Sandals ResortsReviews of sandals.com

My review is all down to sandals customer service in the UK. I actually had a decent holiday the time I went and felt looked after by the resort staff etc. but their customer services completely let them down and I’ve literally had a better level of service from budget airlines like Ryanair. My first trip with sandals, I had an amazing trip booked. Upgraded flights and a butler suite. I splashed out because it was due to be my honeymoon. Unfortunately the trip had to be moved because of covid. It happens. I wasn’t offered a refund and was told I could either rebook the same holiday or take “credit”. I enquired about the “same holiday” option and they told me that my booking had gone up in price and I had obtained “an excellent deal” that they could no longer honour so for the same price my holiday was changed to the bog standard everything. Fast forward a few months and we were due to go and the government were advising us against travel to Jamaica tendering our insurance invalid. Sandals then cancelled our trip presumably because of this. I was offered a holiday change to Antigua on the same dates (near enough) but then entered the “up sells”. Antigua is a nicer resort and even though our trip had been cancelled, they wouldn’t let us change it unless we paid an extra £400. I very reluctantly agreed and paid the money. This was about a week before travel. I then received contact a day later and I was told there were no rooms left available at the price I had paid. They told me I would need to pay another £600 for the next room up. At this point I was starting to wonder if I was being scammed by a fraudster pretending to be sandals. I was sat thinking how can this 5* hotel and resort chain have such ridiculous policies. Alas it was not a fraudster. I refused and was told that they would have to cancel my holiday. I tried to explain to them that this was their mistake and it wasn’t a hardship for them to just put me in that room that would otherwise be empty without charging me more and I even said about them upgrading someone else and putting me in a standard room. They gave zero f**ks. I ended up cancelling the whole trip and other than the £400 I sent them the day before, I had to take “credit” for my entire fee so i had to book with them again a year later so my money wasn’t wasted. As I said, when I eventually got a holiday it was amazing but they should be ashamed of this kind of service. I made a complaint and my response was rude and dismissive with about 200 spelling mistakes. I should have shared my email trail on their Twitter really. I booked with them a second time recently a few years on. Due to go in 4 weeks. Luckily my booking has been more low maintenance with no cancellations or dodgy upsells. However I have emailed them 3 times to try and get my booking added to the app so I can claim the loyalty etc. each time they have replied telling me they need information that is clearly in the email I have sent them and then when I have replied I have been ghosted. I wonder if their employees are idiots or they don’t exist and they are using AI or something to reply to complaints and customer service questions. Nowhere near as bad as the first experience but there is a clear pattern. Adding to that, their website is clearly built by a 7year old. It makes up loads of discounts and when you put codes in (such as the emergency service discount) it still quotes you the same price as if you don’t put the code in. They advertise prices on their “offer” page which often aren’t available anymore so they are essentially false advertising. It baffles me that they aren’t out of business. Maybe the Americans get a better service. But the service in Europe is abysmal! Do better sandals.

Booking a vacation for 10 people was brutal. It took hours to set up; the website is poorly designed. The representative told me that I could cancel any time in the next 2 months at no charge. However this didnt include the travel insurance. 5 rooms at $250 = $1,250 I am now out of pocket with no recourse other than to never book a vacation with Sandals or Beaches. I consider this to be a dishonest business practice.

Shocking! Had to have an interview about food??? Yes..we dont eat meat...actually we didnt eat anything!! There were starving cats who wouldnt eat the food we put in front of them. Catering for the American taste i was told. We had a corner swim up room where dead leaves etc built up so for most of the time it looked as unappetising to swim in as the food was to eat. We asked to extend our stay and we had packed by the time we were told we could. Never again!!

Stay History: January 10th: Arrival date, all went smoothly, and we were checked in and escorted to our room. That evening, we ate at the La Tavola; I had fettuccine alla Bolognese and Jerri had penne Alfredo. The meal was wonderful. After the meal we strolled on the beach for a while and retired to our room. No signs of illness at this point as we both went to sleep from the busy day. January 11th: After waking up from our sleep, we dressed appropriately and went to Spices and had the breakfast buffet. Afterwards we went to the beach bar area and had a pizza from Bella Napoli, where we relaxed for the day anticipating our beach candlelight dinner at 8:00 pm that evening. We did not have anything to eat between breakfast and dinner. We were greeted at our room and escorted to the beach from the table setup for us. I had. I had the steak and lobster tail; Jerri had the salmon, and we split the bottle of champagne along with ice water. We finished our dinner, took a stroll around the property, and retired to our room; there were no apparent signs at this point of any illness. January 12th: We woke up late morning with neither of us having any signs of illness. We decided to have lunch at the Mariner Seaside Bar & Grill, where we each had a hamburger and fries. After we ate, we layed out on the beach for a few hours, at which point Jerri’s stomach was upset as well as mine. We spent the rest of the day in the room feeling sick and did not venture outside for any additional activities or food that day. As the evening progressed, we both felt sicker than we did earlier. We had expressed our not feeling well to the front desk. Not sure exactly what time that was. They did check on us later and asked if there was anything they could do, and we said, Can you make the illness go away? and the individual at the door said, No, and left. This is when I developed diarrhea, which progressively got worse. We spent the balance of our trip in our room. January 13th: We spent the entire day in the room with our illness getting progressively worse; we did not eat or drink anything that entire day. During the evening, my diarrhea was so severe that I soiled the bed, the floor, and the bathroom and became so weak that I fell to the floor, lying in my own mess. Jerri called the front desk, which promptly sent two employees to the room to help me get back into bed, only to lie in my own mess. I spent the rest of the night crawling to the bathroom in my own mess, barely able to lift myself up to sit on the bathroom stool and to get back in bed. It took me quite a bit of time to return to the bed once again to lie in my mess. Throughout the balance of the night, I continually had diarrhea through early morning. January 14th: Upon packing to leave, I still had diarrhea with uncontrollable bowel movements, wondering how I was going to handle the plane flight back home. Jerri was still ill but did not have bowel issues, only a very upset stomach. After showering and taking a taxi to the airport, I managed to make it but had an immediate need for a restroom at the airport. I made it through the flight to Miami and had an uncontrollable urge to use the restroom. As I was walking to the restroom, I was having bowel movements, and by the time I reached the bathroom stall, I had completely soiled my jeans. I had to call Jerri to find a pair of shorts and bring them to the men's room, where there was a gentleman kind enough to pass them off to me. I had to wash myself with toilet bowl water, put on the shorts, wrap the jeans in a ball, and throw them in the trash. Somehow I managed to make it to Orlando without further incident, where we picked up our car and headed home. On January 15th, I continued to have diarrhea throughout the day, so I called my personal physician, and he had me try a few things, none of which worked. Taking Imodium was one of them. He told me if it doesn't get better by day's end, go to the emergency room. I did not have any food again and drank only bottled water the entire day, and still there were no signs of improvement; I still had uncontrollable bowel movements. January 16th That morning I was so weak that I fell two times; after the second fall, I continued to have uncontrollable bowel movements. I went to an emergency room, where I was told I was in pretty bad shape. They admitted me into the hospital, where I spent that afternoon and evening, January 17th & 18th, in the hospital and was told It was something I ate and also had severe hypotension with a blood pressure of 60 over 38. After extensive treatments as noted in the medical records, I was released on the 18th with some control over my bowel movements.

This was our first vacation with Sandals and our last. Having had our first week in a much smaller hotel in Barbados we checked in to our pre-paid room in the main Mediterranean building. Within 24 hours I noticed a pool of water in the toilet area. I saw that water was running down 2 walls. The front desk informed me within half an hour that there was a problem 3 floors up and it was being fixed. When we returned to our room in late afternoon, it had not been fixed and worse, there was another deluge dripping in the bedroom area. People at the front desk seemed to think there was no urgency to either visit or attend the room until I started shouting that we needed a room change immediately. Fortuitously, one of the senior managers came out and visited the room and agreed we should change the room. I asked if we could change to the Caribbean side, which I realised was much quieter and to be fair to the management a room was found which was much superior (Caribbean Honeymoon Suite) and they provided me with a US$200 voucher in compensation for the upheaval. Trevorne was very helpful. The plus points were the food, which was excellent in all restaurants. The beach if you like to spend all day getting burnt and bored. “Entertainment” varied but have to say that some of it verged on the banal with constant music being blasted out over the Mediterranean Pool. The negative points. Service at times patchy, both in restaurants, room servicing (why did I have to keep asking for things when a normal hotel would always replenish when servicing the room), poor maintenance (had to request a number of times for the outside stairs light to be fixed and on the last day the basin plug became stuck).

I canceled my reservation three almost four weeks ago and have not received my refund. This long wait time along with three customer service people telling me I have to wait another 3 weeks to get my refund from the airlines. Beginning to feel like Sandals is a disgusting company and that’s all I’m getting from this the moment I asked to cancel. If you have a service where I can book flights from your website then I should be getting all my money back no problem. Especially your customer support telling me that they cannot do anything and I just have to wait is bad business. Why offer a service where you have no control apparently? Where your customer services tells me to wait 2 months and then call back if I haven’t gotten it yet? What kind business is that? Planned on rescheduling but after this I will never recommend, will never book with sandals again. Absolutely horrible experience.

I deeply regret not reading the reviews before booking. Every negative comment was 100% accurate. My wife and I chose Sandals Montego Bay for our honeymoon, trusting the brand’s reputation. Big mistake. We booked the Beachfront Grande Luxe Club Level Junior Suite with Balcony Tranquility Tub — a name that promised luxury and serenity. What we got was neither. Despite providing proof of our recent wedding, we received none of the honeymoon touches they advertise — no rose petals, no romantic gestures, nothing. Well, except for a chilled $8 bottle of champagne. Only after reaching out to the online services with no response until speaking with a manager. So I guess that’s supposed to make it even? The room? Far from beachfront — our view was of a basketball court, not the ocean. The tranquility tub and the “luxe” feel? Total letdowns. It felt generic at best. Here’s the catch they don’t tell you: Unless you pay for a butler, don’t expect: Shaded seating at the beach or pool (it’s all “claimed” for butler guests) Restaurant access without ridiculous waits only if you have a butler. Only one restaurant has a reservation and you’ll have to make it a week in advance. It’s all about upselling once you’re there. As for the pools, the claim of “17” is incredibly misleading. Only two tiny pools are actually public — the rest are small plunge pools attached to certain rooms and are honestly not impressive at all. And let’s not forget the noise: the resort is right next to the airport. Constant takeoffs shake your room and drown out any attempt at peace. Romantic getaway? Not even close.This place felt more like a tourist trap than a luxury resort. If you’re planning something special — especially a honeymoon — I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. The Sandals name doesn’t mean what it used to. For the activities such as the catamaran boating experience have fun being squished with another 10 couples. For the luminescent water experience have fun driving an hour back and forth to wait an hour to swim for five minutes. For the horse ride on the beach. The experience was completely misrepresented — instead of galloping along the beach as shown in the photos, we rode a dirt trail with a brief, five-minute dip in shallow water. No beach, no gallop — just a tourist trap disguised as something special. On top of that, the return shuttle made multiple hotel stops, adding an extra hour to the trip — a detail that could’ve easily been disclosed in advance but wasn’t. And SANDALS don’t you dare come at me with your fake, copy-paste “we’re sorry to hear this” garbage — you don’t care, and you never did. Save the PR spin for someone dumb enough to believe it.

Sandals Royal Barbados has a plethora of issues. A complete disaster of a resort, and service. I felt as though they tried to silence me with bare compensation. I posted the full details on trip advisor. Same title. Do better.