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My experience at Sandals Jamaica



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 11th, 2004, 06:28 PM
jas kim
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.
You can do much better for the same money.

The accomodation even in the grande deluxe beach front are not 3 star
equivalent.

I am originally from a third world country so that did not bother me
too much, but when I realized that there are hotels with better
accomodations for the same price as sandals, I realized I had just
paid for the name and reputation.

I did my honeymoon there and I had one big problem with Sandals.
Initially, I debated about whether to pay for a beach front room or a
regular room. After convincing myself that this is my honeymoon and I
will only do this once(hopefully), I decided to pay the premium for a
grande deluce beach front room that supposedly has a view of the
ocean. Well guess what?? The room had no beach front view. There was
a huge tree that blocked the view. I raised the issue with the
manager and they noted that the advertisments are meant to suggest
beach front "access" as opposed to beach front view. What a pile of
crap. Following that argument they could put you up in a hotel in the
middle of the country because it has beach front access via roads!!

The tree blocked the view of several of our neighbours who were also
irrated. The day I checked out the tree was trimmed which made it a
bit better but clearly no clear view of the ocean. Since I returned
to the US, I have contacted them and asked for a refund of the premium
I paid for beach front view but they are sticking to their beach front
access crap. At the end of the day, I just wrote off the experience
and cost. I wrote the Better business burea so that others will have
knowledge of my complaint.

While I would not necessarily discourage others from going, I would
suggest if you are going to pay for beach front view to get a
confirmed room number at the time you make your reservation so that
you can look at the map and make sure you will actually have a view of
the sea.

Overall my experience was ok but not exceptional. No more Sandals for
me.

Feel free to email with specific questions.

(obviously remove the NOSPAM prefix from
my email address)

jasguild
  #2  
Old March 11th, 2004, 08:35 PM
DOconn3569
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.

Which Sandals "Jamaica"is this specifically? Negril, Ochos Rios, Montego Bay,
Dunns River, Sandals Inn or Roal Caribbean?

i can't comment on any of them personally besides Sandals Negril, but my
experiance there was far different than what you describe.


Don

Trade List: http://hometown.aol.com/doconn3569/m...age/index.html


Please remove nospam to email
  #3  
Old March 11th, 2004, 11:41 PM
jas kim
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

I was at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Its not that my
experience was totally bad. I just think that the advertisement was
very misleading. What I found worse is that they did not own up to it
but instead try to justify it on a technicality.

The angle at which the building is placed is perpendicular to the
ocean and there are buildings on the left. So the only way you can
actually see the ocean is if you go on your porch and stick your head
out and look to the right. And that only works if you dont have a big
tree in front of your room.

jasguild


ospam (DOconn3569) wrote in message ...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.


Which Sandals "Jamaica"is this specifically? Negril, Ochos Rios, Montego Bay,
Dunns River, Sandals Inn or Roal Caribbean?

i can't comment on any of them personally besides Sandals Negril, but my
experiance there was far different than what you describe.


Don

Trade List:
http://hometown.aol.com/doconn3569/m...age/index.html


Please remove nospam to email

  #4  
Old March 12th, 2004, 12:55 AM
nospam
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

Which Sandals are specifically talking about? Why didn't you just go to
management and demand a better room from the very start. Did you ask for an
upgrade? They usually give one to honeymooners and returnees. We have been
to Sandals (all in Jamaica, St. Lucia, and Bahamas) 13 times and going on
14. Most of our experiences with Sandals has been good. We have on a
couple of occasions asked for a better room (moving twice one time) and have
gotten it upfront. Majority of the time we have have very nice upgrades and
gotten rooms we specifically asked for (block and room #). I would have
let the Room manager, PR manager & GM know I was disatified from the git go
but diplomatically. I would have also let Sandals (Unique Vacations) and my
agent know. Write you regional Sandals Sales rep and let them know. You can
complain to the BBB but they can't do much, if anything, since Sandals is
owned by a Jamaican in Jamaica. How was the rest of your vacation there?
Was the service, food, etc. so bad that a "bad" view from your room would
ruin your trip? (Jamaica is weather is wonderful why would you want to spend
your time in your room anyway?) You shouldn't judge all Sandals badly
because of bad room at one Sandals. They are all different, with different
managers and different responses. Give them another try but also let the
PTB know your complaint.


"jas kim" wrote in message
om...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.
You can do much better for the same money.

The accomodation even in the grande deluxe beach front are not 3 star
equivalent.

I am originally from a third world country so that did not bother me
too much, but when I realized that there are hotels with better
accomodations for the same price as sandals, I realized I had just
paid for the name and reputation.

I did my honeymoon there and I had one big problem with Sandals.
Initially, I debated about whether to pay for a beach front room or a
regular room. After convincing myself that this is my honeymoon and I
will only do this once(hopefully), I decided to pay the premium for a
grande deluce beach front room that supposedly has a view of the
ocean. Well guess what?? The room had no beach front view. There was
a huge tree that blocked the view. I raised the issue with the
manager and they noted that the advertisments are meant to suggest
beach front "access" as opposed to beach front view. What a pile of
crap. Following that argument they could put you up in a hotel in the
middle of the country because it has beach front access via roads!!

The tree blocked the view of several of our neighbours who were also
irrated. The day I checked out the tree was trimmed which made it a
bit better but clearly no clear view of the ocean. Since I returned
to the US, I have contacted them and asked for a refund of the premium
I paid for beach front view but they are sticking to their beach front
access crap. At the end of the day, I just wrote off the experience
and cost. I wrote the Better business burea so that others will have
knowledge of my complaint.

While I would not necessarily discourage others from going, I would
suggest if you are going to pay for beach front view to get a
confirmed room number at the time you make your reservation so that
you can look at the map and make sure you will actually have a view of
the sea.

Overall my experience was ok but not exceptional. No more Sandals for
me.

Feel free to email with specific questions.

(obviously remove the NOSPAM prefix from
my email address)

jasguild



  #5  
Old March 13th, 2004, 11:23 PM
Chavez
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

The following is a letter that I am sending to the owner of Sandals.
Although my wife and I had a good time at Sandals Negril, there is
absolutely no way I will ever vacation at any of their resorts again.
For the amount of money we spent, the resort was not even close to
good enough.

My name is Shaun Garrity and I was recently a guest at Sandals Negril.
On our trip, my wife and I were married and honeymooned at Sandals
for two weeks. The date of our vacation was 2/22/04 – 3/7/04. I am
writing this letter to inform you that we were not real happy with our
choice to get married and vacation at Sandals Negril.
To begin, I am curious as to why your resort has not been updated
in many years. This fact was confirmed when I spoke with a group of
guests that were returning for their 12th year. They informed me that
nothing had changed since they started coming here. I was bewildered,
and annoyed, that I needed to carry a key around with me for my entire
vacation, and that I had to carry a separate key for my room safe.
Most hotels and resorts that I have stayed at either have a credit
card key system or a keypad entry system. Either of these options
would be better than carrying a key around. Also, most room safes now
allow you to set your own password via a keypad in order to provide a
higher level of security. Who is to say that another key does not
exist for the lock that you provided me for my safe? I did not feel
that my valuables were very secure in my room safe. The next
unbelievable thing to me was that our bathroom did not have an exhaust
fan. It was incredibly inconvenient to take a shower and then have to
wait for the mirror to clear because there was no fan to remove the
steam in the bathroom. After finishing in the bathroom, I would go to
get dressed and realize I needed to iron my clothes. Unfortunately,
the iron that was provided in the room looked like it had burned
everything it had touched in the last twenty years. Various color
stains and burn marks covered the bottom of the iron. Needless to
say, we didn't use that iron. My last complaint about our room has to
do with the bed. In all of your advertising there is a sheer piece of
material draped around the top of the bedposts. This was missing in
our room, and I really wanted it there to look romantic for our
wedding night. When I asked the maid about this, I was informed that
too many of the beds had broken from this and that it was no longer
supplied. That may be a fine reason, but then you should change your
advertising to reflect what your room truly looks like. My wife was
very disappointed that this was not there.
One of the most unbelievable things at Sandals Negril was that there
was no ATM machine. I understand that your resort is all-inclusive,
but you must acknowledge the fact that your customers are going to
take part in activities that occur outside of the resort. Many
customers purchase different trips and activities through your tour
desk. When you go on these trips, just about everyone you deal with
is looking for a tip, so cash is a must. I do not believe it is
reasonable to think that your customers are going bring all of the
cash that they will need for their entire vacation with them.
Especially if they are on vacation for two weeks like we were. I know
your resort will provide a cash advance, but they will only provide
Jamaican currency. Another reason that you should have an ATM at your
resort is for safety and convenience. In order for your customers to
procure US dollars they must incur the cost of a cab ride and go to
the bank in town. Besides being a major hassle, this is definitely
not the safest trip a customer can make. Due to the fact that you must
pay for a cab ride to go to the bank, most people will probably take
out a fairly large sum of cash. It is a very uneasy feeling riding in
the back of a cab, in an unfamiliar country, with a pile of cash in
your pocket. I'm pretty sure that the local bank would be more than
happy to put an ATM machine inside your resort. Any cost that may be
incurred by Sandals could easily be passed on to your customers in the
form of an ATM fee. Whatever the fee is, it would still be less than
the cost of a cab ride to the bank.
My next problem occurred when I visited the gift shop. My wife
decided to visit the gift shop to purchase a bottle of sun block. I
gave her our room card and told her to just charge it to the room.
Upon trying to purchase this, she was informed that the minimum amount
for a room charge is $10.00 dollars. First of all, there should not
be a minimum amount for a room charge. If this is due to the fact
that your company is charged for transactions under $10.00 dollars,
then you should have some type of program that can just keep track of
purchases, and bill them all when a customer checks out. Also, when
we visited the gift shop at Beaches Sandy Bay, the minimum for a room
charge is $5.00 dollars, but we were not able to charge to our room
there. Why is there a discrepancy in the minimum amount for a room
charge and why aren't your computer systems connected? You advertise
that Sandals guests can use all of Beaches facilities, but it is not
very convenient. If you really don't want to change this system, at
least if you had an ATM machine your guests could get cash right on
the spot.
Before we left for our vacation, I had emailed your website and asked
if you had Internet availability. Your response was yes, and that
there is a minimal charge. Fine, but you should definitely work on
this. You have one computer in your offices with Internet
capabilities that is very slow. If you are going to say that you have
Internet availability and charge people for it, then you should have
more than one terminal and the connection should be better than it is.
Another feature that needs to be updated is your outdoor games. You
have bocce balls, shuffleboard, and a life size chess set. All three
of these games are a great feature, but they look like they are twenty
years old. The boards and pieces are all chipped and broken. These
are little things, but they are annoying when you spend a good deal of
money to go on vacation.
We enjoyed the great selection of food all day long, but had one
complaint. How come there are no steak knives at your resort? When a
guest orders steak, or any meat for that matter, they should have
something a little better than a butter knife to cut their food with.
At this point I would like to discuss your spa services. We thought
it was great that you offered steam room and sauna services to your
guests for free. My wife and I were very excited to spend some time
relaxing in the sauna together. However, when we went to do this, we
were informed that there is no couples sauna or steam room. This
seemed very odd, since your entire resort is advertised and sold as a
couples vacation. Why would I want to go sit in the sauna by myself
while my wife sits another sauna by herself? After we were married,
we enjoyed a couple's massage together. Upon leaving we asked to look
at a brochure so that we could choose another treatment for ourselves.
First of all, they didn't have any brochures. That is just
ridiculous. Then when they did produce one, it was for the new spa at
Beaches Negril. Luckily for us, we viewed the Beaches spa brochure
completely by accident. This new spa is way better than the spa at
Sandals and offers many more couples treatments. Due to the fact that
Sandals is a resort for couples, don't you think that you should
inform your guests of all the wonderful couples services offered by
the spa at Beaches Negril? There is not one bit of advertising for
this spa at Sandals. The only reason there may be now is because I
mentioned to the spa personal at Beaches that they should be
advertising at Sandals.
The day of our wedding my wife had a few different services that were
to be provided by the salon at Sandals. She was getting acrylic tips,
a manicure, a pedicure, and hair and make-up done at the salon. To
begin, I guess the atmosphere was not like any salon she had ever been
in. Most salons have music playing and offer their customer anything
they want to make them comfortable. Your salon did not have any music
and my wife had to make a request just to get a drink, she was never
offered one by the staff. The manicure that was provided was very
short and of a very low level. There was no hand bath or massage
provided. Next the acrylic tips were put on and painted. There
wasn't even a machine to dry the paint on her fingernails. All of
this was done very hastily and before the paint her nails was even
dry, they were rushing on to the next service. When they began the
pedicure, her feet were placed in a luke warm bucket of water. My
$19.99 Dr. Scholl's foot bath at home would have provided higher
quality that this. Most salons that offer pedicures have professional
footbaths that heat the water and massage the feet, before a person
ever gets near your feet. Please keep in mind too, that this is my
wife's wedding day. Your staff should have been going out of their
way to make this the most enjoyable day of my wife's life. Along with
the poor service provided, your services were more expensive than
other salons my wife has been to. To top all of this off, when the
salon presented my wife with the receipt to sign, they mentioned to
her that she could include a tip for them. First of all, a gratuity
is already included in your salon services and this is seen on the
receipt. Second, and more importantly, this is one of the most
unprofessional things I have ever heard of! If a customer is happy
with the service provided they will leave a tip. There is absolutely
no reason for an employee to tell a customer that they can leave a tip
if they like. Especially when just about every piece of printed
literature for Sandals says that tipping is not required. When I
heard of this, it was all I could do to not go and yell at the people
at the salon. To think that your staff could have bothered my wife on
her wedding day about a tip is unbelievable!
The reason that I believe your resort is so well liked is because of
your staff. Just about all of your employees would go out of their
way to be helpful when asked. I would like to especially commend one
your waiters at the Bayside restaurant. The waiter's name is Daeny
Blackwood. He was by far the nicest and most helpful person on your
entire staff. He went out of his way to make sure that our dining
experiences and our entire stay for that matter was just the way we
wanted it. Although most of the lower level staff was excellent, I
was not impressed with the concierges or their service. It was almost
as if these people had forgotten how important it is to take care of
their guests when they were promoted to this position. For example, I
repeatedly called the concierge about one of the blinds in my room
being broken. Four days later the blind was still broken and no one
had come to fix it. However, when I saw a maintenance worker near my
room I just asked him to fix it, and it was done in ten minutes.
Another example is the fact that we didn't receive our "Just Married"
t-shirts until six days after our wedding. Again, repeated calls were
made to the concierge office and it still took six days to get a
couple of lousy t-shirts. This is not what I would call good customer
service. Finally, when we went to check out in the concierge office,
it was like all customer service had disappeared. It was like I was
sitting with an auditor from the IRS as my bill was totaled and
payment was requested.
I know that this is fairly negative letter, but my wife and I did
enjoy ourselves. However, when I purchase a vacation in excess of
$10,000.00 dollars I have certain expectations. Unfortunately, your
resort did not meet my expectations. I'm not sure why your resort is
the way it is, but I have wondered if it is because of a lack of
competition on the island of Jamaica. If this is the reason, that is
unacceptable. I find it hard to believe that your resort in the
Bahamas is like this, where I'm sure there is much more competition.

(jas kim) wrote in message . com...
I was at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Its not that my
experience was totally bad. I just think that the advertisement was
very misleading. What I found worse is that they did not own up to it
but instead try to justify it on a technicality.

The angle at which the building is placed is perpendicular to the
ocean and there are buildings on the left. So the only way you can
actually see the ocean is if you go on your porch and stick your head
out and look to the right. And that only works if you dont have a big
tree in front of your room.

jasguild


ospam (DOconn3569) wrote in message ...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.


Which Sandals "Jamaica"is this specifically? Negril, Ochos Rios, Montego Bay,
Dunns River, Sandals Inn or Roal Caribbean?

i can't comment on any of them personally besides Sandals Negril, but my
experiance there was far different than what you describe.


Don

Trade List:
http://hometown.aol.com/doconn3569/m...age/index.html


Please remove nospam to email

  #6  
Old March 14th, 2004, 12:13 AM
Proto T
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

Beach Front Room means that your room is on the SAME SIDE of the street as
the beach
Proto

"jas kim" wrote in message
om...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.
You can do much better for the same money.

The accomodation even in the grande deluxe beach front are not 3 star
equivalent.

I am originally from a third world country so that did not bother me
too much, but when I realized that there are hotels with better
accomodations for the same price as sandals, I realized I had just
paid for the name and reputation.

I did my honeymoon there and I had one big problem with Sandals.
Initially, I debated about whether to pay for a beach front room or a
regular room. After convincing myself that this is my honeymoon and I
will only do this once(hopefully), I decided to pay the premium for a
grande deluce beach front room that supposedly has a view of the
ocean. Well guess what?? The room had no beach front view. There was
a huge tree that blocked the view. I raised the issue with the
manager and they noted that the advertisments are meant to suggest
beach front "access" as opposed to beach front view. What a pile of
crap. Following that argument they could put you up in a hotel in the
middle of the country because it has beach front access via roads!!

The tree blocked the view of several of our neighbours who were also
irrated. The day I checked out the tree was trimmed which made it a
bit better but clearly no clear view of the ocean. Since I returned
to the US, I have contacted them and asked for a refund of the premium
I paid for beach front view but they are sticking to their beach front
access crap. At the end of the day, I just wrote off the experience
and cost. I wrote the Better business burea so that others will have
knowledge of my complaint.

While I would not necessarily discourage others from going, I would
suggest if you are going to pay for beach front view to get a
confirmed room number at the time you make your reservation so that
you can look at the map and make sure you will actually have a view of
the sea.

Overall my experience was ok but not exceptional. No more Sandals for
me.

Feel free to email with specific questions.

(obviously remove the NOSPAM prefix from
my email address)

jasguild



  #7  
Old March 14th, 2004, 03:24 PM
Tasha Windowseat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

Far too long and detailed - won't get read. Better to say this:

"I stayed at Sandals Negril for my honeymoon. It sucked in a variety fo
specific ways I am able to describe, and I'm never going back. Furthermore,
I had such a bad time that I'm telling everyone I know what a seedy place
Sandals Negril is. I won't be satisfied to do this however: next, I'm also
getting on the internet and spreading the word so others won't make my
mistake. Finally, I'm going to contact the head office of Sandals and
explain to them how Sandals Negril is run by a pack of incompetents. I
promise that the money you nicked me for will be the most expensive that
Sandals ever made. Have a good day......"


"Chavez" wrote in message
om...
The following is a letter that I am sending to the owner of Sandals.
Although my wife and I had a good time at Sandals Negril, there is
absolutely no way I will ever vacation at any of their resorts again.
For the amount of money we spent, the resort was not even close to
good enough.

My name is Shaun Garrity and I was recently a guest at Sandals Negril.
On our trip, my wife and I were married and honeymooned at Sandals
for two weeks. The date of our vacation was 2/22/04 - 3/7/04. I am
writing this letter to inform you that we were not real happy with our
choice to get married and vacation at Sandals Negril.
To begin, I am curious as to why your resort has not been updated
in many years. This fact was confirmed when I spoke with a group of
guests that were returning for their 12th year. They informed me that
nothing had changed since they started coming here. I was bewildered,
and annoyed, that I needed to carry a key around with me for my entire
vacation, and that I had to carry a separate key for my room safe.
Most hotels and resorts that I have stayed at either have a credit
card key system or a keypad entry system. Either of these options
would be better than carrying a key around. Also, most room safes now
allow you to set your own password via a keypad in order to provide a
higher level of security. Who is to say that another key does not
exist for the lock that you provided me for my safe? I did not feel
that my valuables were very secure in my room safe. The next
unbelievable thing to me was that our bathroom did not have an exhaust
fan. It was incredibly inconvenient to take a shower and then have to
wait for the mirror to clear because there was no fan to remove the
steam in the bathroom. After finishing in the bathroom, I would go to
get dressed and realize I needed to iron my clothes. Unfortunately,
the iron that was provided in the room looked like it had burned
everything it had touched in the last twenty years. Various color
stains and burn marks covered the bottom of the iron. Needless to
say, we didn't use that iron. My last complaint about our room has to
do with the bed. In all of your advertising there is a sheer piece of
material draped around the top of the bedposts. This was missing in
our room, and I really wanted it there to look romantic for our
wedding night. When I asked the maid about this, I was informed that
too many of the beds had broken from this and that it was no longer
supplied. That may be a fine reason, but then you should change your
advertising to reflect what your room truly looks like. My wife was
very disappointed that this was not there.
One of the most unbelievable things at Sandals Negril was that there
was no ATM machine. I understand that your resort is all-inclusive,
but you must acknowledge the fact that your customers are going to
take part in activities that occur outside of the resort. Many
customers purchase different trips and activities through your tour
desk. When you go on these trips, just about everyone you deal with
is looking for a tip, so cash is a must. I do not believe it is
reasonable to think that your customers are going bring all of the
cash that they will need for their entire vacation with them.
Especially if they are on vacation for two weeks like we were. I know
your resort will provide a cash advance, but they will only provide
Jamaican currency. Another reason that you should have an ATM at your
resort is for safety and convenience. In order for your customers to
procure US dollars they must incur the cost of a cab ride and go to
the bank in town. Besides being a major hassle, this is definitely
not the safest trip a customer can make. Due to the fact that you must
pay for a cab ride to go to the bank, most people will probably take
out a fairly large sum of cash. It is a very uneasy feeling riding in
the back of a cab, in an unfamiliar country, with a pile of cash in
your pocket. I'm pretty sure that the local bank would be more than
happy to put an ATM machine inside your resort. Any cost that may be
incurred by Sandals could easily be passed on to your customers in the
form of an ATM fee. Whatever the fee is, it would still be less than
the cost of a cab ride to the bank.
My next problem occurred when I visited the gift shop. My wife
decided to visit the gift shop to purchase a bottle of sun block. I
gave her our room card and told her to just charge it to the room.
Upon trying to purchase this, she was informed that the minimum amount
for a room charge is $10.00 dollars. First of all, there should not
be a minimum amount for a room charge. If this is due to the fact
that your company is charged for transactions under $10.00 dollars,
then you should have some type of program that can just keep track of
purchases, and bill them all when a customer checks out. Also, when
we visited the gift shop at Beaches Sandy Bay, the minimum for a room
charge is $5.00 dollars, but we were not able to charge to our room
there. Why is there a discrepancy in the minimum amount for a room
charge and why aren't your computer systems connected? You advertise
that Sandals guests can use all of Beaches facilities, but it is not
very convenient. If you really don't want to change this system, at
least if you had an ATM machine your guests could get cash right on
the spot.
Before we left for our vacation, I had emailed your website and asked
if you had Internet availability. Your response was yes, and that
there is a minimal charge. Fine, but you should definitely work on
this. You have one computer in your offices with Internet
capabilities that is very slow. If you are going to say that you have
Internet availability and charge people for it, then you should have
more than one terminal and the connection should be better than it is.
Another feature that needs to be updated is your outdoor games. You
have bocce balls, shuffleboard, and a life size chess set. All three
of these games are a great feature, but they look like they are twenty
years old. The boards and pieces are all chipped and broken. These
are little things, but they are annoying when you spend a good deal of
money to go on vacation.
We enjoyed the great selection of food all day long, but had one
complaint. How come there are no steak knives at your resort? When a
guest orders steak, or any meat for that matter, they should have
something a little better than a butter knife to cut their food with.
At this point I would like to discuss your spa services. We thought
it was great that you offered steam room and sauna services to your
guests for free. My wife and I were very excited to spend some time
relaxing in the sauna together. However, when we went to do this, we
were informed that there is no couples sauna or steam room. This
seemed very odd, since your entire resort is advertised and sold as a
couples vacation. Why would I want to go sit in the sauna by myself
while my wife sits another sauna by herself? After we were married,
we enjoyed a couple's massage together. Upon leaving we asked to look
at a brochure so that we could choose another treatment for ourselves.
First of all, they didn't have any brochures. That is just
ridiculous. Then when they did produce one, it was for the new spa at
Beaches Negril. Luckily for us, we viewed the Beaches spa brochure
completely by accident. This new spa is way better than the spa at
Sandals and offers many more couples treatments. Due to the fact that
Sandals is a resort for couples, don't you think that you should
inform your guests of all the wonderful couples services offered by
the spa at Beaches Negril? There is not one bit of advertising for
this spa at Sandals. The only reason there may be now is because I
mentioned to the spa personal at Beaches that they should be
advertising at Sandals.
The day of our wedding my wife had a few different services that were
to be provided by the salon at Sandals. She was getting acrylic tips,
a manicure, a pedicure, and hair and make-up done at the salon. To
begin, I guess the atmosphere was not like any salon she had ever been
in. Most salons have music playing and offer their customer anything
they want to make them comfortable. Your salon did not have any music
and my wife had to make a request just to get a drink, she was never
offered one by the staff. The manicure that was provided was very
short and of a very low level. There was no hand bath or massage
provided. Next the acrylic tips were put on and painted. There
wasn't even a machine to dry the paint on her fingernails. All of
this was done very hastily and before the paint her nails was even
dry, they were rushing on to the next service. When they began the
pedicure, her feet were placed in a luke warm bucket of water. My
$19.99 Dr. Scholl's foot bath at home would have provided higher
quality that this. Most salons that offer pedicures have professional
footbaths that heat the water and massage the feet, before a person
ever gets near your feet. Please keep in mind too, that this is my
wife's wedding day. Your staff should have been going out of their
way to make this the most enjoyable day of my wife's life. Along with
the poor service provided, your services were more expensive than
other salons my wife has been to. To top all of this off, when the
salon presented my wife with the receipt to sign, they mentioned to
her that she could include a tip for them. First of all, a gratuity
is already included in your salon services and this is seen on the
receipt. Second, and more importantly, this is one of the most
unprofessional things I have ever heard of! If a customer is happy
with the service provided they will leave a tip. There is absolutely
no reason for an employee to tell a customer that they can leave a tip
if they like. Especially when just about every piece of printed
literature for Sandals says that tipping is not required. When I
heard of this, it was all I could do to not go and yell at the people
at the salon. To think that your staff could have bothered my wife on
her wedding day about a tip is unbelievable!
The reason that I believe your resort is so well liked is because of
your staff. Just about all of your employees would go out of their
way to be helpful when asked. I would like to especially commend one
your waiters at the Bayside restaurant. The waiter's name is Daeny
Blackwood. He was by far the nicest and most helpful person on your
entire staff. He went out of his way to make sure that our dining
experiences and our entire stay for that matter was just the way we
wanted it. Although most of the lower level staff was excellent, I
was not impressed with the concierges or their service. It was almost
as if these people had forgotten how important it is to take care of
their guests when they were promoted to this position. For example, I
repeatedly called the concierge about one of the blinds in my room
being broken. Four days later the blind was still broken and no one
had come to fix it. However, when I saw a maintenance worker near my
room I just asked him to fix it, and it was done in ten minutes.
Another example is the fact that we didn't receive our "Just Married"
t-shirts until six days after our wedding. Again, repeated calls were
made to the concierge office and it still took six days to get a
couple of lousy t-shirts. This is not what I would call good customer
service. Finally, when we went to check out in the concierge office,
it was like all customer service had disappeared. It was like I was
sitting with an auditor from the IRS as my bill was totaled and
payment was requested.
I know that this is fairly negative letter, but my wife and I did
enjoy ourselves. However, when I purchase a vacation in excess of
$10,000.00 dollars I have certain expectations. Unfortunately, your
resort did not meet my expectations. I'm not sure why your resort is
the way it is, but I have wondered if it is because of a lack of
competition on the island of Jamaica. If this is the reason, that is
unacceptable. I find it hard to believe that your resort in the
Bahamas is like this, where I'm sure there is much more competition.

(jas kim) wrote in message

. com...
I was at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Its not that my
experience was totally bad. I just think that the advertisement was
very misleading. What I found worse is that they did not own up to it
but instead try to justify it on a technicality.

The angle at which the building is placed is perpendicular to the
ocean and there are buildings on the left. So the only way you can
actually see the ocean is if you go on your porch and stick your head
out and look to the right. And that only works if you dont have a big
tree in front of your room.

jasguild


ospam (DOconn3569) wrote in message
...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.

Which Sandals "Jamaica"is this specifically? Negril, Ochos Rios,

Montego Bay,
Dunns River, Sandals Inn or Roal Caribbean?

i can't comment on any of them personally besides Sandals Negril, but

my
experiance there was far different than what you describe.


Don

Trade List:
http://hometown.aol.com/doconn3569/m...age/index.html


Please remove nospam to email



  #8  
Old March 15th, 2004, 09:42 AM
Cathy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

Sandals is one big rip off - you pay for 'clever' marketing and image.
The reality just doesn't match up to the marketing. I would never
travel to a Sandals resort again.
  #9  
Old March 16th, 2004, 03:17 PM
jas kim
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default My experience at Sandals Jamaica

By the way Chavez

If you have the address of the owner, please forward it to me. I want
to forward a copy of my letter to him too. I also want to send him
the response from the regional manager jerk who is saying that beach
front view means beach front access.

Thanks

Jasguild

Please (Chavez) wrote in message . com...
The following is a letter that I am sending to the owner of Sandals.
Although my wife and I had a good time at Sandals Negril, there is
absolutely no way I will ever vacation at any of their resorts again.
For the amount of money we spent, the resort was not even close to
good enough.

My name is Shaun Garrity and I was recently a guest at Sandals Negril.
On our trip, my wife and I were married and honeymooned at Sandals
for two weeks. The date of our vacation was 2/22/04 ? 3/7/04. I am
writing this letter to inform you that we were not real happy with our
choice to get married and vacation at Sandals Negril.
To begin, I am curious as to why your resort has not been updated
in many years. This fact was confirmed when I spoke with a group of
guests that were returning for their 12th year. They informed me that
nothing had changed since they started coming here. I was bewildered,
and annoyed, that I needed to carry a key around with me for my entire
vacation, and that I had to carry a separate key for my room safe.
Most hotels and resorts that I have stayed at either have a credit
card key system or a keypad entry system. Either of these options
would be better than carrying a key around. Also, most room safes now
allow you to set your own password via a keypad in order to provide a
higher level of security. Who is to say that another key does not
exist for the lock that you provided me for my safe? I did not feel
that my valuables were very secure in my room safe. The next
unbelievable thing to me was that our bathroom did not have an exhaust
fan. It was incredibly inconvenient to take a shower and then have to
wait for the mirror to clear because there was no fan to remove the
steam in the bathroom. After finishing in the bathroom, I would go to
get dressed and realize I needed to iron my clothes. Unfortunately,
the iron that was provided in the room looked like it had burned
everything it had touched in the last twenty years. Various color
stains and burn marks covered the bottom of the iron. Needless to
say, we didn't use that iron. My last complaint about our room has to
do with the bed. In all of your advertising there is a sheer piece of
material draped around the top of the bedposts. This was missing in
our room, and I really wanted it there to look romantic for our
wedding night. When I asked the maid about this, I was informed that
too many of the beds had broken from this and that it was no longer
supplied. That may be a fine reason, but then you should change your
advertising to reflect what your room truly looks like. My wife was
very disappointed that this was not there.
One of the most unbelievable things at Sandals Negril was that there
was no ATM machine. I understand that your resort is all-inclusive,
but you must acknowledge the fact that your customers are going to
take part in activities that occur outside of the resort. Many
customers purchase different trips and activities through your tour
desk. When you go on these trips, just about everyone you deal with
is looking for a tip, so cash is a must. I do not believe it is
reasonable to think that your customers are going bring all of the
cash that they will need for their entire vacation with them.
Especially if they are on vacation for two weeks like we were. I know
your resort will provide a cash advance, but they will only provide
Jamaican currency. Another reason that you should have an ATM at your
resort is for safety and convenience. In order for your customers to
procure US dollars they must incur the cost of a cab ride and go to
the bank in town. Besides being a major hassle, this is definitely
not the safest trip a customer can make. Due to the fact that you must
pay for a cab ride to go to the bank, most people will probably take
out a fairly large sum of cash. It is a very uneasy feeling riding in
the back of a cab, in an unfamiliar country, with a pile of cash in
your pocket. I'm pretty sure that the local bank would be more than
happy to put an ATM machine inside your resort. Any cost that may be
incurred by Sandals could easily be passed on to your customers in the
form of an ATM fee. Whatever the fee is, it would still be less than
the cost of a cab ride to the bank.
My next problem occurred when I visited the gift shop. My wife
decided to visit the gift shop to purchase a bottle of sun block. I
gave her our room card and told her to just charge it to the room.
Upon trying to purchase this, she was informed that the minimum amount
for a room charge is $10.00 dollars. First of all, there should not
be a minimum amount for a room charge. If this is due to the fact
that your company is charged for transactions under $10.00 dollars,
then you should have some type of program that can just keep track of
purchases, and bill them all when a customer checks out. Also, when
we visited the gift shop at Beaches Sandy Bay, the minimum for a room
charge is $5.00 dollars, but we were not able to charge to our room
there. Why is there a discrepancy in the minimum amount for a room
charge and why aren't your computer systems connected? You advertise
that Sandals guests can use all of Beaches facilities, but it is not
very convenient. If you really don't want to change this system, at
least if you had an ATM machine your guests could get cash right on
the spot.
Before we left for our vacation, I had emailed your website and asked
if you had Internet availability. Your response was yes, and that
there is a minimal charge. Fine, but you should definitely work on
this. You have one computer in your offices with Internet
capabilities that is very slow. If you are going to say that you have
Internet availability and charge people for it, then you should have
more than one terminal and the connection should be better than it is.
Another feature that needs to be updated is your outdoor games. You
have bocce balls, shuffleboard, and a life size chess set. All three
of these games are a great feature, but they look like they are twenty
years old. The boards and pieces are all chipped and broken. These
are little things, but they are annoying when you spend a good deal of
money to go on vacation.
We enjoyed the great selection of food all day long, but had one
complaint. How come there are no steak knives at your resort? When a
guest orders steak, or any meat for that matter, they should have
something a little better than a butter knife to cut their food with.
At this point I would like to discuss your spa services. We thought
it was great that you offered steam room and sauna services to your
guests for free. My wife and I were very excited to spend some time
relaxing in the sauna together. However, when we went to do this, we
were informed that there is no couples sauna or steam room. This
seemed very odd, since your entire resort is advertised and sold as a
couples vacation. Why would I want to go sit in the sauna by myself
while my wife sits another sauna by herself? After we were married,
we enjoyed a couple's massage together. Upon leaving we asked to look
at a brochure so that we could choose another treatment for ourselves.
First of all, they didn't have any brochures. That is just
ridiculous. Then when they did produce one, it was for the new spa at
Beaches Negril. Luckily for us, we viewed the Beaches spa brochure
completely by accident. This new spa is way better than the spa at
Sandals and offers many more couples treatments. Due to the fact that
Sandals is a resort for couples, don't you think that you should
inform your guests of all the wonderful couples services offered by
the spa at Beaches Negril? There is not one bit of advertising for
this spa at Sandals. The only reason there may be now is because I
mentioned to the spa personal at Beaches that they should be
advertising at Sandals.
The day of our wedding my wife had a few different services that were
to be provided by the salon at Sandals. She was getting acrylic tips,
a manicure, a pedicure, and hair and make-up done at the salon. To
begin, I guess the atmosphere was not like any salon she had ever been
in. Most salons have music playing and offer their customer anything
they want to make them comfortable. Your salon did not have any music
and my wife had to make a request just to get a drink, she was never
offered one by the staff. The manicure that was provided was very
short and of a very low level. There was no hand bath or massage
provided. Next the acrylic tips were put on and painted. There
wasn't even a machine to dry the paint on her fingernails. All of
this was done very hastily and before the paint her nails was even
dry, they were rushing on to the next service. When they began the
pedicure, her feet were placed in a luke warm bucket of water. My
$19.99 Dr. Scholl's foot bath at home would have provided higher
quality that this. Most salons that offer pedicures have professional
footbaths that heat the water and massage the feet, before a person
ever gets near your feet. Please keep in mind too, that this is my
wife's wedding day. Your staff should have been going out of their
way to make this the most enjoyable day of my wife's life. Along with
the poor service provided, your services were more expensive than
other salons my wife has been to. To top all of this off, when the
salon presented my wife with the receipt to sign, they mentioned to
her that she could include a tip for them. First of all, a gratuity
is already included in your salon services and this is seen on the
receipt. Second, and more importantly, this is one of the most
unprofessional things I have ever heard of! If a customer is happy
with the service provided they will leave a tip. There is absolutely
no reason for an employee to tell a customer that they can leave a tip
if they like. Especially when just about every piece of printed
literature for Sandals says that tipping is not required. When I
heard of this, it was all I could do to not go and yell at the people
at the salon. To think that your staff could have bothered my wife on
her wedding day about a tip is unbelievable!
The reason that I believe your resort is so well liked is because of
your staff. Just about all of your employees would go out of their
way to be helpful when asked. I would like to especially commend one
your waiters at the Bayside restaurant. The waiter's name is Daeny
Blackwood. He was by far the nicest and most helpful person on your
entire staff. He went out of his way to make sure that our dining
experiences and our entire stay for that matter was just the way we
wanted it. Although most of the lower level staff was excellent, I
was not impressed with the concierges or their service. It was almost
as if these people had forgotten how important it is to take care of
their guests when they were promoted to this position. For example, I
repeatedly called the concierge about one of the blinds in my room
being broken. Four days later the blind was still broken and no one
had come to fix it. However, when I saw a maintenance worker near my
room I just asked him to fix it, and it was done in ten minutes.
Another example is the fact that we didn't receive our "Just Married"
t-shirts until six days after our wedding. Again, repeated calls were
made to the concierge office and it still took six days to get a
couple of lousy t-shirts. This is not what I would call good customer
service. Finally, when we went to check out in the concierge office,
it was like all customer service had disappeared. It was like I was
sitting with an auditor from the IRS as my bill was totaled and
payment was requested.
I know that this is fairly negative letter, but my wife and I did
enjoy ourselves. However, when I purchase a vacation in excess of
$10,000.00 dollars I have certain expectations. Unfortunately, your
resort did not meet my expectations. I'm not sure why your resort is
the way it is, but I have wondered if it is because of a lack of
competition on the island of Jamaica. If this is the reason, that is
unacceptable. I find it hard to believe that your resort in the
Bahamas is like this, where I'm sure there is much more competition.

(jas kim) wrote in message . com...
I was at Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay. Its not that my
experience was totally bad. I just think that the advertisement was
very misleading. What I found worse is that they did not own up to it
but instead try to justify it on a technicality.

The angle at which the building is placed is perpendicular to the
ocean and there are buildings on the left. So the only way you can
actually see the ocean is if you go on your porch and stick your head
out and look to the right. And that only works if you dont have a big
tree in front of your room.

jasguild


ospam (DOconn3569) wrote in message ...
For those of you considering Sandals Jamaica here are my thoughts.

Which Sandals "Jamaica"is this specifically? Negril, Ochos Rios, Montego Bay,
Dunns River, Sandals Inn or Roal Caribbean?

i can't comment on any of them personally besides Sandals Negril, but my
experiance there was far different than what you describe.


Don

Trade List:
http://hometown.aol.com/doconn3569/m...age/index.html


Please remove nospam to email

 




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