Sandals ResortsReviews of sandals.com

If you want to sunbathe on the beach you need butler service because the loungers are all laid up with towels by them early morning.

We stayed at Sandals Royal Curaçao for 10 days and left feeling that it did not live up to the “luxury” reputation or the price tag. The property itself is beautiful, but that’s where most of the positives end. What really stood out was the lack of consistency and attention to detail. At the main pool bars, something as basic as tonic water was only available 3 out of the 10 days we were there. For a resort at this level, that’s simply unacceptable and was never properly addressed. The food was another major disappointment. Breakfast at Butch’s was served cold. Dinner at The Strand — the surf and turf — also came out cold, which is hard to overlook for what should be one of their better dining experiences. Even a simple lunch burger was charred to the point of being unpleasant. Zuka really summed up the inconsistency. We ate there twice — the first time was great, but the second time was the complete opposite. Service was slow enough that I had to get up and go to the bar myself just to get another drink, and to make matters worse, we were actually blamed for the delay because we asked for sauces on the side. That kind of response is surprising at any restaurant, let alone a supposed luxury resort. Dining service overall lacked basic standards. No one checked on us after meals were served, and tables often sat uncleared because there appeared to be no dedicated bussing staff — leaving hostesses to clear tables themselves and the front unattended. To be fair, after speaking with management about the service issues, we did have a very nice dinner at Butch’s on our last night. However, it was frustrating that it took that level of escalation to get the experience we expected all along. Even more telling, the same day at the pool — our last full day — tonic water was unavailable again, reinforcing that the underlying issues were never really resolved. Service across the resort was inconsistent. Beach and pool service were minimal to the point that it was usually easier to just go to the bar yourself. The “towel game” is very real — chairs are effectively reserved by 8am, which shouldn’t be necessary at a resort like this. We also noted our anniversary in advance during online check-in, but there was no acknowledgment at all, which was disappointing given the brand’s reputation for special occasions. For context, we’ve stayed at Sun Palace, Hotel Mousai Puerto Vallarta, Sandals Grande St. Lucia, RIU Aruba, Divi Aruba, Sandos Finisterra Los Cabos, Marquis Los Cabos, Occidental Papagayo, Secrets Cozumel, Excellence Playa Mujeres, and Valentin Imperial Riviera Maya. Every one of those resorts provided noticeably better service, made us feel more welcome, and even offered small but meaningful gestures at the end of our stay — something completely missing here. That said, there were a few standout individuals who did provide great service and deserve recognition — Shaneka at Aolos restaurant, Rayon at the pool bar, the live band on the beach, the entire team at the food trucks (especially Jeimmy, who we saw at multiple locations), and Maranahta at Zuka during our first visit. These moments showed what the resort could be with more consistency. It also felt like many of the glowing 5-star reviews may be coming from repeat or loyalty guests, because our experience aligned much more closely with the negative reviews — which I strongly recommend reading before booking. For the cost, we expected a much higher level of quality and consistency. While the setting is beautiful, the overall experience fell well short, and we would not return to this or any other Sandals resort.

Wir verbringen eine Woche im Sandals Royal Barbados. Insgesamt ist alles okay, aber wirklich nicht das, was Sandals verspricht: – Das Zimmer (Club-Level) ist sehr schön, ebenso die gesamte Anlage. – Wir hätten mit einer Limousine abgeholt werden sollen, aber von der Limousine keine Spur – stattdessen kam ein Bus. – Der Concierge-Service ist zum Vergessen. Drei Tage hintereinander haben wir versucht, in einem Restaurant zu reservieren – nicht einmal eine Rückmeldung. Man wird immer nur auf den nächsten Tag vertröstet. – Die Restaurants, für die man reservieren muss, sind oft halb leer, weil viele Gäste nicht erscheinen. Dennoch sind sie für andere nicht reservierbar. – Die Qualität des Essens ist sehr unterschiedlich. Vielleicht sind Europäer hier etwas anspruchsvoller als Amerikaner. – Auch die Servicequalität schwankt stark und liegt nicht auf dem Niveau, das man in einem solchen Hotel erwarten würde. Insgesamt hat man das Gefühl, dass der Gast ihnen egal ist. – Der Strand ist sehr schön aber leider nicht sehr gepflegt. Komisch sind auch die Drogendealer die auf dem Kunden warten (das sind aber genügend). – Ich würde empfehlen, ein Zimmer mit Butler zu buchen, da dieser zum Beispiel Liegen am Strand vorreserviert. Ansonsten sind alle Liegen schon ab 7:30 Uhr morgens weg. Insgesamt – wie gesagt – okay, aber das Preis-Leistungs-Verhältnis stimmt nicht. Wir werden unseren Urlaub nicht mehr im Sandals Royal Barbados verbringen (schade). Ach ja: Ich wollte eigentlich 3 Sterne geben, aber für das Wetter können sie nichts…

Stayed in the Royal Barbados, the gardens were lovely our room was in a nice quiet area . The staff were nice and it was very clean . Our room was nice , smelt of damp had to request a another mattress all the springs had gone on one side . Electrical fault on our buzzer to say if we were in or out . Got repaired electrian blew electrics Came back to the room wet as the fridge and electrics not on . The food was disappointing, the xmas meal was the nicest meal . Sandals probaly great yrs ago but not now . I will not be returning to any Sandals hotels .

So we stayed at the Sandals in the Bahamas twice and absolutely loved it. So we booked a third one at the Dunn Falls in Jamaica. We booked it two years ago while we were in the Bahamas. We booked a category room that came with a living room and a butler. My husband called many months in advance to see if it would be an issue to just switch our dates by a week or so so we could travel with family on a cruise. He was told it was no problem… Our room might be one floor down from where we were booked. He called the day before we left because we hadn't heard from the Butler . He was informed that we no longer have Butler service. For whatever reason, although we were told it was not a problem, they downgraded our room with no refund. At the airport, we had to wait 30 minutes or more… They tried to stick us on a bus when we paid roughly $500 for private round-trip transfers. It was frustrating to watch him search his emails to prove that we paid for it… Which we did. They didn't even have our name on the list. When we got to the hotel, they tried to stick us in a room. That was a shit room… They should've called it a "tile view" or air conditioning view instead of an ocean view room. We sat on the balcony waiting for them to figure out where to put us… But they did put us in a much better room, but it's not what we paid for. We paid for a room that had a living room and we are in a room without one… visited guest services twice, and there is no refund offered. It appears that may be so because the rates have increased blah blah blah. Not cool that the representative he talked to recorded notes that he called to change room categories… That doesn't even make sense that we would downgrade our room and not expect a refund… That's not what we did. He changed the dates and told nothing would happen except we might be a floor lower We are still here and not happy. There's not much going on… The lobby was full of people loading on a bus to go to their sister hotel for entertainment tonight. This place sucks and we will never do a Sandals vacation again. We expected more for a $10,000 vacation.

as a Grenadian who migrated to the US/Canada I chose sandals Grenada to vacation with my fiancé. I had an Awesome time in butches, the staff was extremely friendly(kernel and renee @butches gave me the experience of my life) in general however after all the wonderful experience everything ended terribly. after exiting the resort I forgot my pictures so the taxi turn around so that I can go back and inquire about them. the girl on front desk (Caryl) )wasn't even Answering me when I told her why I came back(this young lady had an attitude even before I left)herself and her coworker was staring at me upset starring at me talking amongst themselves. After she called the photo studio she uttered something under her breath saying I don't need the pictures now I have two weeks to get them(because I have a strong Grenadian accent she assume I reside here). After the Photo Booth told her come choose the photos I had to ask her 5 times or more what did she say. As soon as I get in there to chose the pictures a worker (laurel/laureen) opened the door shouting at me saying what the hell are you doing here when a taxi was here 3 hours ago! this was in the presence of my fiancee and the other workers. in the moment my fiancee walked out while I looked at her astonished. this is is someone who didn't introduce themselves and was very unprofessional! she continued to question me as to why I had to use the red lane spa and so much more.... mind you I had a butler suite with complimentary spa. laurel/lauryn was even saying to me why would I want to pay for photos right after my stay and I need to pay for it before my stay! this staff is telling me when to pay for my photos. with the shame and humiliation I had to last minute change my return ticket, extended my stay at a different hotel just to see when I can get my photos. on my way out they were uttering that they thought I lived in Grenada permanently. laurel tone only changed when she realized I have other nationality. this just went a long way to show how bias the staff probably behave to local people! I didn't find it necessary to title myself as Dr or claim other nationalities to be treated like someone on a vacation! before I got my career as a MD I worked for this company about 10 years ago, I met butch and understood what he stand for. he would've been so disappointed ! im still in awe that this happened at a 'Sandals' resort.

Montego Bay: You have to tip to get your bags to the bus, you have to tip to get on the bus. Our room temp control unit did not work, some lights did not work, no fan in the room (the pic showed it did) the drinks at the bar were horrible, the people are not nice. They called to change the room. We packed the waited an hour they they call and said about changing the room. I went to the front desk then finally changed the room. THEY COULD HAVE CARED LESS, but wanted me out of there. The were out of ham, pepperoni the whole week for certain dishes. No hair dryer in the room for 4 days. Took 2 days to make up the room and restock the fridge. Not clean compared to St. Lucia. NONE of the hot tubs worked properly, No shower by the main pool worked at all. So no showering to get in the pool. No notice on what to do when we were leaving. ATTIDUDES FROM MOST!

This was our 3rd holiday at a Sandals resort and sadly this was our worst experience. Whilst the resort was lovely unfortunately the experience was not. We had read that Sandals had laid off 200 people whilst on holiday and this was evident in the service we received e.g. staff seemed like new hires and annoyed by ordering food or drinks, the service extremely slow especially at ‘La Parisienne’. ‘Kimono’s‘ was closed for the full duration of our holiday and ‘Soy’ was closed for 2 days. Getting our room serviced regularly was also proving to be difficult, quite annoyingly we asked for 8 more hangers in our room within 1 hour of checking in, it took a further 4 calls for the hangers to arrive 2 days later. We hope other guests have a better experience than we had. We talked to many new couples about Sandals and unfortunately my comment back to them is that Sandals standards are deteriorating given our past trips. I know they are in business to make money but when your experience is poor your reputation will suffer and so will your bookings. The other thing that really winds me up about Sandals is the how they treat guests who do not have butler service as second-class citizens. There are clear signs that sun beds cannot be reserved before 07:00, but butlers are actively out at 06:00 reserving beds for their masters? Why have rules when they are not being followed by Sandals own staff. Despite Sandals policy that sun beds not being used by 10:00am can be used by any guest, I was actively told not to use an empty sun bed as it had a reserved wooden butlers plank on it (this was at 11:15 am)!!