Sandals Barbados reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4.5 Excellent

  • Cleanliness 4.5
  • Location 4.5
  • Rooms 4.5
  • Service 4.5
  • Value 4.0

6060 TripAdvisor reviews

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

DIsappointing birthday holiday.

jenabelConsett (Consett, United Kingdom) on Jul 18, 2024

A bit long winded, but this is my honest review. We paid a lot of £ for an extra special holiday for a 60th birthday on 2nd July, and even though on booking and checking into the hotel and informing them of the occasion at reception the night before, not a single thing was done to make the day special by the hotel. No champagne in the room, no towel art, and no cake with a candle, even though I had informed them where we would be eating. Very disappointed at the lack of customer relations. Room The room was very basic. It had a good shower. However, the floor was flooded every time it was used as the door did not slide along. We had to put towels on the floor to soak up the water every time we showered. The towels were very fluffy and soft. The air conditioning unit was new and was very good. The wardrobe was nice and big, and there were plenty of drawers, but when the drawer was opened, it opened the fridge door with it. The bed was very high but very comfortable, and the pillows were the softest I have ever had in a hotel ( wish I could have packed some in my case). Good WiFi in the room. Nice soft dressing gowns but no slippers. The fridge was stocked every day apart from 1 with beer. The wine was replaced every few days. We had 3 bottles of white and 4 red in 14 nights. Housekeeping was generally good. Missed a couple of days but we hardly ever got the turn down service as they either came very early when we were still getting ready or didn't come at all. General hotel and staff. First impression of the hotel was that it is tired looking and needs a general overhaul of sun loungers, seating, and replacement tiles in some of the pools. It doesn't help that some inconsiderate guests leave dirty plates in hallways or spilt food and drinks on the outside seating. It would be helpful if a map was supplied as we had been there a week before we found the pool at the greenhouse and sol restaurants area. Communication of daily activities would also help as we never knew what was on each day or evening and also we didn't know about the free snorkeling trip and I'm sure we will have also missed other stuff available. Staff and ambiance of the hotel Most of the staff were very nice and some seemed to love their jobs and interacted a lot with guests whereas the odd one seemed miserable and that getting a drink or serving you a meal was a lot of trouble for them. We were in the greenhouse for over 2 hours and only had 2 drinks the entire time while waiting food. The bartender at the piano bar was miserable. Another restaurant, we decided to miss starters and have main and dessert but gave up waiting and left after our main course. The majority of the restaurants were very good, loved Le Parissienne, portofinos, Schooners, Bombay, Butch's chophouse, and all the eating places on afternoons were very good. Disappointed with breakfast as portofinos was never open. We had buffet breakfast at spices every day and loved the variety of omelette. Our favourite pub for a drink after our evening meal was the Merry Monkey, and we also had excellent fish and chips from there. The variety of bottles was outstanding, Stella. Guinness and Newcastle brown ale, to name a few. Grounds Shout out to the gardeners and maintenance staff. They never stop. It didn't take them long to remove all the debris following Hurricane Beryl, and within days, the grounds were immaculate, and they are forever clearing up the leaves and cutting back plants, etc. It seems they are trying to get the hotel back to 5 star as lots of painting going on and repair to the huts by the quiet pool and lovely new sun loungers that were comfortable to lie on. The pools are all lovely and warm and are kept fairly clean. The jacuzzi by Lovers Lane pool has red hot water in it! You have to be quick to get a sun lounger with a brolly as they are taken by 9am and towels are available at different times of the day so people take them for the next day as soon as the towel huts are filled so if you are looking for towels on the morning, it usually means a walk round all the pools to find some. Tip, look on the beach towel huts as they sometimes get forgot about. Drinks and food. What a variety. There are plenty of top shelf spirits and no short measures. There are lots of different cocktails and plenty of champagne. Bottles of ale and beers at lovers lane. The food is amazing. We have no complaints at all. The different menus in each restaurant, the quality of the food, and the portion sizes were just right. There is no need to order 2 mains as some were. A big shout out to the staff for looking after the guests during the hurricane, we felt safe and were supplied with food snacks for the room. Would we return? Probably not to Barbados, but we might look at other resorts. Would we recommend to others? Probably but not to get hopes up if celebrating a special occasion as they don't care.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 1 out of 5

Don't even think about it

Harry F (Edinburgh, United Kingdom) on Jul 17, 2024

Positives first, setting is beautiful, food great, Sean in the Lobby Bar friendly and efficient, that is where it ends. Being a business man who travels extensively and stays at many hotels worldwide (almost), this has to be the worst run hotel i've ever had the displeasure of staying at. Being rude seems to be the mantra of 95% of the staff, never a smile or thank you and an overall attitude of "what do you want youre taking up my time here". On arrival we found that we had a leak in our toilet from the Systern only discovered when both my wife and I slipped on the floor which was covered in water. On reporting this we were told that we were being transferred to another room, this was at approximately 09.00 and come 18.00 we still weren't allocated another room. Eventually they decided to send a maintenance man to repair which he did within 10 minutes. No slippers in the room and only one bathrobe even although there were two of us, despite reporting this to both reception and housekeeping on several occassions we left after 10 days with only one bath robe in the room. Every single day of our stay we had to ask for towels for our room, after the room was serviced for some bizzare reason no towels were left in the bathroom for our use. When the towels eventually arrived, we were given two bath towels, no hand, face or bath mat towels were provided, in fact on one occassion when we requested towels the housekeeping representative handed us a large plastic bin bag with towels in it. The bathroom had mould around the bath and the door to the bathroom only closed 75% of the way leaving zero privacy when using the toilet. Forget calling reception, you will be told action is being taken and certainly in our case and many other guests we spoke to you are completely wasting your time even when you personally visit the reception desk they only pay lip service and are quite rude. Now to the bars and restaurants, well this is rudeness on a different level, at most bars especially the pool bars you are completely ignored and despite eventually catching the attention of the bar staff your drink is amost thrown at you, what surprises me most is almost every customer is treated the same way, surely management are fully aware of this as it seems to be the norm. Be prepared for a very long wait at all the restaurants, every single night of our 10 day stay we were subjected to a wait of an average of 1 hour to be seated, most of the time you are sent away for up to an hour + and told to return, then you are subjected to a very long wait after being seated to receive your entree, then a good hour on average to receive your main meal. My wife and I went to Chi where we sat down at 7 PM for our meal and left the restaurant at 10.45. don't expect a smile from any of the staff, it's just not happening. Now for the pools, mass panic first thing in the morning with people running everywhere trying to snatch a taowel for your sunbed, if you are lucky enough to get one don't expect to replace it at any time, the towels are never and I mean never replenished round the poolsides. On leaving, we finally negotiated a late check out (14.00), wow what a nightmare this turned out to be, on going back to our room for a shower and final pack up at around 13.00, our room keys had been deactivated, when we went to reception and asked for them to reactivate they said it wasnt possible and they would have to call the maintenace man to let us in to our room (Bizzare or what), he eventually arrived twenty minutes before our pick up time maening we had no time to showr prior to leaving for the airport, the reception staff were completely unresonsive and so unhelpful In summary, never again I have never come across so many rude and unhelpful hotel staff in my lifetime and certainly would never recommend this hotel to anyone, pity really as first said the potential is enormous, just poorly managed and run, if you do decide to take a chance and visit you will witness staff taking slow walking to the next level.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

Sandals Barbados was Disappointing

BobV465 on Jul 16, 2024

We recently put together a group of 8 and travelled to Sandals Barbados for what we expected to be an exceptional all inclusive Beach Vacation. Unfortunately, our week turned into consistent poor service and not enough staff to provide exceptional serivice which Sandals Resorts normally provide. We experienced challenges with the Sandals Club Concierge Office staff and had many issues with lack of staff and proper service in most restaurants. If you plan to travel to A Sandals resort, I would avoid Barbados and do your home work to find a resort ( Like St. Lucia) which has executional staff - Service.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 3 out of 5

Staff is amazing, hotel is a bit run down

hammy2995 on Jul 15, 2024

The staff was exceptional, my butlers Reanna, Shanice, Chenese, and Jen all made sure I had what I needed throughout my day. Most of the bartenders were lively and fun. The room was a bit rough though. There was a cockroach, the bathroom and living room bar were infested with ants, EVERYWHERE was covered in flies, the shower never stopped leaking, and there was a hole in the ceiling from a former leak and the ceiling kept crumbling and dropping debris onto the floor. The beds were incredibly hard and I woke up with a bruise on my rib one morning because of the spring digging into my side throughout the night. After talking with other couples, we heard that the Barbados resort does not live up to the other Sandals and to not count them out just yet. This trip was for our honeymoon, and we made the most out of it and still made sure to have a good time.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

Amazing Experience!

Bianca M on Jul 13, 2024

Celebrated my Birthday in Barbados!! My husband and I stayed at Sandals Barbados and we had an amazing experience there! Everyone was very friendly and nice! We also did an Island tour with Captain Larry and we loved every moment of our time there. The food was delicious and our favorite go to spot was Spices for breakfast every morning and Butch’s! 10/10

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