Couples Barbados - Sandals

lady1964

DH & I have booked 12 days at Couples Barbados (formerly Almond Casaurina Resort which changed over in June this year).

I've just been on my Facebook page and read the following:

http://couples.com/mb/couples-main-message-board-2/important-announcement-regarding-couples-barbados-25458/

We booked in July and paid our deposit with the balance due in February for a May holiday for my significant birthday. I've just spoken to Kenwood Travel who we booked with and the guy I spoke to didn't seem to have any information to give me. I realise it's 7.30pm and so he's getting someone to call me tomorrow.

Reading the announcement, it seems we will still have our holiday (flights already booked & paid for), and Sandals resorts are lovely. Has this happened to anyone else? I know it's months away but it's an important holiday and we'd lose money changing flights as they are non-refundable tickets booked on BA using Avios to upgrade our seats.

Any advice would be really welcome, thank you.

louby40

It does look as though they are just giving people the choice to opt out if they wish.

What are the Tripadvisor reviews like since the takeover?

lady1964

The reviews when Couples first took over from ACB were poor, it seems there was no closure of rooms and the transition was far from smooth. Since the first 6 weeks or so though, reviews have really improved.

[Deleted User]

lady1964 wrote: »

DH & I have booked 12 days at Couples Barbados (formerly Almond Casaurina Resort which changed over in June this year).

I've just been on my Facebook page and read the following:

http://couples.com/mb/couples-main-message-board-2/important-announcement-regarding-couples-barbados-25458/

We booked in July and paid our deposit with the balance due in February for a May holiday for my significant birthday. I've just spoken to Kenwood Travel who we booked with and the guy I spoke to didn't seem to have any information to give me. I realise it's 7.30pm and so he's getting someone to call me tomorrow.

Reading the announcement, it seems we will still have our holiday (flights already booked & paid for), and Sandals resorts are lovely. Has this happened to anyone else? I know it's months away but it's an important holiday and we'd lose money changing flights as they are non-refundable tickets booked on BA using Avios to upgrade our seats.

Any advice would be really welcome, thank you.

If you do decide to change I would heartily recommend The Club Barbados which used to be the Almond Beach.
It's next door to Sandy Lane and is a very good AI. Just returned from 10 days there and couldn't fault the food,drink or service.

https://www.theclubbarbados.com

lady1964

Thanks, that looks really nice.

Currently, I need to be patient as Sandals are still putting together all the information we need, according to our travel agent today, so I will wait & see.

The Sandals UK website isn't even showing Barbados as an option and the US one only has prices but no information on room facilities etc, so anyone booking on there is almost booking blind in some respects.

I really feel for the people who are booked to go in the next couple of weeks and aren't getting much information. I've read that some people are changing destination to Jamaica but we can't and actually don't want to do that.

It is a bit frustrating as I booked this holiday in July and it goes against my organised self to not have all the relevant information and know exactly what we're going to but like I said, I need to be more patient

lady1964

Well, as an update to this, Sandals has now decided to close from 1st April until December, therefore we now have to find another hotel to stay at.

I found out on Facebook this morning as I'm a member of a Sandals Barbados group and they posted the Sandals announcement. I called our TA at 10.30 and they seemed to know nothing about it, in fact they said I was the one giving them information they had no idea about.

We now have the option of moving to a different hotel in Barbados or incurring flight change costs (that I'm not sure Sandals will refund as we could be talking thousands). So, we're looking at The Club as already mentioned or Sea Breeze.

I'm very angry with Sandals as I feel they should not have taken bookings for this year. They stayed open during the high season, raking in the dollars, they close during low season, which I can understand why, however they should have just not taken bookings past this month so as to avoid this whole issue. There are others worse off than me too, but it's such a disappointment. We've already had the hassle from when it changed from Couples to Sandals, now we're paying the price for sticking with Sandals.

Pi**ed off doesn't even cover it at the moment :mad: