“We have been to Sandals resorts 6 times, including5 times at Royal Bahamian in late February. The Good: 1. Location: Within 1/2 hour from airport in a quiet location. And only a few minutes walk to west end of Cable beach via laneway off of main road for daily walk on the beach. For runners like my wife and I, we enjoyed running (up to 18 km) towards Nassau with several small parks and beaches along the way. Unlike all other all inclusive resorts we have vacationed at, the opportunity to run outside, instead of being stuck in a hot, indoor gym was a major draw. 2. Private island 3. Food: Above average, with some very good meals. The only disappointment was the Japanese with poor sushi (never went back after first time). 4. Beach: never overcrowded, but difficult to obtain beach chairs (see below) 5. Scuba divingThe Bad: 1. Restaurant reservations: It is difficult to book except for late evening slots, even when you try to book at check in (for a 7 night stay).I assume that they must reserve many open spots for Butler service guests. Often we will see few tables that remain empty and we will be told that all tables are reserved. 2.Beach chairs: Usually, the only means to obtain one is to go out by 7 am, when the Butlers are reserving them for their guests.And often, many of the Butler reserved chairs remain unoccupied for most of the day and sometimes the entire day (you can tell which ones are Butler reserved because the butlers leave their guests' name on the chair). If there is a corporate event, it's even worse. We don't stay poolside, but it appears to be similar scenario there. 3.Service: The first 4 vacations, it was great, with friendly staff who always greeted you usually with a smile.However, for the last 2 trips, it was noticeably unfriendly with markedly below average service, with few exceptions. We let it pass during the 2nd last vacation, but the service was similarly less friendly and indifferent a second year in a row, and we noted significant staff turnover from the 4th to 6th vacations. 4. Price: It is more expensive but we really felt that it was worth it for all the "Good" outweighing the "Bad".We booked again for Feb 2021 but rebooked it for Feb 2022 due to COVID, but for an additional $900 USD for the same room.Due to ongoing COVID concerns (large number of cases currently in Bahamas with less than one-half of the population with 1 shot of COIVD vaccine), we decided to postpone the trip again for Feb 2023, but there's an additional $700 USD fee.We understand that there will be additional costs to operate any business due to COVID.However, given that it was already above average cost compared to similar all inclusives and now with the deteriorated service, we now feel that the elevated price makes Sandals not worth it.What brought us back each year was the additional 11% discount for your next trip if you booked while staying at Sandals.Also, after 70 nights (10 one week vacations), they reward you with a 1 week vacation for free (excluding flights).We would have given 4 stars, but now 3 stars due to much less value for the price. So, we have cancelled our upcoming trip, with loss of our deposit. And we do not plan to book again with Sandals in the future.”

“Do not book here. Their customer service has been horrible. We had booked a trip here in November and they closed the hotel for renovations. They offered us to rebook when the hotel reopens in February, and had to go through the hassle of rebooking the trip, daycare, and flights. We were offered a $500 credit per person to rebook the flights, which btw was not enough to cover the same days of the week so now we have to go on off days since the cost of flights has gone up since we originally booked. I submitted receipts to be reimbursed the $857 flight difference and I told them it had to go on a new card because we used a Visa gift card to book the room. I have tried to get my money back for the flights but they say they used the card on file (one that we no longer have) and that they can't do anything else for us and it is now our responsibility to try and get this money back. This is just an example of a large business taking advantage of a customer who has done everything they asked. So disappointing to be treated this way.”