The Sands Barbados All Inclusive

We had the best time at this hotel. The pool was fantastic. Our son spent 8 hours a day in it. The staff were friendly, the rooms were cleaned everyday. Having air conditioning in the living areas of the rooms would be amazing. The hotel itself was just the right size for us. The food was good and appeared as fresh as it could be. I’m not sure water sports are really advertised. This could be promoted a lot more. Staff in the restaurant and bar were so accommodating. Shakira was funny. Thank you for a lovely stay

My initial trip had to be rescheduled because of hurricane Berly that came around July 4th weekend. It took some haggling and The sands would only accommodate a 2 week window to use the credit. Which was very disappointing. I had to pay double on a flight to meet their deadline. Upon getting to the hotel, the staff at the front desk were polite and apologize for the short time frame to use the credit. The rooms were nice, we had a duplex style room. The food was subpar, only ate there twice during my stay. I wouldn’t say it’s truly an all inclusive experience. There was a rude encounter with one of the head staff at the dining area ( actually 2 rude experiences). This incident was reported to upper management and rectified with an apology and a complimentary brunch at NIOR. Beyond this, some training needs to happen to let the staff know it’s not ok to treat people differently because of how “they look” This woman had some level of bias to her tone and approach when dealing with black guests vs non black guests. Let me just say she was more polite to people who did not look like her. #Sad Shout out to Kemar at guest services. He was attentive and approached each guest with respect. He accommodated any request that was asked. I gave it a 4 stars because of the location, and the few friendly staff we encountered.

Note: We originally booked a different hotel where we went on honeymoon (a beautiful 4 star hotel on the beach) however it was damaged during hurricane Beryl and therefore closed - so our travel agent moved us to a "like for like" hotel.. Hotel: Basic facility with basic furniture, A/C , grounds etc. There is one pool and one bar - both quite small and you realise the size on busy days! Our A/C and toilet both broke on more than one occasion. Food and Drink: We had all inclusive. This was misleading. All inclusive meals are very limited, especially if you have food intolerances or specific diets. The selection/options for each meal is very limited, and the food quality was mostly very poor. Portion sizes were tiny and sometimes just unacceptable. Drinks options are very limited to cheap brands and speciality drinks are not included. Dining Area Hygiene: This is a big issue. There were birds everywhere scavenging for food. They jumped from table to table, plate to plate whether anyone was there or not. The dining area which is beach-side, also has hanging lights - often the birds would rest on the hanging lights and poop - landing on people, their plates, the floor etc etc. Not entirely the hotels fault but they didnt really do anything about it. Other hotels in Barbados have resident cats and they dont have any bird dropping issues like this place. Beach: Public beach, small and has a big problem with seaweed during hurricane season. We had 3 days with sand, and then woke up one morning and the whole beach was covered and unusable. It took the hotel a week to have the seaweed removed, but by then all of the customers were fairly deflated. Also, for our first 2 days stay there was a ban on entering the water as a sewage pipe burst during the hurricane and the water was contaminated. Eventually, the beach was re-opened. Gym: This is a converted hotel room with 6 pieces of equipment, a few of which either dont work or are broken. If you enjoy fitness then avoid this hotel, there is a reason they dont have pictures of their fitness facility on their website. Its terrible. Staff: We met some lovely staff members on our trip. Many however are young and inexperienced and for most of our stay there was an obvious lack of leadership in the hotel, restaurant and bar and this was reflected in a mostly poor and sometimes rude attitude by staff towards customers. I dont think there was any malicious intent to this behaviour - just inexperience and a lack of visible leadership to keep people on their toes. To reiterate, we did meet some lovely and hard working staff, but their amazing attitude and efforts were overshadowed by others.

Worst experience!!! We are privileged to travel every 3 months around the world with our kids. This “hotel” has a dirty beach full of smelly seaweed that hasn’t been cleaned for 3 days. Nor have we given an opportunity to go to their sister hotel Mango Bay today. Now we are staying at a hotel that only has a pool, if we knew this, we would have stayed in Toronto, even though we told our kids not to go to the pool a week ago because we were going to enjoy the “beautiful beach” NO SOLUTION has been offered!!!!!!!!! General manager doesn’t show up and has not been helpful in any way to communicate with staff about a real and fair solution. Someone named coffee last night promised to get us in to the shuttle this morning but, then he changed his mind last minute and took it personally. This morning two guests cancelled their shuttle but, they still told us there is no space. We are sad about the situation and regretful for being here. Some people are nice but others have taken this issue personal. Shower curtains in the washroom are full of mold which should be easily cleaned with bleach. If their website advertises customers about the dirty beach we could have at least planned ahead of time. They keep telling us to speak to a supposedly general manager who doesn’t show up to address the situation, doesn’t care about their guests, and In simple words doesn’t have empathy for a couple to came to celebrate their anniversary with their family. I recommend you DO NOT COME HERE. Stay away of this place at all cost.

Nice clean relatively small hotel.. Doesnt have the facilities of the large hotels we've stayed in! Good pleasant staff-always polite and helpful.. Rooms are comfortable and have all facilities necessary..! Only one basic restaurant,but you are allowed one visit to the luxury end Noir..!

Wow this hotel is amazing !!! Right on the beach. Most rooms have a side ocean view and are good sizes. We thought most meals were 10/10 with very good produce being cooked very well. Staff cannot do enough for you and they even found us a walk. We walked west to Accra beach then walked on the boardwalk. We saw two turtle nests being helped and several crabs and an octopus! Also walked to St Lawrence Gap. We got the reggae bus to Oistins they seem to run every two minutes ! Fab holiday. We will definitely be coming back. Thank you !

Stayed 10 nights October 24. Family of 2 adults and 2 teens. I would give the hotel an average rating overall. Food 2.5/5. There were too many evening buffets for us that were lukewarm and just not enough choice or appealing. We enjoyed our first experience at Noir but the second the food was luke warm and the vegetarian option was basically sweet potato and peas? Breakfast was usually better with a decent choice of food. Beach 3.5/5. Lovely beach with beautiful sunsets however there are strong currents and swells near the rocks I found swimming (and I’m a strong swimmer) dangerous and disappointing. Also poor visibility for snorkelling. Staff 4/5 some lovely and helpful staff. Bar staff will help with whatever you ask and some really funny ones. Management are not visible like they are at their sister hotel Mango bay. Location 3/5 good for South coast amenities but if you find the west coast more to your liking it can be an awful bus ride on the local buses. Rooms: 4.5/5 spacious rooms, comfortable beds. Good air conditioning and great cleaning service. Would benefit from more furniture on the balcony. Pool 3/5 salt water pool after the salty sea isn’t refreshing. There also needs to be a tap to wash feel between the beach and the pool as too many don’t bother so the pool gets full of sand. Visited both sister hotels Mango bay and Island inn while here . We wouldn’t go back to island inn as it looked run down but we loved Mango bays location and beach. We preferred the food at Mango bay and found it to be a better quality, choice of buffet with a good separate vegan menu snd ice cream sundaes for dessert. Drinks: 3.5/5 the bars did run out of things but restocked within a day usually. The wine was tolerable but no bubbly so no mimosas which was disappointing and too many sweet slushy cocktails. Entertainment: 2/5 local singers which had lovely voices but repetitive songs and sets and nothing like steel bands, fire dancers, silent discos or white parties that other places have. Watersports: 1.5/5. There are 2 canoes and a paddle board? Could be so much better with this. We probably would not return here but would definitely return to the west coast of Barbados.

The resort was nice with a beautiful beach. The only suggestions I would have is to add either a single or double bed in the rooms as I went with friends and family and the one queen bed was not entirely comfortable sharing. I think this would really improve the rooms. Otherwise the room was comfortable with a nice balcony. A small table on the balcony would be nice. The food was generally good during our ten day stay.

I am currently staying at The Sands and wanted to bring something to your attention that you may wish to address. I’ve noticed that one of the security guards has been taking drinks from the hotel and sitting with locals on the beach (to the right when facing the sea). While I understand that all beaches in Barbados are public, some female guests, including myself, have felt uncomfortable with the behavior of the group, as they spend the day leering at women. I also believe the availability of free drinks may be contributing to this situation, which is something you might want to look into. Thank you for your attention to this matter.