Best holiday ever!! – Review of Sandals Ochi Beach Resort, Ocho Rios

This was our 2nd visit to Sandals Ochi Rios, the first being Pre Covid in 2019. This visit it was clear that Covid had caused some deterioration in the Resort. Firstly though, I have to say that ALL the Staff were excellent. They are friendly and work very hard to accommodate you.

However, its clear to see that Sandals are probably operating with a 50% staff roster, whilst trying to cater for 90% Capacity.

We had problems with Room service, waiting for up to 90minutes for delivery.

Some of the restaurants’ had damaged tables and lights, that were just left in disrepair but still being used.

Some of the pools were constantly out of order.

A lot of the Pool flooring was damaged, which would cause people to cut their feet on broken tiles.

Poolside’s generally never had enough Sunbeds, and a lot of them were old and dirty.

We reported strange noises in our room, which seemed like an animal had been trapped within the wall, but we never got an outcome?

All of these things basically let the place down. It seemed as though there was a lot of Customer Facing Staff who were interested in getting Surveys about your stay, or offering additional services, at additional costs, but not a lot of actual “working staff”.

Our main disappointment was the fact that we had said, right from the booking with Virgin Atlantic, that this Holiday was OUR HONEYMOON, but there was no acknowledgement at all. No Champagne in the room, no flowers, no offering of an extra service, like a candlelit dinner or something. You would imagine a company that Prides itself and Advertises itself as a Couples Retreat would at least try to make an effort for a Honeymoon Couple. And even though you talk to the Hotel Management on arrival, and talk about your stay, book reservations etc, and TELL them its your honeymoon, nothing was celebrated at all. We were asked about 5 times if we were celebrating anything, like a birthday, or honeymoon, or anniversary, and we kept telling them its a HONEYMOON!, nothing happened.

No what you would expect from a so-called FIVE STAR Resort.

We had fun, we enjoyed the break, but its doubtful we would return for a 3rd time.