think the company and its staff care – this is what creates the upset, bad press and emotion. That is why I'm writing this review. Every single touch point we’ve had regarding this 'holiday' from start to present day has been disappointing – which flies in the face of, to quote their marketing slogan, “when perfection isn’t enough”! From the initial holiday booking (no reply to emails, no one answering calls, or returning calls. No confirmation of butler preferences, then them being wrong), to arriving in Jamaica (awful reception desk area, no toilets working, travelling in an old unsafe taxi on a 2+ hour journey, waiting 30 minutes to be taken to our room) to the ‘holiday’ itself – not only has there been no luxury, 5* service, basic courtesy and standard customer service have been missed too. We contacted their customer services department 12+ weeks ago to raise our complaint of a disaster of a honeymoon here – no compensation or resolution so far. The details: My husband and I honeymooned at Ocho Rios resort in Jamaica – our honeymoon was the gift from all our wedding guests, so had extra special significance. We were profoundly disappointed with our stay, primarily due to the poor attitude of the staff. There were some food and accommodation issues, which we could have forgiven had the customer-service element been better. Our butlers were frosty some days and fine others, this put us a bit on edge before our meetings, wondering what mood we would find them in. Tipping them made some difference, but I stopped this towards the end, as I felt we were not rewarding great service, but instead paying not to receive poor service. The main upset we experienced was the rudeness of one female receptionist, Jeamae Jamoyer, whilst trying to sort out the bill. She seemed to delight in being rude and unhelpful, despite the errors and inconvenience we'd been caused was the fault of reception - and she refused to accept the poor service or offer any apology. Her manager got involved, and was equally unhelpful. It's almost as if they'd been trained not to empathise or take any responsibility when anything went wrong, and customers were left disappointed. Following the 20 minute incident at reception, our butlers seemed to get worse. We didn’t really see or hear from in them in the penultimate days. We were so disappointed we remained in our apartment for the last two days, having room service on the last night, as we could not deal with anymore staff attitude. We will never return to this resort. The food and accommodation elements; - On arrival we were put into a room on the perimeter of the complex, the air conditioning in the room was dripping onto the sitting room desk, the room smelt of damp, the toilet didn’t flush and the shower and towel rail were hanging off the wall (we have attached some photos). We spoke to someone about this the next morning and spent the next few hours unpacking and moving rooms once one became available. - The food was really sub-standard. We enjoyed a few meals, but predominantly, it was really disappointing. Needless to say, we have no positive memories of what was sold to us as a honeymoon paradise, and didn’t enjoy the countless conversations with family and friends on arrival back to the UK on how it had gone. If it was my business I would want to know what was going on here so our recommendation is to send in a few ‘mystery guests’ or an ‘undercover boss’ to the resort as we believe it is irreparably tarnishing the Sandals name.

I booked a 9 night holiday hotel only £3200 I changed the holiday to 7 nights they fined me £700!!! Although in terms an amendment fee of £50 each was due they decided to treat it as a cancellation, although no where does it mention fines in terms only that if other suppliers are affected they ‘may’ have to recoup the money, as I’d only booked with them this wasn’t the case, the customer service tried to tell me on the day of the change the rates changed so much that this also contributed to loss, I am now taking the case to civil court in the UK . I wanted to cancel whole holiday but they wanted another £900 for that!!! Will never use this company again and I would advise you to do likewise to charge £700 to amend a holiday is criminal and I hope the courts see it the same way

My wife slipped on a wet tiled slope in the main hotel, sustained a serious fracture and needed to have an emergency operation on her wrist at the cost USD$18,000. I told Sandals that she needed to go to hospital on first contact with the resort nurse and the representative, however Sandals arranged a taxi to get x-rays and a doctor's second opinion on the injury before taking us to a private hospital 80km away. The delay (6 hours) we now know caused additional damage to my wife's nerves and has extended her recovery time considerably. The wet area of the hotel did not have any warning signs and we were both wearing good quality high grip footwear. But Sandals have not accepted any responsibility for the incident, the safety of the area, lack of warning signs, the delays & lack of an ambulance. Sandals have offered a gesture of goodwill but it was also accompanied by a legal gagging order. This gesture however does not cover the current medical and other associated costs, loss of earnings due to her injury, long term physiotherapy now needed and the impact on her qualify of life during this period. BE WARNED, if you need medical assistance, you will need to pay for everything yourself and in my opinion Sandals tried to limit their own liability before doing the right thing for the patient.

Terrible service created a disappointing 25th anniversary. Had to hire a taxi to the hotel in Montego Bay because they couldn’t find the driver. Cold coffee from room service, incorrect meal orders, rude employees, and dishonest customer service before the trip. If you want a nice trip, go somewhere else! And, enjoy my review...they offered me $800 not to post the truth about their bad service.

I used to be the biggest fan but the way they treat customers with over 100 paid nights I’d disgraceful! I was unfortunate enough to be there at the time hurricane Matthew was due and they basically shut everything. All the bars, restaurants (except one buffet line) room service, butler service, tours and most activities! They also stopped serving alcohol! They promised credit nights but what I got did not even cover the cost of half of one night in the same room, at the same time of year. My issue was not that they had to close stuff, it was that even once the hurricane shifted course, so it was no longer heading for us they still kept everything shut, some restaurants only opened three days after the threat had passed! They also promised credit nights and they gave me a voucher for two nights - even though most things were shut for four days! However when I went to use the voucher to book the same room, at the same time of year for two nights they asked my for another £1200! I queried this and their response was terrible - remember I have probably spent £100k with them over the years and all I wanted was what I thought I had been promised! I promised to make sure customers knew of my experinace and they accused me of coercion, they made trip advisor remove my review - even though it didn’t breach the guidelines and have made no better offer than paying me £1200 to get my “two credit nights”. Don’t bother they treat people badly!

My boyfriend and I were traveling to Sandals resort last September for a short Bahamian getaway. We were also traveling to another resort on Nassau for the second half of our trip. Unfortunately, Hurricane Irma disrupted our arriving flights (postponed by a day and then cancelled) and outright cancelled our return flights completely. The Island was evacuated during this hurricane. Sandals resort was absolutely horrific to deal with and not only refused to refund our money (while the other resort refunded our money quite easily) they would not provide us the necessary documentation to receive compensation from travel insurance provided on my credit card! First, Sandals offered to delay the trip by a week until after the hurricane passed. This is not how vacations work, however, and as I couldn't take off a second week from work, this did not work as a solution. After politely explaining this, Sandals simply said that there was nothing else they could do. In order to receive compensation from my credit card company, I needed to have a letter from Sandals, on their letterhead, saying that I wasn't able to stay at their resort because of the hurricane and confirm that they wouldn't reimburse me (this record is important for the credit card claim so people do not get compensated twice for a travel disruption). It took MULTIPLE emails to get Sandals to finally respond to this request and they wrote "This is to confirm that XXX did not check in. This was due to Hurricane Irma. We did offer them credits and hope to be able to serve them soon." The credit card claim can not be filled if there are outstanding credits so I wrote back asking for a revised letter with the expiration date on the credits. Again, after multiple days (perhaps weeks) and reminder emails, they wrote back that the credits expire after a year. This was NOT what they communicated to me initially; they said that we could shift our trip by one week. With the expiration date of a year, I would need to wait until the credits expired to receive compensation from my travel insurance through my credit card company. They suggested I ask Sandals to provide me a letter indicating that I had forfeited the credits. I wrote back to Sandals and after weeks, I received an email stating that they could not fulfill this request. I explained that I was not asking for compensation from them but just to forfeit my credits so I could avail myself of the travel insurance but they said that they still could not. After months of emailing and calling, I finally was put in contact with a kind soul who let me know that despite the fact that they wrote the letter regarding the credits, there was no record of the credits in their system. He gave me an email to reach out to and I ultimately was able to get an email saying that my trip was cancelled so I could provide this to my credit card. This ordeal took six months and dozens of emails and calls. I always explained the situation respectfully and politely, often in tears, stating clearly that I was not asking Sandals for compensation, but that I only wanted them to provide a simple letter so I could receive my travel insurance coverage.

My Wife and I are DISGUSTED with VIRGIN & SANDALS Holidays I am completely disgusted by the way we have been treated by Virgin. My partner and i have recently just got married and decided to book a holiday through Virgin. we originally went in to book the Maldives however was quickly persuaded to go to Jamaica and have our Honeymoon at a Sandals Resort we was shown some lovely photos of Sandals OCHI and was told if we paid for the butler service we would have our own personal butlers which we thought sounded lovely. so this is what we chose. we arrived at the Hotel and was taken to our Villa. our butler took us up there and we dint really see them again after that for the 1st week. after a long journey and arriving at 7pm we both was very tired and just wanted to have a shower and go get some food and go straight to bed however we turned the shower on and had no HOT water we called reception to see if they can get this fixed they said they would send someone up the next day as the plumber had gone. cut a long story short we stayed in that room for 2 days waiting for it to be fixed no HOT water in the end we was told we had to move to a different room. 2nd Room we was told the butlers would pack and unpack due to what has happened but yet again this never happened and my wife and i was left to deal with it. we was just happy to be in a room now with hot water however on the second morning of waking up in this room we woke to the bathroom ceiling falling through. so now we couldn't have a shower again as the roof was caving in due to a burst pipe. we contacted reception again to explain what has happened they told us we would have someone there soon to fix it and told us to carry on with what we was doing for the day and when we return it will be fixed. we came back from the beech to find nothing had been done to fix the problem again and was told the manager would be up to see us before we got for food. we couldn't shower in our apartment but we had met a lovely couple on holiday who allowed us to use there shower, thank god they did otherwise we would not have been able too go to dinner as we was covered in sand from the beech. finally the manager turned up to the room at 7.30 and said we will have to move room again. This is now the second time my wife and i have had to pack and unpack since being at the resort for 5 days and move into 3 apartments. We paid a lot of money for this holiday over £7.5k and it was a once in a life time holiday for us as it was our honeymoon. since we raised this complaint through Virgin & Sandals we have heard nothing. i have had to chase virgin 5 times and we are now in November. i keep getting fobbed off every time i ring i have asked to escalate this complaint higher and was told there was no managers around. My wife and I are completely disgusted in the way Virgin and Sandals have treated us. They have just taken the money and couldn't care less that they ruined our Honeymoon. NEVER WILL I USE THESE COMPANIES AGAIN STAY WELL CLEAR OF THIS RESORT HOTEL OCHI (SANDALS RESORT) NEVER USE VIRGIN HOLIDAYS AGAIN. DISGUSTING COMPANY