Wyndham Grand Barbados Sam Lords Castle All-inclusive Resort

I was pleased to stay at the Wyndham Grand Sam Lord’s Castle for a conference recently. I’ve long been aware of Sam Lord’s Castle, and have visited Barbados previously, but had never trekked across the island to visit. The hotel is nice. It’s stunning in appearance, but unlike many, many other resorts across the Caribbean and Mexico, it lacks a soul, or vibe, or culture. Honestly, it felt more like a luxurious corporate training center than a Caribbean resort and while I was glad to be there, it’s not the type of place I’d pick to host my wife and me for a getaway. What’s nice about the resort? It’s new, mostly clean, attractively decorated. Our banquet food and the food in the all-inclusive restaurant was very good. The meeting and banquet service was absolutely perfect, and service in the bars I visited was attentive. Most of all, the staff are super friendly at every position. What will eventually make this resort better? A personality! How can it get there? For one, there is nothing unique anywhere on property, nothing memorable, nothing instagramable. No morning water exercise class, no resort-facilitated water sports, no bar or restaurant space that reflects Barbados, or Sam Lord’s Castle. And there’s nothing to do within an easy walk or short drive of the resort. So once you’re there, you’re there, with only a couple of bars, three pools, and a so-so beach to occupy your time. Sam Lord’s Castle, with its rich and quirky history, sits abandoned and gutted adjacent to the property. There aren’t even any interpretative signs near it to explain its history in pirate culture, who owned it, what it became, when it burned, and anything else. There’s no reference to Sam Lord’s Castle in the resort’s public areas or in the rooms, which just seems odd since the resort incorporates it into its name. Each hotel or resort should have a personality, a culture, a story to tell…and this nice building has none of that. What else needs to be addressed? Directional signage is sorely lacking, and we all joked that by day three, we had a pretty good idea on how to get to our rooms and other areas. Daily housekeeping is very superficial – no floor cleaning, cursory attention to the bed, no replenishment of waters or nespresso pods unless requested, and mirrors and glass surfaces were all streaked as if someone used an oily cloth to clean them. Air conditioning is a problem – the staff told us that the AC units actually service two rooms each, so there’s no guarantee that your room thermostat will actually control your room temperature. My room stayed at a balmy 73 degrees the hole time, even though I’d set the thermostat lower, and the room stayed damp because of it. The bathroom amenities are upscale, but the towels are more Holiday Inn-ish in size and texture. They are thin and hard, which usually is a result of their being dried in way too high a temperature. One final tip – while the food there is good, you will have a truly memorable dinner if you venture a 10-minute drive away to Les Shack. Don’t let the ramshackle appearance fool you. The French and Italian couple who own and operate it have created what may be the best dining experience in Barbados! This will be a fine and memorable resort one day, once ownership and management find and cultivate its identity. Read less

Where do I start? Let’s do the positive first. Food is excellent as are the rooms. Pools are clean and large with plenty of seating/loungers etc. Unfortunately, towels can be a hit or miss. Most of the staff are very helpful, and here are some who forget who’s paying their wages and are down right rude! Now the not so good. Customer service is at best inconsistent at worst non existent. There is rarely an occasion in the main dinning are where you are offered a hot or cold drink with any meal, service is poor. Over the last 5 days we have asked guest services for:- more coat hangers, our room to be serviced and would you believe it requesting that excrement be removed from floor on our corridor. All off the above took serval calls and personal visits to reception to get it done! This morning was the final straw, my wife asked last night for a bottle of Prosecco and strawberries to be delivered by room service to our room at 0800 to celebrate my 60th birthday, it never turned up despite her having paid extra for it. In simple terms this is a lovely hotel that’s probably going through a lot of teething problems given they have only been open a year. That’s being said the customer service is shocking which is such a shame as that is the one thing that will stop customers going back! We have four days left of our holiday, let’s see if we get response from management on what if anything they are going to do to rectify these issues! Read less

I think all the other reviews here sum up the inconsistency of our experience at this place. On the negative: really poor housekeeping standards, bizarrely erratic service (particularly for beverages) and limited amenities (particularly in the evening). On the upside: great pools, lovely rooms with views and some staff really try to deliver genuine five star service. The location of the place is also worth considering - it’s pretty isolated - which we didn’t mind - but involves a £100 round trip taxi to Bridgetown if you want to go anywhere. Read less

We came here at the last minute due to the ongoing saga with Marriott hotels refurbishments not being ready, with only 3 weeks till our holiday and deciding not to give Marriott our money we chose the Wyndham, mainly based on the recent positive reviews before we left on the 2nd November, so this is our experience : We arrived following a long day and only a 15 minute journey from the airport in a taxi that was part of our package, we were given a cool cloth and filled out our paperwork with a glass of fizz, then given our bracelets which had our room info on which saved having to carry and misplace any cards, and which could be shown at the various bars and places to eat, we were taken to our room and our cases were brought up 20 minutes later, I had booked a double resort view, well wow what a room, 2 double beds, big bathroom with double sinks and a bath, nespresso coffee maker which we used everyday and a massive balcony with an amazing view of the resort and the ocean, we spent most evenings on the balcony listening to the crashing of the waves with a drink when we returned to our room, we had a fridge in the room which was filled with banks beer, coke, sprite and other canned drinks, this was refilled everyday as well as replaced coffee pods. Our room was always cleaned and mopped and fresh towels replaced when we wanted them. There is a card in the room which explains the procedure. Staff: This place is really large and there are a lot of staff which makes it hard to get to know everyone, but I have to say all staff that we met were so nice, 3 people stood out for us, the gentle and polite Mario who makes a banging margarita, the helpful and knowledgable Ramirio who asked what my fav drink was and made a wonderful Gimlet cocktail and the great Brandon who was front of house at the Castle View restaurant and always had time for a hug and handshake and asked how we were. Pools: The pools were great, lovely and clean and we used all of them, plenty of sun beds to choose from and always loads of towels available, no deposit or cards needed here, the pool guys would often come over and ask us before we sat down how many towels we would like so no limit on how many you wanted. Beach: We went to the beach mainly for a nice walk but did not spend much time on it, the sea was very rough and it was very hot with little shelter but there were beach beds available. Drinks: All of the drinks here were lovely, there was banks beer on tap, the cocktails at all the bars were different from each other but the cosmo at Sam Lords grill was 1 of my faves, Prosecco was part of the all inclusive and branded drinks, Gordon’s or Tanqueray gin, JD, Baileys, Absolute vodka all included to name a few, banks beer was available in a help yourself fridge in the main bar as well as bottles of water, coke, sprite, Carib beer and other canned drinks of fruit juices, as well as sandwiches, bagels, etc, water was also readily available at the downstairs Mediterranean market and Sam Lords grill, you just had to help yourself. At mealtimes there was a choice of sparkling or still water. Food: The food here was amazing, I am a very picky eater but here I was in heaven, the breakfast fresh fruit table contained so many fruits, raspberries, strawberries, melon, pineapple, blueberries and even dragon fruit, ( I had a dragon fruit drink in the summer and searched high and low in the supermarkets in the uk but never found any until I stumbled across some in M & S just before we left for holiday but they were priced at £3.50 each!! ) plenty here to name just a few fruit, as well as cooked breakfast, toast, bagels, smoked salmon, omelette and egg station, pastries, nespresso coffees made to order with a range of syrups, I could go on and on, lunch a great salad bar and soups, pizza made fresh from the pizza oven, pasta station, fish, meats, sauces, cheeses, and a similar pattern for dinner, lovely little cakes so much choice. The food at the grill by 1 of the pools was also good, burgers, garlic & parmesan fries, tacos with shrimp or chicken, but the food at castle view was outstanding, shrimp, crab legs, steak, chicken and lobster to choose from, you can eat here 3 times per week so book as soon as you arrive. My only issue was that there was no real dress code in the buffet with many people wearing shorts, t shirts, flip flops or straight from the beach or pool at dinner service which detracted from the experience for us. Cleanliness: We found that the corridors did not get cleaned but this did not affect our holiday, yes some rubbish around the pools that did not get picked up straight way in the form of used straws or empty water bottles, which I saw mainly caused by the hotel guests I have to say who couldn’t put their rubbish in the bins provided, the public toilets were always clean and tidy. The colour theme here is cream which seems silly to me as a lot of the furniture appeared marked and stained already and the day beds were left outside in the rain which looked mouldy, hence we didn’t use these, probs better to get rid of these and replace with wooden furniture or something as it lets those areas down. So in summary to this long review, we had a wonderful 10 days here, booked last minute as mentioned due to other hotel issues, the staff, food, drinks and room made our stay great and I cannot complain. Would we return? sadly no, the location for us is too far away from our fave area of Speightstown and we did not have a car, I did not have much chance either to study bus routes and we always go adult only, not the fault of the hotel at all, this made us all the more aware by the screaming and crying children in the restaurants and pool areas, again not the fault of the hotel. If you don’t mind those 2 issues then give this hotel a go, the all inclusive value is excellent, at the airport a bottle of the same water provided was 6.50 bds! Thank you to every person who made our holiday lovely, those we spoke to and those behind the scenes the chefs especially. Read less

I am here right now and the reviews are correct sadly. The food selection is limited and at the grill chicken was undercooked. Service is not good. Several employees could care less. Employee at grill did nothing and employee at bar said they did not have something which another employee then gave to someone else so they had it. Our room was not very clean and had a broken off toilet seat. I would not have come except that we had a conference here. I would avoid it. Read less