Room
Décor
Service
Value
Shame on Sandals!
See the letter I wrote to the founder of sandals after leaving his resort in disgust after only 2 nights of a 7 night booking....
Dear Mr. Stewart,
I watched your Sandals Chairman’s video prior to booking my recent vacation at Sandals Regency Resort in St. Lucia. Your testimonial was key to my choosing Sandals as my vacation destination. I now request that you take the time to hear my testimonial after spending a horrifying two days at the Regency Resort.
I booked the Romeo and Juliet Penthouse Suite (Room 895) for the period of January 3 – 10, 2009 at a cost of $6,556.90. We arrived at the airport after our helicopter transfer and were told that no one from Sandals was there to meet us, as had been confirmed prior to departure. We were forced to book a taxi and pay for it ourselves. Mildly unsettling and certainly not a promising start to our luxury all-inclusive vacation.
Within minutes of being shown to our suite my partner and I noticed that the walls had mold growing on them and the room was in terrible disrepair. We asked to speak to the management and the head Butler, whose name we believe is Dipac, explained that he realized the room was in need of renovation and that he was happy to report that the rooms were scheduled for renovation in the near future. However, he also informed us that no other rooms were available until mid-week and that if we wanted to transfer we would have to pay to upgrade to this new room. I made it clear to Dipac that I was not satisfied with this solution and felt that we should be moved immediately. He repeated that there was nothing he could do, but he did acknowledge that our complaints were valid.
We have attached photographs to provide proof of the conditions we encountered.
(1) there was mold growing on the walls,
(2) the window screen and window cranks were broken and there was bird feces on the outside of the windows,
(3) the ceilings were stained with watermarks,
(4) the bathroom floor was chipped and there was mold and dirt packed into edges of the floors,
(5) the tracks of the sliding glass windows were disgustingly dirty and filled with mold,
(6) the furniture showed years of use and wear and the chair fabrics stained.
We spent the night in that room, against our wishes, and awoke to an intense smell of mold and must and with a floor covered with a heavy layer of condensation. I almost fell trying to get out of bed because the floors were so slippery. My partner, who has strong reactions to smell, was in extreme distress. I had made it clear to the resort, prior to our arrival, that we required no scents in the room. There is a note to this effect in our Butler pre arrival log. We had to leave the room immediately to get away form the mold smell.
We quickly made the decision that we could not expose ourselves to the mold in our room After trying to get online to get an immediate flight home, we realized that the promised “in room” internet service did not exist. We had to walk to the main lobby and conduct our business in full view of the management. Our inability to deal with this matter in private caused us concern. The management had made it clear to us the prior day that they were unable or unwilling to accommodate our need for a room without mold. Here we were some three thousand miles from home on an island with no US embassy. We were completely in the power of your resort to meet our safety and health needs.
Due to our fear of potential retribution, we chose to use the excuse of a family emergency to appease the management and obtain their help getting home quickly. In truth, the emergency was that we feared for our own health and safety. Martina, from the main desk, worked diligently to get us a flight home. Unfortunately, the soonest flight available was the next day (Jan 5th) and at a cost $1,800.
Thus, we were forced to stay one more day at the resort. We attempted to make the best of this final 24 hours. We first went to the dive center and learned that, contrary to what is advertised, the scuba was not free and required a $75 lesson fee. Several people waiting in line were upset about this “hidden” fee. While waiting our turn, we realized that the dive staff was completely disorganized and unprofessional. We did not feel comfortable trusting these individuals with our safety in a boat and under water.
We chose, instead, to spend time at the main pool and on the beach. You will see in the attached photos that the pool, which you advertise as a stunning gem on the island, is, in fact, in serious disrepair with cracked tiles and rust stains. The photos that you use in your video show a pool in perfect condition with water fountains flowing. The same fountains that work so well in the video remained off during our entire 3 days stay. During our several hour stay at the pool and on the beach we repeatedly smelled sewage and had to move to new locations. We attempted to get towels and were told there were no clean ones available. Imagine, a “luxury” beach resort with no towels. We visited the Red Lane Spa, advertised as a luxury spa experience, and paid $260 for a couple’s massage. When I tried to shower before my massage, I learned that the spa had no running hot water. I went to the spa attendant and was told I would have had to walk up the Bluff to my room if I wished to shower first. I was not told this when I booked the massage, or even when I entered the spa, but rather after I had disrobed and could not get a refund.
One area of service that I will not go into in great detail, but that certainly deserves your immediate attention was the restaurant service and food quality. We were appalled at the low quality of the meals we received. Suffice to say that even at your most prestigious restaurant, Le Toc, our meals were disappointing, to say the least.
I feel compelled to note the two shining stars of your staff, the head butler (Dipac) and the office manager (Martina). Clearly you have numerous talented and capable staff, if only you would invest in the infrastructure renovations required to bring this resort to the level they, and more importantly the consumers, deserve. Here is one example of what I mean. We were told that you had just arrived at the resort as we were about to leave. This individual divulged to us his hope that your toilet backed up so that you would understand how seriously compromised the infrastructure really was. He was very pessimistic that the management would permit you to see all the problems that existed. He truly loved working at Sandals but felt horrible about how the guests were being “ripped off” and then left with bad feelings about his island. If only you could promote this caring individual to a position where he could make a difference!
One final comment about our safety concerns. As we put our luggage into the taxi for the ride to the airport we noticed that my luggage had been tampered with. We found a large bag of candles packed into one of the compartments. We asked about this and were told that our butler, Shanna, had placed the candles in my bag as a convenience while she carried them to the front desk. She then forgot to remove them. What Shanna did not seem to understand was that she had violated my right to privacy. She had opened my luggage. How do I know what else she put in my bag, or took out. I had to unpack and search for any further “hidden” items to be sure I was not carrying something illegal into customs. You advertise highly trained professional butlers in your video. When I brought this matter to their attention they laughed at me.
Let me end this letter with some information about myself. First, I am an experienced traveler. As a professional biologist, I have traveled to numerous developing countries, including some with very meager accommodations, such as Kenya, Tanzania and the Galapagos Islands. I am not fearful of staying in primitive conditions. I have slept in tents in Africa and in grungy hotel rooms in the Galapagos. In both of those cases, I got exactly what I had been promised – meager accommodations at meager prices. In contrast, at your resort I got dismal, unhealthy accommodations for the price of a luxury resort. In fact, in all of my travels, I have never encountered the lack of concern for my health and safety as I experienced during my brief stay at your resort. It was clear that the management had no interest in providing the “luxury” service you so proudly boast in your video.
What a horrid, horrid, experience....
