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“I recently (Feb 5-12) traveled with my family to...”

written by on 19/02/2010

I recently (Feb 5-12) traveled with my family to Negril, Jamaica to participate in my brother's wedding on the beach and enjoy some vacation time in Jamaica. I was traveling with my fianc , my sister and my parents. As I was the best man in the wedding, my father was a groomsman and my sister was a bridesmaid, we all decided to stay at the location of the wedding (Sandals Negril). In addition, to ensure we could all spend time together as a family we all wanted to be at the same resort thus we all booked our travel to Sandals Negril more than six months in advance of the trip. Further, we all received confirmation of our reservations at Sandals Negril and paid in full at the appropriate time. Upon our arrival at the Sandals hub in the Jamaica airport we were notified that two of the three rooms within our party were overbooked and moved away from the rest of the family and away from the resort where the wedding was being held. As you could image this came to us as a huge shock and developed into a major frustration and inconvenience as we were all part of the wedding party. After spending three plus hours of dealing with Donald Smith and Gary Stewart in the Jamaica airport (both of which represent the worst examples of customer service I have ever seen), the only thing that was clear was that mine and my sister's Sandals reservations were not going to be upheld. In order to make the wedding rehearsal in time we all loaded up and headed for Sandals Negril. Upon our arrival we were met by Nichelle Oxford who tried to be as understanding as possible(much better customer service). However, even she could not change the circumstances that our reservations were not going to be upheld. After the rehearsal and dinner, me, my fianc and my sister all went over to check into the other resort. During our check in we noted this was not an 18 and up couples resort and upon getting to our rooms we found that both rooms did not have the water turned on. We could not flush the toilet, wash our hands or take a shower until the next morning. The next day (also the day of the wedding) we had to make several trips between the resorts to make previously arranged appointments and prepare for the wedding, yet another inconvenience. In addition, after all the wedding day events and the end of the evening we could not walk back to our rooms and turn in for the night. Instead we had to wait for transportation to take us back to the other resort. This process of going back and forth between resorts continued for the next two days. Finally on the fourth night of our 7 night stay in Jamaica we were moved back to Sandals Negril, where our reservations that were booked over six months ago were made. In addition, to help smooth the process we were allowed a mini bar in the room (which was of no use to us), 24 hour room service (which we used maybe 2 times) and a $150 resort credit (which might have made up the difference in price from Sandals Negril to the other resort for the 3 nights we stayed). To me these are all token gestures in an effort to put out the immediate fire. However, this does not at all excuse the complete lack of confidence I have in any Sandals resort to uphold their end of the bargain to ensure my reservation remains in-tact as I made it and not as Sandals deems appropriate. Further, based on my experience of this situation I will not plan a trip using Sandals again.