Letter we sent to Sandals resort Grande and as of late August have still not heard ANYTHING from them.
Dear Customer Service Manager,
We are writing in regards to our stay at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian Resort from July 1, 2008 through July 8, 2008. The purpose of this trip was to celebrate our honeymoon. We really wanted to make this trip special, because it was our honeymoon, we chose to go first class all the way. We flew First/Business class for the trip and booked a Honeymoon Penthouse Beachfront Concierge Room. Our travel documents (from our travel agent at Liberty Travel) listed us as VIP Honeymoon guests. From the time we stepped onto the property, we were treated as anything BUT a VIP. We waited for approximately 20 minutes in the lobby before we were led upstairs to the Suites Concierge Lounge. Once we arrived in the lounge, we had to sit there and wait for several other couples to arrive, fill out some forms, and then wait for the Concierge associate to give us the speil. We were finally led up to our room. Once in our room, we waited nearly 2 hours for our luggage to be brought up. Had we known there would be a two hour wait, we could have brought it up ourselves. We settled into our room, it was a nice, comfortable room, with a beautiful view. We were offered turn down service and and towel exchange services shortly after we arrived, a very nice touch. It was also on the top floor, which is fine (we knew that when we chose a penthouse), but what we did NOT know was that the building we were in had no elevator access on the day we arrived, and it still had not been fixed on the day we left. Walking up and down the stairs a few times a day is fine, but I have an ankle injury, which, between all of the traveling that day and up and down the flights of stairs multiple times, caused my ankle to swell to three times the normal size. When we checked in, we were told by the concierge to let them know of anything special we would like during our stay for our room. Later that evening, I called for some extra bottles of Coca-Cola. I was told they did not have any and that I would need to go downstairs myself to the bar and get them. At this point, walking was very difficult . My husband and I went down to the bar, when we arrived there, we were handed two, opened, half-empty bottles of Coca-Cola. Better than nothing, but not what we were really looking for. We ordered room service this evening for a snack. When they brought the tray to us between 9:30 and 10pm, they took the card we had set out requesting room service for the next morning. We figured we would have room service for breakfast since we had to be at the Concierge Suite at 11am for Orientation.
We woke up on day 2, our first full day at the resort, full of excitement as to what the resort had to offer. Our day did not get off to a good start. We had requested a wake up call for 9:15 am. The operator even called back the night before to verify the time. The wake up call was LATE. We received our call just after 9:30 am. Our breakfast, that we had requested to arrive between 9 – 9:30, well, that showed up at 10:31 am. At 9:30am, the Room Service staff called to let us know it was ready and on the way. Again, it came at 10:31 am, we had to be at orientation at 11am. We found the tour given by the Concierge to be very helpful. At the conclusion of the tour, we sat down with the staff in the suites concierge lounge to make some requests for our room and to schedule the excursions we wanted to do. I asked the woman at the concierge desk (it was around 12 noon on July 2, 2008 if that helps you at all) if the elevator would be fixed during our trip and explained to her that my ankle was really swollen and painful from walking up and down the stairs. Her lack of concern was evident. She made the statement, “maybe it will, maybe it won’t, I could find out for you”. She never got back to us about that. I also expressed our disappointment over our late wake up call that morning and our extremely delayed room service. Again, there was really no concern expressed at all on her part. She told me that our order was probably bumped by all of the orders that were called in that morning. So, I asked her if I should be calling in instead of filling out the cards, she said “No, you should be using the cards”. That made no sense to us. During this time, we told the concierge that we would like the following extras in our room for the week: a couple of extra bottles of Coca-Cola, more Piton beer (we wanted the Heineken beer taken out of the room), and extra towels. I needed the extra towels to ice my ankle. The nurse at Sandals has Ziploc bags to use for ice packs, but they often leak, that is why I wanted the extra towels. I clearly explained this to the concierge.
My husband and I scheduled an excursion for the Soufriere adventure cruise on Thursday, July 3, 2008. We scheduled the Sunset Party Cruise for Friday, July 4, 2008, we scheduled the Rainforest Canopy Adventure for July 7, 2008, and we had scheduled the candlelight dinner for 2 on the beach prior to our arrival. We had paid for and scheduled the dinner prior to our arrival at Sandals and we were looking to change the date for it (we had it scheduled for Sunday, July 6, 2008. The concierge booked all of these excursions for us as tentative, printed us up a calendar, and told us she would get back to us within the hour to confirm the excursion for the next day (we were being picked up at 7:45am). We never received that call. Finally, at 5:15pm, we called the Concierge and they told us we needed to hurry to the excursions desk to pick up our receipts for the trip. They did not call at all the entire week to confirm any of the excursions we booked through them. We gave up on dealing with the concierge desk and went to the excursions desk to confirm everything ourselves. We also noticed, when we received the calendar of our scheduled events, that our name was not correct in the system. We informed the Concierge of the correct spelling. She assured us that she fixed it in the system. That apparently did not happen either. We did have a nice bottle of champagne and fresh flowers in our room when we returned after dinner. We really thought that was a nice touch. As a matter of fact, the woman who turned our room down the first 3 days of our stay was wonderful, very pleasant. (Our room number was #2411 if that helps you to figure out who she is).
That evening, we went to Toscanini’s for dinner. I ordered the chicken parmesan and my husband ordered the rack of lamb, requesting that the lamb be cooked rare. When our food arrived, the lamb was cooked medium well. My husband requested another rack of lamb, cooked rare. I attempted to eat the chicken parmesan, but it was too spicy. I have severe allergies to some foods and many of the spices. I could not eat the meal, so I asked for Fettucine Alfredo. I explained to the server why I could not eat it. When I ordered it, I never thought that Chicken Parmesan was going to be something I would have problems eating. The server put in a rush order, when she brought it out, I had a plate of spaghetti with sauce in front of me. I politely told her that I ordered Fettucine. She stormed off and eventually I received the Fettucine. My husband was eating while I was waiting, then he patiently waited for me to actually get my meal and finish it. I realize people do not usually order more than one entrée, but the attitude of the server was unacceptable. If she was working in the United States, I guarantee you she would not only have not received a tip for her actions, she would have been terminated from her job for her attitude.
Day 3 was the Soufriere Adventure Cruise. We scheduled room service again for that morning between 7 and 7:30 am. Breakfast arrived at 6:40am, much better to arrive early than really late. We were missing the fruit plate and a glass a juice, but we were happy that it came on time! We spent the day on the boat to Soufriere, the volcano, the waterfall, etc. It was a wonderful day! The staff on the boat “Carnival II” made the day a great day for all of the guests. We also really liked Jushua, the photographer from the Sandals Grande. He was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. He took some excellent pictures, but more importantly, his personality was amazing. He was a lot of fun and just a great guy. We arrived back to our room to get ready for dinner. I contacted my travel agent that evening to ask her if this type of service is normal for this resort and to voice my concerns. She said that she had heard of people having problems with the service, but the last few people she sent to St. Lucia had not had bad service. She encouraged me to speak to the manager on duty about our concerns immediately. We dressed for dinner, then went to the front desk to request to speak with the manager on duty. We waited nearly an hour before we actually were able to speak to anyone. In the meantime, I had the pleasure of meeting Craig Champion, the Food and Beverage Manager, he was wonderful. I told him that I had severe allergies to some of the spices and that I was having trouble finding “safe foods” for some of the meals. He told me that he would alert the staff at each of the restaurants and to ask to speak to the chef when I go into a restaurant, so the chef could tell me what was in each dish. He told me that they would even make me something if I wanted them too. I was able to find things to eat each night, but it took some work, and some trial and error. We dined at the Old English Pub that evening. I ordered the Shepherd’s Pie. Craig saw us after we ordered and told me that Shepherd’s Pie might be a problem. I tried it when it came, and he was right, there were spices in it that I could not have. I asked the server if I could get the Fish ‘n Chips instead. After she rolled her eyes at me and went to talk to another server about me, she went and requested the Fish N’ Chips. I went with the Fish (without the chips, since they have Cajun seasoning on them). Again, I have an allergy, I very politely voiced my concerns, and the staff is rolling their eyes and complaining to another staff member about me. This is an all-inclusive resort, I should be able to get another entrée without the rudeness that accompanied each request.
We met with the manager on duty that evening, Mr. Vaun McIntosh. We spoke to him about our disappointment regarding our stay. I expressed concern that we had paid a lot of extra money for a Concierge service room and felt that our basic service needs were not even being met. We told him that we had requested a few things from concierge, while we did get coca-cola finally, they never did get us extra towels. We also expressed how Concierge told us that we book everything through them, but they failed to confirm our excursions for us. He called them himself to determine which excursions had been confirmed up to that point. He asked them if they had notified us and they told him that they had not. Mr. McIntosh explained to us that the elevator situation is really difficult to know when it will be resolved. At least he actually explained things to us (about having to get the parts from overseas, get them through customs, etc.) which was much better than the “I don’t know and I don’t really care response” we received from the concierge. He said he did not know if there were any rooms available for us to change rooms to one where the elevator was working. That was the last we heard about that. I asked Mr. McIntosh if Sandals concept of Concierge service is not the same as Concierge services offered by places such as Disneyworld. He assured me it was supposed to be the same level of service. I can tell you, after working for Disney for 2 years, their Concierge service not only lives up to expectations, it exceeds them every time. We were not even getting basic customer service here at the Sandals Grande. When you pay for a service and you are not getting the service, it is extremely upsetting, frustrating, and stressful. Mr. McIntosh assured us that he was going to look into things. We left that meeting feeling like things were going to be rectified and we could enjoy the rest of our honeymoon essentially worry-free. Mr. McIntosh assured us he would be working again on Saturday and he would follow up with us then. When we returned to our room that night, we had not received any turn down service, not had we received any additional towels (even though we requested that through concierge on Day 2). I called for the extra towels between 9:30 and 10pm. At 11pm, I still had not received them. I called again. The girl’s response was “You haven’t received them yet?” I told her no. They finally arrived at 11:35pm. I do not understand how turndown service is offered, but offered sporadically. It is either offered or it is not. I should not have to flip a coin to bet whether or not we are going to get it. When we said on Day 2 to the concierge that we wanted extra towels each day, that should have been the last time I needed to make that request. I should not have had to call every single night to get the towels.
Day 4 was Friday, July 4, 2008. We spent the day out by the pool. We were smart enough to get out there early enough. If you don’t get out there early, once the people from the Regency and the Halcyon start arriving, it is nearly impossible to get a chair on the beach or by the main pool. We enjoyed a leisurely day at the pool before heading off on the sunset party cruise. It was another wonderful, off-property excursion. Once again, Sandals sent a photographer (I believe it was Jushua again). He did an amazing job taking photographs on that journey as well! It was just such a pleasure to have him on the excursions, he was just so friendly and very professional. When we arrived back to our room, our room had been cleaned. Not only did we not receive extra towels, this time, we did not even receive one complete set of towels. I went to take a shower, but found that we had no washcloths. We had left all of the towels in the basket, they were all taken, so I am really at a loss as to why we did not even receive one complete set of towels. Not only did I have to call for the extra towels, I had to call for washcloths as well. Once again, no turndown service was offered.
Day 5 was Saturday, July 5, 2008. Today was going to be the day to relax. We had an appointment for a Couples Massage at the Red Lane Spa for 11am, followed by a haircut for me. We had to be there at 10:45am. We had requested room service for breakfast (it was done the night before…they had picked up the card before we went to bed at 11:30pm). Breakfast was requested for between 9 – 9:30am. It arrived at 10:05 am. The room service staff member apologized for it being late. I told her that we were irritated because this was not the first time it had been late and that we had an appointment. The server stated that she would tell her manager that we were unhappy about the tardy service and she did tell the supervisor immediately. Just as we were about to leave to go to our appointment, we received a call from the concierge that we were being a gift certificate for the couples massage to make up for the troubles we had been having. It was a very nice gesture and the massage was wonderful, as was the Red Lane Spa staff. We were hoping that meant the tables were turning and the last few days of our honeymoon were going to be all that we had hoped they would be. That was not the case. We went to the concierge in hopes of getting a reservation for Gordon’s. They made one call, flat out said, “No, it is not possible” and that was that. So much for that idea. At this point, they also still had no answer for us as to whether or not our Candlelight dinner was able to be changed to that evening. Later we found out that it was not. We returned to our room later that evening. Once again, no turndown service was offered, and once again, we had to call for more towels.
Day 6 was Sunday, July 6, 2008. We spent the day at the hotel, enjoying the pool and the watersports. We had our candlelight dinner on the beach. The service was fabulous, the meal was the best meal I had the whole trip. We were unable to get the wine we requested, but our server encouraged us to speak to someone in sales to get a credit for that bottle we did not receive (the next day, the sales department credited us upon request). As of that Sunday afternoon, we still did not have a confirmation as to when our candlelight dinner was. This was something that the concierge was supposed to get back to us about. We ended up going to the hotel front desk and THEY called food and beverage to figure it out for us. We also met with Mr. McIntosh again. At that point, both parties agreed that it was too late to make up for the shortcomings of this trip. He asked what would we considerable to be fair. I told him that I wanted our money back for the difference in price between a regular room and the concierge service room we had. We did not even receive basic, good, customer service, let alone concierge level service. He said he would refer that request to higher management and get back to us the next day.
Day 7 was Monday, July 7, 2008. We went on the Rainforest Canopy Adventure. The guide on that excursion was absolutely amazing and he made it a GREAT trip. When we returned to Sandals around 2:30pm, we went to our room, it had not been serviced yet. We were going to take a nap, but since there was construction going on in the building, that was impossible. It was extremely noisy, so a nap was out of the question. We went to look for Mr. McIntosh to see if he had any news for us. He still did not have information for us. We attended the Manager’s Welcome Reception. We were never told we needed to take a ticket for a drawing. We also listened as Mr. Hendricks told us we could bring any concerns we may have to him. He left the reception soon after making that statement and he was nowhere to be found. We attended the Beach Buffet Dinner and that, along with the entertainment that evening, was the best night we had at Sandals. We wished that beach buffet dinner happened several nights during the week we were there because we enjoyed it so much. Forget about that Creole Buffet and go with the Beach Buffet, it was truly a great experience. We returned to our room that night to find that our room had finally been serviced and we also received the turn down service. Still no towels though, we had to call for towels once again.
We left on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, to return home. We saw Mr. McIntosh before our departure. He told us that Sandals was willing to give us 2 free nights in exchange for the poor service we experienced. He said we would be given a letter from Sandals and that we needed that letter to make a future reservation. He told us it would be ready by the time we left, then came back and told us that he would have to email it to us.
On July 10, 2008, Mr. McIntosh emailed us to tell us he was still working on the letter. Today is July 20, 2008, and as of today, we have yet to receive that email.
After spending several thousand dollars to stay at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian, I feel like we were basically ripped off. We spoke to other guests staying in Concierge level rooms at the Halycon and they were receiving incredible service. The concierge staff knew all of them by name, knew all of their preferences, the concierge was able to get them reservations even though they were all booked up. Those guests truly experienced concierge level service, we, most certainly did not. In all of the years I have been traveling, I have never received such consistently terrible service from a hotel. This was our first experience with an all-inclusive brand and it will very likely be our last. Why would we even want two free nights on a future stay as compensation? We find that offer to be insulting considering that is being offered to EVERYONE who books a reservation now. We received an email advertisement from Sandals just the other day stating that. Every time there is a problem at the hotel and a guest expresses concern, the problem remains the GUEST’s problem. It never becomes the Staff’s problem. The concierge staff at the Sandals Grande has to be the most useless bunch of people I have ever seen. They are there to provide a higher level of service to clients who pay for it. The concierge staff did absolutely NOTHING to help us on our stay. Not one thing. In fact, the incompetence and failures of the concierge staff just resulted in more stress and aggravation for us. The Sandals employees do not care one bit about the guests (with the exception of the Spa staff, the photographers, and a couple of the bartenders). Perhaps if they worked for tips, they would actually pretend to care and actually pretend to enjoy their jobs. At first, we thought it was just a fluke that we were having problems with our service. Slowly we observed more and more couples sitting down at the round tables in the lobby with the staff. Every now and then, those couples were booking a candlelight dinner, but the majority of the time, they were complaining about things that were wrong with their room, the service they received, something the staff told them that was not true, etc. Sandals is supposed to be the premier resort for couples and especially for couples on their Honeymoon. The little extra touches go a long way in making a good vacation into a great vacation. In our case, all of the little things that were constantly wrong, made what was supposed to be the vacation of a lifetime into the worst vacation we ever had.
We are devastated that we spent so much money on first class airfare and we ended up in a resort that offers third class service. For the amount of money we spent, we could have gone to a different island, or a different resort. We could have taken that money and used it to take several vacations. We could have stayed at the Ritz-Carlton for less money and I guarantee you that THEIR service would never be sub-standard.
At this point, we want our money back for the difference between the rates for a concierge level room and a regular room. We have discussed this with our travel agent and she agrees that this would be fair. We paid for a service, we did not receive the service, therefore, we should be refunded for the services not received. All throughout our stay, the staff was aware of our problems and concerns. They failed to address our concerns. Our honeymoon was ruined because we chose the wrong resort, the one that could not get their act together. We can not get that back. I spent the week stressed out, frustrated, and upset, instead of relaxed and happy. Not only can we not recommend Sandals to anyone at this time, we feel we should be discouraging anyone and EVERYONE from choosing Sandals for their honeymoon or vacations. We do not want them to have their special trip spoiled like ours was. We hope that you will actually listen to us, since the resort staff did not, and take the appropriate actions so that Sandals can properly deliver on the services they advertise. Thank you. |
182 days ago by Cc [
105 days ago by Chris [