Sandals Montego Bay false advertising Montego Bay

Sandals is absolutely terrific at advertising its many Caribbean resorts through endless television commercials and print advertisements.  Execution and providing true high quality is quite another matter.  During our stay at their flagship Montego Bay property we experienced: no hot water for the first few days that caused my wife to go to the spa facility for a hot shower one evening, and loss of the main room air conditioner for the last few days.  For the latter, maintenance people came five times. 

For our high end suite on the beach there were no advertised robes and slippers.  Some evenings there was turn down service, but not others.  Food was perhaps the biggest disappointment.  Do not expect high quality cheeses on the breakfast buffet, nor quality steaks, nor tasty roast beef, nor big size shrimps.  Both the breakfast and lunch buffets were far below the quality experienced at other all inclusive resorts in Jamaica.  Salads were disappointing.  The dinners in the specialty restaurants both at this resort and the other nearby Sandals were unremarkable, fair but not great meals you might associate with a four or five star resort. 

The highly recommended cashew chicken dinner at the Thai restaurant did not have even one cashew.  On the plus side, however, the alcoholic beverages in the room and at the bars and restaurants were good, and all the hotel workers were friendly and helpful.  The two gems, foodwise, were the pizza option in the beach area eatery and the café in the main building offering many ice creams and pastries, cookies and drinks.  We were also disappointed in the much advertised butler service and were annoyed that we were expected to tip the butlers, even though some types of rooms came with the butler service automatically. 

There were a great many return guests like us who did not seem to be bothered by the various shortcomings we experienced.  Our previous Sandals experiences were more positive.  Based on many conversations, the answer appears that Sandals attracts a lot of people who have not traveled extensively, especially to luxury resorts.  In other words, most customers seem to have either low expectations or no basis for judging quality or the absence of it.  All that expensive advertising seems to work, but Sandals has chosen not to spend more money on higher quality food.  Best to think of Sandals as the McDonald’s of Caribbean resorts.  Lastly, this resort sits right next to the airport runway and the sound of jets taking off is horrendous; there is also major construction going on with its own noise.  After making a reservation be prepared for repeated annoying emails and phone calls trying to sell you extras.