Sandals Royal Barbados (Sbr)

Vacation Couple We have had a room booked for a wedding party for almost 1year. Upon arriving we were placed in a greeting area for over an hour, with no explanation. Once our names were called; we were taken outside to be told the room we reserved was not available. They were putting us in a sub-standard room, with no ocean view as previously reserved. They said they would move us in a few days once our room was available. I informed them that I was not happy with this. I was told not to worry; “I would receive a refund for the few dollars difference in room rate! Night 1: We were placed in a room that is the farthest away from the ocean. Not a view at all. (St Lawrence House.). It backs up to a residential area with dogs that bark day and night and sound like they are in the room next door. We were forced to spend 2 nights in this room. Day 2 I had a scheduled meeting with what I was told would be the facility manager at 3:00. My wife and I left the pool and our group to dry off and be timely for our meeting. Upon arrival to the front desk at 2:58, I was told to go to the concierge. App 30 people were waiting there. No one had set an appoin**ent. I became very upset and I gained the attention of Dexter, concierge manager. He assured me they would make things right, and he would follow-up on what they would propose. He also promised to have us in the room we originally reserved on day 3, by 1:00 Day 3 We were told to have our luggage set out by 11:00, and they would facilitate our room change. Being anxious to get into our new room and unpacked to get back with our group, as well as prepare for our parties meet and greet; we finally were escorted to our room at app. 3:20. (No room to go to for over 4 hours.). Once we were taken to our room, we were told we still did not have the ocean view room we originally reserved. I was too worn out and disappointed at this point to want to put my wife through another series of packing, waiting, changing rooms again, and unpacking. But she insisted we needed the room we reserved. So day 4 we were moved to the correct room. Day 4 We received a statement under our door reflecting a $250.00 resort credit. Nice to get but not even close to covering the difference in room rates, not to mention all the above. After my daily meetings to complain to “Dexter,” I kept being told they were working on a solution for us. My final meeting the morning of checkout; Dexter proposed 2 nights internal credit. I laughed and turned down his offer. He took a few minutes and returned offering a 2 night refund, but I would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Though I might have agreed to the refund had a non-disclosure not been part of the agreement, but still far from fair. But the money is not important to me at this point. It is the principal, coupled with my desire to make others aware before booking with Sandals of how little they value their customers, and how far from the truth their statement of being a 5-star res

We had an amazing experience staying at Sandals Royal Barbados! The food was excellent, the drinks were great and the resort was gorgeous. We opted for butler service and our team (Romero, Vanessa and Stephen) we INCREDIBLE! We emailed about a week ahead to ask them to make reservations at restaurants we chose and when we got there, there was a printed calendar with our reservations! They were extremely responsive, friendly and truly made the trip even better. Barbados is a beautiful island and the people were warm and friendly. We would love to go back!

Room was amazing with private pool … resort was great clean and fun … Butler service was everything you would expect plus some

Just returned from our second stay at Sandals Royal Barbados. Just what the Dr ordered! Our butler team- Tremayne, Kadeem and Tony made the stay -Everything!!! These three work like a team- a well oiled machine - which parlays over to their guest.

I will not waste my time writing a lengthy review but will say the bad reviews on Tripadvisor are justified with Room odours, damp bedclothes, cold meals, long waits for food, unhygienic practices, dirty soft furnishings, pools unkempt, pool rules not adhered to, unable to get sunbeds much of the time, constantly out of stock food and drink items, crowded noisy beach, sellers at the beach etc etc. Sandals say what you want to hear but do nothing. I will post just a few of my many photo. You can make your own mind up if this is the place for you.

Where do you begin? Let's start from day 1. 2 hours to check in and given a map of the joint Sandals resorts. This allows you to eat and drink in either. This is a good thing. We were marched to our room and left to find our own way about. The maps weren't very good and not to scale. We managed to find a restaurant, an American diner with sports programmers blaring from the tvs. Great! American football I don't like footie and especially with odd shaped balls. The food throughout the holiday was nice, not spectacular but nice. I would recommend you book the Japanese and Steak house when you arrive, there's a week waiting list. Bit of a back story, we are visiting the island for a wedding. A beach wedding that Sandals allegedly specialises in. This is a business, a very expensive business with the bridal party being ripped off for everything. So everything is bought and paid for and the day before the happy couple were informed the beach wedding they had dreamed of couldn't happen as another event was given the beach area and they were told the ceremony would now take place at the sky lounge. This is the 6th floor at the other resort (not the Royal) So we all went along with it but that was our mistake we should have insisted we got the venue and trimmings we paid for. The 6th floor is very windy all our photos are ruined as we all look like we were in a wind tunnel. On the wedding day the bride and groom got ready in their appointed rooms. I am the grooms mother and my son and I had to walk from the back end of one resort to the other to be met with a crowd of resort guests lounging and splashing about in the pool and surrounding area. The staff had only just started adding meager decorations to some pillars. We assumed this was the area when the wedding was taking place. It was so windy the voil they were wrapping the pillars looked like toilet paper. It was a disaster waiting to happen and rather than upset the bride my son asked me to go and give them a pep talk to get things moving. I have to admit the Americans on the roof that day were wonderful and very respectful and stood well back and gave us some privacy. Even the 2 topless sunbathers moved just enough not to be caught in any photos. The bride appeared and the ceremony went ahead as planned. We had wedding dinner on the beach but it was so dark we ate with our mobile torch on We couldn't see a thing! It wasn't until the happy couple went to select their photos did the amateurish of the whole Sandals process become more evident. Out of 300 photos the struggled to get 13 and a few of them were double ups but with different hues. All the beautiful island scenery was blurred out and my DIL dress was cut out of every photo. My son had photos with his head cut out, or his shoulder and there was one with the brides mother trying to catch the veil as the wind kept blowing it out of her hair. There are no photos whatsoever of the parents or of the whole wedding party. Very disappoin

This was our first visit to a Sandals resort and first visit to Barbados and it was absolutely magical! SHOUT-OUTS: Our butler staff - Shaq, Nakisha, and Tre - made our visit so special, particularly for my birthday celebrations. I also want to shout out some of the amazing photographers - Dwayne and Mark - who captured such beautiful photos of me and my husband. Finally - Stacey - who was our server for our private beach front dinner and at Neptunes - she went above and beyond with the most positive attitude! PROS: - I LOVED the grounds - there were so many pools and quiet places to retreat as well as more lively areas. It was perfect for any type of travel style. - Food: there are so many amazing food options between the two resorts that you’ll never get bored. And I love that they had plenty of healthy options - my favorites were the smoothie/juice shop; Neptunes; Bombay; and Chi. As well as the two cafes. - Service: I’ve visited a lot of carribean islands and I loved the chill vibe of Barbados. The servers are very attentive and helpful and people generally have a very relaxed/easy-going temperament. AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT: - providing visitors with a print out of the entertainment activities for the week would be helpful. We didn’t have a good sense of what was happening on which nights. - perhaps additional training for the guards on how to approach guests. When I was returning from the beach one day - one of the guards stopped me to confirm if I was a guest at the hotel. As a young black woman and obvious minority at the hotel - I absolutely felt profiled as I didn’t see the guards asking any of the other white guests to confirm whether they were guests. There should be a better system in place for guards to confirm guests so no one feels racially profiled on their vacation.

Please read other reviews about the resort, I agree with some of the issues others experienced and also agree with some of the praises others have experienced as well. My wife and I stayed at the Royal side for a week (5/15-5/22) and if it was not for our butler crew, it would have been a much different experience for us. Want to give a HUGE shoutout to our butlers - Shak, Kev, Ron and Romero. Unfortunately Ron had a family emergency that cut our time short (hope you are doing as well as you can Ron, hoping that time will help heal the wound). They were on top of everything we needed, ensuring we had a spot at the beach (and had lunch/drinks while at our seats), dinner reservations each night at the time we requested (even if the original time reserved was asked to change), and most of all they put all their effort into us having the best vacation within their power. Always positive, energetic, personable, friendly and smiling. These gentlemen deserve a raise for their hard work and dedication! Thank you thank you thank you!

Arrived with friends last week for their 31st and our 30th anniversary. 12th sandals trip and we received our free week. Upon arrival airport was quick and easy. No issues and very quick. Lounge is outside and to the left. 15 ride to resort. We were butler level and friends club. Greeted at entry with cool towels. They didn’t have the normal good smell. We noted our bags, our friends were told to go to club lounge we were told to go to front desk to check in…the other butler room that was in our van was told the same thing. We waited in line checked in at front desk and then told to find a seat in main lobby and butler would be up to get us. No drink definitely not VIP check in. We waited for 15 min then went into club lounge where after a few min and not just one attendant asked why are you in here. I responded by I am butler level and wanted a drink. Our first one!! They just walked away. Our friends asked for another drink which was brought quickly and they gave us theirs. Very rude. Finally after about a half hour we left and went to get food. Ate lunch then we found the butler lounge. Walked in told them who we were and they took us to our room. 4:30 pm. None of our preferences were noted or in the room. Butler asked if first trip to sandals then proceeded to tell us we could tip now or at end of stay. Crazy they lead with that. During our stay we had one good butler Shomar he was very personable and did all we asked and some we didn’t. The other 2 not so much. Our room was not made up one day and when asked for towels was like will see if I can get some. Asked for shrimp cocktail which was on preference sheet and said probably not. As it has to be ordered a day or 2 in advance. Asked for chicken wings and was told no those are special order also. Then a few min later the pool staff came by w menu and chicken wings on it. Lol so got them in about 15 min. Nothing special done in the room at all even though our anniversary. Grounds were very well taken care of and very pretty. Restaurants didn’t have any issues there food was good and plenty of it. Wait staff was always on it. Playmakers were a lot of fun and we had a great time with them. Infinity pool bar they were on top of it. Made great drinks. It was odd though that towards the middle of week they would run out of everything. And not restock most. One day was totally out of bourbon and vodka. Gonna do our free week then think we are done w sandals at these high prices and the service being lack luster and not consistent. When I spoke to the butler lounge staff, loyalty desk and club lounge no one seemed to care of horrible service. It didn’t ruin vacation but definitely not worth the extra money for butler any more.