Sandals Resorts
Reviews and Complaints

We booked a trip to Sandals Grenada through Sandals. the 1st leg of our trip was cancelled by the airline so we had to make other arrangements. Within two weeks American Airlines refunded the cost of our cancelled flights directly to Sandals since we purchased the tickets through Sandals. Two months later Sandals has not sent us the refund. each time we reach out we are given the runaround and no one helps us. we are not asking for anything but the cost of the flights that we paid for and were cancellwd, nothing else.

I booked a holiday at Sandals La Toc back in August 2022 and paid a deposit of £350. On 4 January 2023 I paid the balance of £5,740, only for Sandals to email us on the next day that the golf course will be closed.

This was a shock and I wrote two emails that went unanswered. Today however I got through to them and got the agreement to refund the £5,740. The manager refused to refund the deposit of £350, and I tried to send the following email to two addresses, [protected]@sandals.co.uk and [protected]@sandals.co.uk:

"Dear Sandals,

I was on the phone to Emma in Administration Services earlier today discussing our cancellation options. We are very disappointed that the manager decided not to refund us in full, and to withold our deposit. We paid the deposit in August in good faith, and after carefully studying the options that different Sandals resorts offer. As my husband and I love golf, but cannot play more than 9 holes at a time we chose La Toc, being the right size resort and golf on site.

To our surprise, the day after I paid the balance, we had an email that golf will not be available at La Toc during our stay. The option to get on a coach and travel 40 minutes one way is not acceptable for us, as it adds over an hour's drive and my husband cannot do that due to his health condition (lower back injury) that requires him to move.

We are left with no option but to cancel and, as it is Sandals changing the terms of what we actually paid for (a package of services that is no longer as described if golf on site is unavailable), I am asking for my deposit back in full £350. I believe it is the only fair solution given we are two months away from the booking start, the deposit was with you since August and we didn't get the news about the golf until after we paid the balance.

Best regards,"

To my astonishment, I got the following messages back that I have been blocked from sending emails:

Mon, 9 Jan at 17:07

Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.

:

550: permanent failure for one or more recipients ([protected]@sandals.co.uk:blocked) — Forwarded message — Please see below - the given address is not working. — Forwarded message — From: [protected]@yahoo.com

To: "[edited]"

Sent: Monday, 9 January 2023 at 16:33:23 GMT

Subject: Failure Notice

Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.

:

550: permanent failure for one or more recipients ([protected]@sandals.co.uk:blocked) — Forwarded message — Dear Sandals,

I was on the phone to Emma in Administration Services earlier today discussing our cancellation options. We are very disappointed that the manager decided not to refund us in full, and to withold our deposit. We paid the deposit in August in good faith, and after carefully studying the options that different Sandals resorts offer. As my husband and I love golf, but cannot play more than 9 holes at a time we chose La Toc, being the right size resort and golf on site.

To our surprise, the day after I paid the balance, we had an email that golf will not be available at La Toc during our stay. The option to get on a coach and travel 40 minutes one way is not acceptable for us, as it adds over an hour's drive and my husband cannot do that due to his health condition (lower back injury) that requires him to move.

We are left with no option but to cancel and, as it is Sandals changing the terms of what we actually paid for (a package of services that is no longer as described if golf on site is unavailable), I am asking for my deposit back in full £350. I believe it is the only fair solution given we are two months away from the booking start, the deposit was with you since August and we didn't get the news about the golf until after we paid the balance.

Best regards,

We booked 12 nights at this resort from Dec 2nd to 14th on the understanding that we would have 5 restaurants to choose from every night whereas in reality 2 out of 5 restaurants were closed each night during our stay and on 2 Masquerade evenings only 2 out of 5 were open. In addition we were asked to pay a 40 dollar ECO tax on arrival but 8 days into our vacation we found out others had paid less which when queeried resulted in us getting a 20 dollar refund. The buffet evening food was exteremely poor and no 2 identical drinks tasted the same, its also worth mentioning that Mojitos werent available one day as the hotel had run out of mint!

Terry Gardner [protected]@mediapublishingcompany.com

Ok, so like most I spent over $15k to stay for the week at this hotel with my 9 year old son and husband. On the third night of our stay, at 4:30 am, I heard a noise in the room coming from the bed my son was sleeping on. I woke my husband and a GIANT RAT was on my son’s bed! We called the night manager and he killed it in the bathroom. The next day, they did not change our room until the end of the day and gave us a worse room, view in the picture attached, and it was full of dead bugs on the floor and in the shower. I demanded to speak to the GM at the resort, Lancelot Lebert who was simply an awful man! He refused to apologize and treated me with complete disrespect. They finally moved us to a nicer room on day 5, but did not compensate us in any way for the rat in my son’s bed. I stayed that this is a health code violation and the rat could have bitten someone. They did not care. On day 6 they offered us 3 rooms free of charge if I would remove my post but the GM still has refused to apologize so I have edited my post with all details. In addition, for this much money, I would look elsewhere. Food was average, hotel was not 5 star, and I would never support leadership that was this horrible to work with and who had zero empathy for the situation.

I was sold a room when I signed up. What I got was a nothing like the picture.. What I got was a room that had the windows blacked and behind it was a roof top. You could barley move in he room it was very small. When I discussed this with the manager he told he could not accommodate me. As the site was full. This is lie. He did nothing to make up for the oversell. The tub did not work. I have been a loyal customer going to Jamaica and St Lucia. I will never go back to another Sandals product again. the manger was rude and mistreated us. The picture tell the story nothing like what they show you are purchasing.

To whom it may concern,

My partner and I flew in to Sandals South Coast Resort on Dec 3, 2022 and stayed until Dec 10, 2022. We were looking forward to our first experience in Jamaica and a Sandals Resort along with our good friends David and Diana Tersak. Upon our arrival we waited 45 min in the hotel lobby after checking in, to be escorted to out room. We were tired from traveling so this seemed extreme. After getting to out room we had champagne glasses but no champagne. We had wine but no wine glasses. We inquired as whether we needed to be in the room (which was 2226) in order to receive our luggage. We were told that we did not need to be there and that the staff had a universal key so our luggage would be left in out room even in our absence. We returned from dinner to find our luggage outside our room. I would have waited for it to be delivered had I known it wasn’t going to be left in our room because of expensive and sentimental items it contained. It was made clear that we were not to take our own luggage to the room. When ordering drinks at the bar the staff was not supplied with items ( grapefruit juice, lite stripe beer, Tabasco sauce, ginger beer) that was in the specialty bar drinks listed in your publication at the bar). The staff was also unfamiliar with how to make the drinks that where listed. At the resort we found the service to be apathetic. At Giuseppe’s we waited an hour for our food after waiting 45 minutes to be seated in a 1/2 full restaurant. After which we had to hunt down a server to refresh our wine. We were never asked about dessert nor was out table cleared before we gave up and just left. Another evening we went to Schooners Restaurant, had a reservation that was documented as 7:20 pm only to find out they NEVER have 7:20 reservations and waited until 8:20 to be seated and another hour to get our food. We went back to Schooners for lunch and were seated quickly but two of our parties lunches arrived 45 min before the other two when they ordered a chili dog and wings and we ordered salads. We had a few good experiences at the restaurants but for the most part, the service was inept. When going to the Snap Shots Photo shop we waited an hour to be helped by the one and only individual that was working there. I asked for more shower gel and it took 2 calls and 3 individual requests in order to get some 2days later. We were never told about the privacy light but figured it out for ourselves, and there was no turn down service for the first 3 days of out stay. Upon checking out, out luggage was not delivered to the bus at the 11:00 departure time ( even though I mentioned it’s absence 2 times to the staff starting at 5 min till 11, and there appeared to be no concern) so everyone had to wait while the staff went back to our room to retrieve it when the staff finally started looking for it at 11:15am. I would say 20% of your staff was customer service oriented and the other 80% were not concerned with it. I was looking forward to my stay at Sandals after seeing all the publicity and advertisements but was truely disappointed with the reality of the stay. The grounds were beautiful and the Pickleball clinic was fabulous but the resort itself did not live up to the advertisements and my expectations of a couples resort.

My husband and I recently stayed at Sandals Ochi Sept 25-October 2nd.

We chose the upgraded Butlers Village Suites. Our room was severely outdated and smelled strongly of mold. Upon checking the room, I immediately informed the butler of the odor. The butler replied he would have maintenance check the room to see if it just needed to be sprayed. The butler returned with a can of spray! The room definitely had mold in it. By the third night, I had to sleep with my head under the covers because I had such a terrible cough. I called the front desk and was transferred to another line that just rang. I called again and was able to speak with a butler supervisor who told me that the resort was sold out. She asked what did I want from them? She said if we could find another room to move you to, you would have to pack and move your items, and she could not tell me when this would happen. We only had two nights left at this time. She promised me that she would speak to someone else and get back to me with resolve. Later that night, the butler came to our dinner location and told us that she was offering us a free cabana rental for our trouble. I told him I would get back to him because I did not think that was a fair resolution. We ended up both coming home with an upper respiratory infection. I visited the doctor on October 4th for a deep chest cough. The doctor said it was most likely due to some toxin we encountered. We both tested negative for COVID, so that was not the issue. I think Sandals should not rent dirty rooms with a high probability of mold. I am attaching pictures for viewing. Dirty walls, carpet, leaky air conditioning, dirty pool, just not 5-star and certainly not worth 5k!

Holiday dates 21st September 2022 to 5th October 2022

To whom it may concern

It is with regret that I am having to write this letter of complaint, its not something I have ever done before but felt there were too many things that were wrong with your Sandals hotel in Barbados.

We chose to come to a Sandals because my husband and I were due to celebrate being together for 40 years on the 23rd September, we wanted to make it extra special. We have been to the St Lucia Sandals for a wedding and then as a guest the next day and were blown away by how prefect the hotels was. It had the wow factor you would expect, the hotel, the gardens, the couples room, the food and the service were second to none. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to stay there at that time but vowed that one day we would. We have since stayed in some beautiful hotels all over the Caribbean for half the price of your, so we had very high expectations for £6,600 inc flights.

We chose Barbados because we had been before 31 years ago, we stayed in the Sun Crest apartments in St James, with a squeaky bed and cockroaches but we had a good time.

This time we wanted luxury and the best of the best, our businesses were doing well, so we chose Sandals, we couldn’t afford to stay in the Royal or have Butler service but because its Sandals we didn’t think we would need to. We encouraged our friends to come with us on this holiday and I had been bigging Sandals up saying it’s a bucket list thing to do, they chose to release one of their pensions just so they could come.

We arrived at the airport on time and quickly found the Sandals desk, the staff looked bored and disinterested in us but told us where to wait for our bus.

It came fairly quickly, the ride to the hotel was silent, the driver didn’t speak to us at all, it would have been nice to get a bit of chat about the Island. Or have some Caribbean music on.

When we arrived, I immediately felt disappointed as there was no ‘wow’, its an old hotel in desperate need of a refurb. All a bit drab and tired.

Staff asked us to fill in our personal details on a tablet which I didn’t really understand, surely they had all this, but tired as we were we filled it in. We were given a semi cold prosecco by a bored looking girl whilst filling it in. Twice during the holiday we were asked to fill this information in again because they said they hadn’t had it. Strange!

We were then led to our room 2306, we had to wait for the cleaner and her trolly before being able to do this, this happened a lot, don’t know why you wouldn’t have a service lift.

The room was old and tired, very ordinary, the sort you would find in a 3* in Spain. And not practically clean. Our view was a building, not a lovely garden, pool or beach.

I was feeling really fed up by this point, we decided to unpack then have a little nap before meeting our friends for something to eat.

There were no where near enough hangers, one of the draws wouldn’t stay closed, then when we closed the curtains they didn’t meet so not only did they let the light in we had no privacy.

We then went to make a cup of tea, no tea spoons or English Breakfast tea

Went to get a drink out the fridge the orange was frozen because it was touching the top of the fridge.

Had a shower in the very old and tired shower, NO hairdryer!

Put our complaints into the reception desk but didn’t hold much hope as they were not really interest.

Went out for dinner and spent the whole time apologising to our friends for the state of your hotel because I told them it was going to be amazing.

We chose to go to breakfast the next day in the French restaurant because we knew we would get a lovely view.

We were asked if we would like tea, he eventually brought us a teabag already in hot water which was luke warm, we then had to ask for milk which he eventually brought over in a glass not a jug ! so when you poured it into your cold tea, it spilt everywhere.

I then asked for orange juice instead, this was 8.00 am -they had run out apparently. He then took our order. Two omelettes, one with no cheese and two eggs benedict’s, not difficult.

After a long wait the order came out two omelettes both with cheese. So, we had to ask for it to be redone, we had all finished by the time our friend got his food.

This was the start of a long list of complaints in all the restaurants.

Very poor service, not just speed but the bored looking, rude, lazy staff we had to contend with, very few made us feel welcome, they had no idea how to serve, slamming down drinks, reaching over us, spilling things, I’ve had better service in a Frankie and Bennies. Tables were left full of plates and glasses for long periods of time which the birds and even chickens thoroughly enjoyed pecking at.

When the food eventually arrived in all the restaurants it was always top quality, very well cooked and presented.

The bars nearly always ran out of ingredients, straws and ice and when they did make the cocktails, they were mainly slushy ice, so we learnt to ask for stirred not blended. We never got offered a drink whilst on the beach, which is unusual in a 5* hotel.

The entertainment was rarely on for more than 45 minutes and because they were so slow in the restaurants, we missed most of them. It would be better as well to have a two-week rota so you’re not seeing the exact same act twice during your 2-week holiday.

For our anniversary our room was given a little make over with towel art, flowers. cake and prosecco which was lovely and very welcomed. But all the debris from that was left in the room for two days?

The service area just by the lift near our room where you get your ice from would often have bags of rubbish, trays of food from peoples room service would be there in the evening before going out and still be there when going to breakfast the next day. I was worried about rats.

Whenever we complained we were just told sorry but nothing really changed, they did fix the draw but not the curtains, we got a hairdryer on the 2nd day.

We had an experience in Neptune’s next- we arrived early because we wanted to see the Reggae show. We were told to come back 20 minutes later, we did and we were seated. Ordered starter and main. They asked what temperature we wanted our steaks, no problem. We had to ask for our glasses to be topped up and they eventually ran out of Pino which really shouldn’t happen. Starters were fine but we then waited an hour and half for our main. We had been asked again, what temp we wanted our steaks. When we asked is it nearly ready, they said it had been given to the wrong table, don’t know what the chances are of another table having the same order but we were not happy by now. Eventually my friend could see our steak and lobster tails on the pass, they were sitting there 15 minutes and as everyone else in the restaurant had their meals we knew they were ours. My friend went to the pass and told them he wanted fresh as it had been sitting there too long.

He then to his amazement watched the chef take the mash off the plate with his hand, it was at this point we shouted a few harsh words to the chef and left the restaurant. Hungry, disgusted and disappointed we had missed the show went to the English pub. The following night Neptune’s was closed.!

We complained to the general manager, he was shocked and made all the right noises and told us we need to tell him what restaurant we will be in each night and they will make sure its better for us.

I know our friends complained constantly about they same things and other things to the manager and nothing was ever resolved.

Nothing changed !

We even came back from the beach one day to find our door unlocked just pulled to, obviously the cleaner had been in, luckily, we were at the end of a corridor so no one could see it was open unless they were at the door but we were so fed up with complaining and not getting a productive response we didn’t even bother reporting it.

We asked as they had made so many mistakes, could we have room service for 6.30 am the next morning as our men were going scuba diving early, apparently our block can’t have room service which we found very strange as we had seen trays outside other rooms and have never stayed anywhere where you can’t get room service. He agreed just this once, they gave the order to reception. The breakfast didn’t turn up !

So they were expected to go diving with empty stomachs, my husband is a type 2 diabetic and needs to eat otherwise his sugar levels dip which would be dangerous to dive. Luckily the boat had snacks so he was able to have something beforehand. I rang to find out why it didn’t turn up, they said they didn’t have a chef. Wow!

Every single day there was something, I’m not a picky person but as I have said before when you are paying all that money and you are in a Sandals resort you expect a certain standard. I was so ashamed and embarrassed that my friends had given up a pension to come on this holiday and we had taken our business’s through two years of covid and saved like mad to follow our dream of staying in a Sandals for our 40th Anniversary only to come away feeling very disappointed and let down. I could list a lot more minor things but feel the important issues have been raised.

I don’t know what you can do to compensate for this disappointing holiday

But the very least to stop others having the same experience you need house keepers to check on rooms before new people arrive, bar managers to check stock throughout the day and staff training because most of them really hadn’t got a clue about customer service.

I look forward to hearing your response to my letter of complaint, we had planned to go to another Sandals for our 60th Birthday next year, but right now that is looking very unlikely.

Yours sincerely

Mr and Mrs Jeyes

My wife and I went to Exuma the 1st week of Oct. 2022. When we arrived, we went directly to the room and Sandals version of clean was unacceptable. Floor was not washed; bed was made (great) and no towels. I went into the fridge to grab a coke to mix a rum and coke and the rum was water. Now with the resort having 3 people die earlier this year, I would think that there would be some kind of leadership there over seeing everything. Where was the bar manager who should over see this, where was the manager for housekeeping, where was the dining room manager overseeing the food? (Which was the worst. Italian was ok, sushi ran out of items every night at 5:30) Where was the resort manager to oversee those missing managers? This isn't about the daily drunk bartenders who served iced tea bottle filled bourbon drinks or watered-down vodka and rum drinks, or the guest having to go get their own espresso for an espresso martini. We reported all of this and all any one did was shake their heads and said that " These things sometimes happen". No not at all it's about the lack of LEADERSHIP from the top of the chain to the bottom. Poor leadership. Thats what this complaint is about. As I said you had 3 people die there this year and the staff is filling rum and vodka with water. What else could they be using. Where was leadership when the bartender sliced his hand open cutting a lime because he was drunk. Are you kidding me?

We've been to almost all the resorts since the Montego Bay resort opened years ago and by far the worst experience/vacation ever. However, for anyone reading this... Beaches Turks is by far the best resort and last year we could see service going downhill there which leads me to believe that Sandals is on the decline. Please say it isn't so.

The staff was not trained like it was years ago or at other resorts. Could it be a covid thing? Who knows but I'll tell you, the staff just seemed like they didn't care. Why... LEADERSHIP.

The day before leaving on my vacation to Saint Lucia, my girlfriend had a stroke and I had to cancel my trip . The trip cost me $8600 , we we're flying Delta Airlines and staying at the Sandals Halcyon resort in St. Lucia. Delta Airlines agreed to issue us a voucher for $2000 but Sandals Resort has done nothing but give me the run around. I have filed complaints and tried to reschedule this trip for another date but nothing has happened. They don't even have the decency to call me back. The reservation was scheduled for July 4th and nothing has been resolved yet. Do not book with these people, they are not the company you're looking for !

This resort is UNSAFE. We return from this resort on the 13th. My other half was locked in the toilet room for over an hour. I reached out to the front desk at 7:42am and was told someone would be contacted. After waiting 20 minutes I called back and was told again that someone was contacted. Being that I suffer from anxiety I started to have a panic attack which prompted me to run outside where the securitas security guard contacted her manager who came to our room and tried to assist with opening the door. When we both were unsuccessful and began swearing he started to radio maintenance. Finally four men appeared ready to break down the door. The whole door mechanism had to be removed to open the door. Not only was this embarrassing, for a brand new resort it is unacceptable. After speaking with Carla we were assured we would have resolution. Have not heard anything. The next day when we were checking out we spoke with Kay who stated he was aware of the situation and still we have heard NOTHING. We called corporate and a manager was supposed to call back 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Again I suffer from panic attacks, anxiety, and claustrophobia, I would passed out in that small toilet room. Completely ruined my birthday trip. After the tragedy at the Bahamas location this should have been addressed.

Day 1 10/16/2022 we arrived at sandals curaçao with a tip box before getting off bus. I thought it was all inclusive and did not prepare for this. We went into the side room and waited for about 45mins. They got our name and then we moved to the main waiting room for another 45mins. Then we were escorted to our room with another couple. The escort got lost. After going back and forth she asked someone for help and directed us past our room and to the other couple room. We were asked to wait outside while she showed them the room. Then made our way to our room. She escorted us in and waited for a tip. Again I thought it was all inclusive so was not prepared for this. Then after being hot we decided to make our way to the pool. And was advised that the main pool

Is closed and the bar next to the other pool was closed. It was still light out and allot of people still at this pool so why close it. I

Day 2 we were woke up by a phone call from front desk saying we didn’t check in. The machine was broken so we needed to come back to front desk. We filled out papers that I had already filled out online prior. Then made our way to the reservation desk to book our meals. No one was there. We waited about 30mins and decided to try again another day. Then we went to the front again to ask about the credit since pool was closed. We were told they couldn’t help us that we had to go to spa or room service or picture area. To book things. We went to the spa and only open date and time was 745a on our last full day. So had to wake up early again.

Day 3 we woke up multiple times from a

Building Fire alarm about 3am. Later we tired the reservation desk again. No one was there and it was between 8am and 11am. A nice lady walk by asking if we needed help. We told her we were waiting on someone to make reservations. She said she would try and find someone. About 40mins later she said she couldn’t find someone and to try back. I told her it was our second attempt already. She apologized. Not sure why we can’t book everything at front desk if someone is not available at reservations. But later I finally got someone at the desk to reserve our dinner but we needed to choose our special return invite dinner or go to Vincent’s since that was the only option we couldn’t do both.

Day 4 more building alarms in the middle of the night. And woke up to cold shower. No hot water. Decided to go to Vincent’s dinner and it was under construction and they moved us to a hall sitting on patio chairs. Also in our room we lost phone, internet and TV. So I went up to the front office again and said I’m sure everyone is out but wanted to make sure you knew that the phone, internet and tv is out. The lady asked if we had power. I said yes but phone, internet and all channels are out. She said the TV isn’t Sandles. I said all the channels are out. She again replied the TV isn’t Sandles. I then asked are you wanting me to call someone else to fix the TV. At this point I think she realized that didn’t make sense for me to call. She said she didn’t even know who to call but she would look into it. A few hours later it was back on.

Day 5 or maybe 6 walking to breakfast we were greeted with building alarms going off again. We decided to have Butches for breakfast. We walked in and sat down and were told they just lost power and we needed to go to the buffet. So we walked to buffet. But hey after waiting at the buffet line Butches came and grabbed us saying the power is back and to walk back again. Also I needed some items from gift shop. After 4 ladies trying to ring me up they finally got it.

Last day I went to front desk

Just to make sure we are good before checkout. They said they could check us out but their machine is down and I needed the physical card. So back to room I went to get this even though they had it on file. While in room House keeping knocked several times and asked when I was leaving. I said the paper Sandles gave me said I need to be out by 11. She said ok she will come back. Why wouldn’t she just wait until after she knows I am checking out. The checkout procedure said bags outside by 11. So we had to wait in lobby with no AC till 12. Then stand outside in heat again for them to call us in order. Even though we were First out there. They had to go in order of lowest to highest room number. The bus again had another tip box. There is no ATM on Sandles so felt bad again since I thought it was all inclusive.

At the least I had hoped to relax. Not to be woke up serval days by alarms in middle of the night or from front desk asking for information I’ve already provided. Also never thought it would be so hard to book reservations because employees were missing. Also keep the bar open if the pool is packed. I’m sure you got multiple complaints. We had planned on booking our next Sandles trip to Barbados while on-site but I couldn’t do it after this. I will have to give it some serious thought. I understand the main pool broke. But due to the other items outside this is why I’m not sure if I will or not. I could have wrote a book of all the items outside of the broken pool.

I schedule a vacation with sandals back in march and paid an addional fee of $160 dollars this service was called mobay , I spoke to Mobay they advise they did not have my money that my money was with sandals, I have requested a refund and to this day I have not received a call or refund from sandals

My entire stay at sandals was horrible i just want the money for service i did not received

Reservation number [protected]

Thomas and Cynthia Williams

We had reservations for 10/20/21-10/25/201 due to covid we moved the reservation to 10/20/22-10/25/22 at Montego Bay. We decided since we have been to three Sandals properties in Jamacia to try somewhere different. We moved our reservations to Curacao for the same dates and we had to move down a category in rooms. We were told our final payment would be $255 and when I called it was reduced to $117, now I'm being told they can't accept my husband work ID, Copy of his badge and his retired Ax as proof of his employment as a firefighter. Keep in mind if I WOULD NOT have moved resorts I would have paid by balance of $115. We received the discount on the 10/20/21 reservation now THE SAME paperwork isn't being accepted for Curacao? Im asked for one of the two solutions below:

1. I was quoted a balance of $255 I paid 1$17 therefore I would be willing to pay an additional $138.00.2. Please provide a FULL refund of ALL monies paid to Sandals as this is NOT my fault.

3. Move us back to Montego Bay into the same room category we had as we downgraded rooms to afford Curacao.

Cynthia Williams

[protected]

On July 27th 2022 I called Sandals to finish paying for our week long vacation at Sandals Negril, from Sept 11th thru Sept 17th.

It was an 8 minute phone call and my AT&T account was billed $24 for the call. Stating that it was an International call.

Absurd...I have been calling Sandals since 2011 and we have visited Sandals Negril 7 times...this will be our 8th visit and I have spoken to Sandals representatives many many times and have never been charged for the call.

I am asking Sandals to refund me this $24 that I was charged to pay off my vacation...or we will never come back to Sandals again.

The letter below is what I sent to Sandals: It really hurts me to rate Sandals Ochi so low because the resort was beautiful.

I booked our trip back in 2021, excited, because we always wanted to try a Sandals resort. We arrived 8/19/22. We decided to tell our friends about the deal that you were offering and since we haven’t seen our friends in 7 years, as we moved away to another state, we figured it would be a great opportunity to have all of us meet up at your resort after all these years.

I called Sandals and booked a group of 7 rooms. I was originally told with the group we would get a private cocktail party, a photo session and massages for all the guests. I thought that was awesome deal and everyone was so excited about it! Later, I was told that we would not get the massages because it was only for those staying over a week and that had a butler. We were disappointed but still excited about the trip. A few months later, I questioned when we could have the cocktail hour and then was told they are no longer doing that unless the group was 10 rooms or more! Once again we were disappointed. So basically, for booking 14 people, we only got a free photo and no other perks!

At this point, I was upset and escalated the situation to the management level and they said there wasn’t anything they could do… so just a photo it is! She asked me for our group’s flight information and where we wanted to dine so that it would be all set up for us. I provide her all of our flights and gave her the restaurants each evening we wished to dine at and she said she was giving it to the resort and it would all be set up for us when we arrived.

A friend of mine just came back from the resort and told us about “Mobay club” and how wonderful it was to skip all the lines through customs. I immediately called and it was booked up! Noone ever told us about club Mobay from the beginning.

I was also told that all of our rooms would be together or fairly close. I asked them to book the “quad” so that 4 of our rooms could share 1 pool and we could all be together. She kept saying they will do that when we get there but it will not be a problem. When we arrived, we were spread out all over! My parents (in their 80's) and another couple were so upset that they asked to be moved closer by us but could not be accommodated. Meanwhile, 2 of the rooms in our quad sat vacant when they could have easily put any of the others in there!

When we arrived, our room was missing an iron and a coffee machine and the support bar in the shower fell off. These were eventually resolved. We asked for towels but they never arrived and we had nothing to dry off with for dinner! We found out our housekeeper was off that day!

We did receive the itinerary that showed the times and dates for each of the restaurants we booked but when we arrived at each restaurant they had no reservation for us! This caused us all to wait while they figured it out. This happened each night and finally I had to complain to the concierge. At this point our group was so frustrated. The concierge called sales and she was helpful on the last day, making sure we were all able to sit together at the Italian restaurant. So kudos to her!

As for the free photo, on the itinerary it was correct but then we all received another card from the iPIX studio with a completely different date and time! My parents also had a card with a third date and time! So I called them and they said they would accommodate the original request for Sat at 6:00 pm. before dinner to take the photo. On the itinerary, it told us to meet at the Polo lounge and all of us showed dressed up but no photographer. There was no air-conditioning and we were all hot and perspiring! I called again and was told we were supposed to meet on the other side of the resort at the beach! This meant we would have had to hop on the bus to get over there and miss our dinner reservations (that were never set up anyway!) The group was angry at this point and said to have the photographer meet us at the Polo lounge like it said on the card.

Now, speaking of the bus (HOP) – that was a nightmare in itself! It is hard enough to keep a group together but the bus is limited seating and as soon as it arrives people are crowded around the door pushing their way onto the bus like animals to get a seat! If you don’t get a seat you have to wait another 15 minutes and repeat the process. It was an awful experience! Also, we were dressed in White slacks for dinner and there was sand/mud and water on the seats from those coming back from the beach.

The resort is beautiful but too large and very hilly. If you don’t have a butler you have to walk up and down the steep hills and steep steps. My parents are in their 80’s and Dad is unable to walk due to bad ankles but did not have a butler so they had to continually wait for the “Jittney” which if they were lucky came by every 30 minutes. Nobody would help my parents unless we started raising our voices! This resort definitely caters to those with butlers ONLY!

As for our pool boy, we asked him to please fix the light on the pool as all the other pools had lights on at night and ours was pitch black. It never did get fixed and then he cornered me the day before I was leaving and told me he was off tomorrow and was wondering if I was going to give him a tip or buy some drugs from him. I thought it was a mandatory no tipping policy? Anyhow, I felt pressured into giving him some cash even though he really didn’t do anything except take a couple leaves out of the pool.

Now back to the pictures, we were originally told each room can have one free picture and then we were told I had to pick one picture for the whole group and that is what they got. Many of us ordered more pictures and paid for them from the events that were going on at the resort but never got them! We provided them our claim number to view them online but they never showed up! So we are now fighting with this because they said after so many days all the pics get erased. Since they can’t find our pictures we are requesting a refund which we still have not received!

I was debating to even bring this up but I must say 90% of the property’s employees were sweet and very helpful but there were a few bartenders that had attitudes. It happened to at least 4 of the people in our group where we would wait patiently and it seemed the bartenders had an issue, no smiles, not engaging at all, almost as if we were bothering them. This happened at the main pool as well as at the Sundowner bar.

At this point none of us have ever been to a Sandals and none of us plan on returning. I have another group of 30 + that I just booked us all on a cruise instead in March.

Needless to say we were all extremely disappointed and expected so much more out of Sandals! I sent an email to Sandals and to the manager of the resort a week ago and no word at all!

AGAIN:When we arrived we filled out the alcohol selection for the room (1 bottle wine, 4 beers

Here’s a summary of what happened:

Room was below average: mildew and mold in the bathroom tiles, only 2 towel, 1 bottle of shampoo

Pools: the water park and lazy river are closed until next year (this is not disclosed ANYWHERE nor told at check in)

Shocked the main pool closed for 5 hours, closed

Food: went to Arizonas at 2:30 for lunch. Food on floors, only scrapings if that was left in Buffet bins. Took 20 min for a beer and virgin daiquiri

At 7pm: still no alcohol delivered to room

Pizza: took 1hr 45 min to get 2 pizzas to go

Room service: there is none

On August 25, 2022, my clients arrive at Sandals resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica for what was to be an extravagant birthday "milestone" celebration. My clients had a reservation and paid in full to have a beachfront hotel room with a tranquility tub. That was not provided. In spite of the proof of reservation, they gave my clients a basic small room that faced the pool area on a lower floor. In spite of a call from myself as well as American Airline vacations, Sandals would not change the room. My clients spent well over 11K at this resort in preparation for their 6 nights with photo sessions, spas, evening dinner experiences, catamaran experience, and more to only be told we cannot help you because it's an operations issue. Mind you, my clients checked in on a Thursday. The concierge said she would check to see if a room change was possible but did not attempt to satisfy my clients. My clients called every day but to no avail and to add insult to injury, the operations department was closed on the weekend. Sandals also provided their check-out a letter (under the door) two days prior to check-out. It is clear that Sandals dropped the ball but my client stayed at the resort and tried to make the most of their first visit to Jamaica.

I can no longer recommend Sandals resort to any of my future clients. Sandals could've resolved the issue but chose to not make my client right. On the last night of my client's stay, Sandals stay, called the room to ask if there was anything they could do to make their stay more pleasant. At that time, my clients were over Sandals' failure to be as attentive and high quality as they have advertised. The room was also poorly decorated for the birthday as planned. I am just so dissatisfied as for the amount of money spent, Sandals was not worth any of it. I will not recommend Sandals ever again and I was married at the Barbados resort with a butler and 60 people. Never again.

I booked 4 nights at Whitehouse with wanting to do vow renewal. It claims 3 nights or more= free wedding. Most people would assume vow renewal isn't anything different, other than the legal certificate, but yet they want to charge $300 extra for VOW RENEWAL! WHY? On top of that, they gave me a list of all I will get in this package for vow renewal...It's me and my husband. I don't need chairs, music, a big ceremony plus after party. I need one person to officiate and maybe one person to do pictures for us, using my phone for all I care...I need maybe 15 mins for him and I to say our vows and that is it! That is all I want and ask. I need nothing more. No decorations, flowers, etc. We have no guests to join...yet they won't do it...not only won't they do it at no cost but unless I buy the package they wont' do it. I spent over a year saving for this. My husband and I almost went through a divorce and worked hard to get to this special time and now we can't even have our moment.

I am not asking for anything other than them to assist with a legal vow renewal and 15 mins of there time. I don't understand why this would not be allowed and it saddens me. No one can even explain why they would charge a separate fee for a vow renewal AND tell me the difference between that and a wedding ceremony because there should be no difference. Its wrong - we paid a lot of money already and they advertise a free wedding...I am asking for less than what the packages even offer...I want nothing from them except them to help me file the documents and someone to do our vows. THAT IS IT.

I don't think I will book Sandals again. It may not seem like a big deal but to us this was the whole reason of coming...I never imagined a simple vow renewal would cost extra as well as them to offer just one package that isn't even needed...not everyone needs a big ceremony.

My name is Bettie Boyer I have a wedding Planner her name is Shakera. I have a lot of question to specialize my wedding because I am bride and it is my money that I am paying. I have at least 20 rooms will be booked. I am trying to customize my wedding. My complaint the wedding planner have no time to talk because she have other clients also, but it not fair to me spend 10 or thousands dollars and can`t get any help for my wedding. Sandals need make sure all of their guest are satisfied. It not fair just tell me what my wedding cost but won`t help me to end plan it. I like another wedding planner. I am about to spend to much money at sandals. I need help Please contact me [protected]. My reservation for wedding RG22154625.

I am very unhappy if I known I was gong get this kind of treatment before I enter in Curacao I could made Reservation elsewhere. My wedding Planner Shakera told me she can`t call me again very sad for this kind of hospitality and I have not arrive as of yet I am getting very nervous.