Sandals Resorts review: Terrible experience for them to argue about a minor credit due

Back on 3/1/2026 we booked a 5 night stay at Sandals and the price charged to our card was $6,433. That was only the actual charges for the resort as we booked our flights separately so that is almost $1,300 per night as we booked a relatively high-end suite. When we arrived to check in on 5/3/2026 (2 months after we booked the reservation and paid the full price) since we were in a relatively high-end suite we were provided with access to the Sandals Club concierge service and there were dedicated Sandals representatives to handle our check in. The most senior representative that was in that group indicated to us that there was an issue and the room that we had reserved (and paid for in advance) was not available however the individual indicated that as a result they were going to upgrade us to a higher end suite that included butler service and we would stay in that room for 2 nights and then we would be moved to a comparable room to the one that we reserved. After being told of this we indicated how much of hassle it would be to move rooms and asked if we could just stay in the higher level room for the 5 nights and they indicated that was not possible as they needed the butler suite for other guests. After the representative could see that we were very unhappy they offered us a credit to our credit card account of $200 for the inconvenience of switching rooms and since we did not see any other options we agreed.

As it turned out when we inquired about determining how to contact our assigned butler the same senior representative indicated that we had misinterpreted her description and that we would be assigned a suite that normally has a butler assigned however we would not be entitled to butler service. Both of us were present for the discussion where the butler suite was described and clearly the discussion was that the butler service was to be included or why would we have any basis to know how a butler suite compares to the suite that we had reserved. As it turned out the butler suite was terrible as compared to the suite that we were moved to (based upon what we reserved) after staying there for 2 days.

Even though we were part of the Sandals Club concierge service we had other issues with reservations for services that were not recorded correctly and there were issues with dinner reservations.

Attached is a copy of the Sandals receipt that was provided to us for checkout on 5-8-2026. The attachment clearly states that our balance represents a credit of $200.00 as the Total Due line lists ($200.00). The language on the copy in the Terms section refers to “ will be added to your credit card presented as a form of settlement” which was our WF card and “The issuer of the credit card identified on this statement is authorized to pay the amount shown as balance ……” and again the card was our WF card.

As noted above given the issues when we checked in the Sandals senior check in manager communicated that as compensation for our troubles they would provide us with a credit on our credit card for $200 and then when we checked out we also confirmed with the check out representative we showed him the Sandals bill which we were provided that reflected the $200 credit and asked him to confirm how that would be resolved and he indicated that we would be receiving that credit on the same credit card that we used to pay the fees and the credit would take a few days to be processed. Both of us were present when these discussions took place. The check out representative actually started to crumple up the Sandals bill and was going to dispose of it however I asked that he return the copy to us in the event that there is any issue down the road. Thank goodness we maintained the copy for this matter.

When several days went by without any credit to our credit card we submitted an inquiry to the Sandals Customer Support site. We were informed from Sandals Customer Support that this $200 was intended to be issued as a credit for future use at the Sandals resort only however that was never what was communicated to us in any of our interactions with the Sandals personnel. In addition if that was the case then why wouldn’t that be spelled out on the billing that was provided on the checkout? If that language was on the final billing we would not have left the resort without raising our concerns then in real time.

After numerous follow up exchanges with the Sandals Customer Support site we were informed on 6/10/2026 that they had agreed to submit a request to their accounting group to process a credit to our credit card for the $200 and that within 10 to 14 business days that would be reflected on our card. We have attached a copy of that correspondence as well.

After the 14 business days had passed we followed up again and they indicated that they would not be honoring the commitment that was made by the initial representative when we checked in, by the representative when we checked out and the Sandals Customer Support representative on 6/10/26 to credit our credit card for the $200.

Given the size of Sandals it is completely astonishing to us that when we paid them $6,433 they will make us go through this crazy effort for a $200 credit that numerous Sandals personnel have agreed to however they have not provided the $200 credit after several weeks of back and forth.