Complaint Review: Sandals Resort Grenada St George's Grenada

My wife and I must be in Grenada on business the 2nd week of January 2021. Grenada imposes a quarantine in an approved facility on the island and COVID testing before travelers can venture on the island. Sandals Grenada is/was one of the approved quarantine locations. On that basis, in early December we booked a one week stay at Sandals Grenada.  

The resort requires full payment uppon booking when this close to the begining of the stay.  We were charged $5,600. Grenada requires a proof of booking at an approved facility before they issue a travel authorization as a result we had no option but to pay up front.

Days later we received an email from the resort asking us to call urgently. We were told that the hotel was closed until February 3rd (but we were not given the reason) and we were offered a later booking at the same hotel or a stay at another venue. None of of these options made sense for us as we had a specific reason to be in Grenada in January:  Quarantine in order to be accpeted on the island, this was not a vacation for us. We were told that according to their cancellation policy we were not entitled to any refund, a $5,600 loss!

They refer to their cancellation policy but in this instance I did not cancel my stay, they did.  The terms and conditions that were disclosed to us (after we purchased our stay) do mention "Cancelltion By Guests" but is totally silent on Cancellation by the resort.

We had no choice but book a room at another approved facility in Grenada and unless the Island goes into shut down, we have every intention on being in Grenada the first week of January. This was a huge inconvenience as it was all last minute and we had already filed our travel authorisation with the government of Grenada on the basis of our Sandals booking.  This application was rejected and after several exchanges with the authorities we were finally approved on the basis of our new booking.

Since then, several press reports have linked a COVID outbreak in Grenada to Sandals Grenada Resort as a reason for the hotel shut down.  It is worth noting that all the other hotels in Grenada are continuing to accept guests. In this instance Sandals has been singled out, this is clearly their issue and not ours.

To make matters worse every single day since we were informed of the cancellation by the resort we get a phone call from Sandals attempting to sell us another trip, the agent appears to be clueless as to the specifics of our situation and we have to restate the reasons for my refusal to rebook and insitence on getting our money back. We then get transferred to a supervisor and are placed on hold for an extensive period of time to be told that we are not entitled to a refund because the cancellation has taken place "during the blackout period", this term is not defined anywhere in the terms and conditions.  The detailed terms and conditions that were disclosed to us (after purchase as they were linked to our booking confirmation) deal with "Cancellation By Guests" but are totally silent on cancellation by the resort.

Never did anyone from the company felt the need to apologize, the the contrary the tone of their representatives has been matter of fact. They hold our money and they treat me as their hostage, it is their way or the highway.

Further, at the time of booking Sandals pitched us that a travel insurance “is on us” as a way to induce us to book in confidence in the middle of a pandemic, this is also stated on their website but of course now we are told that this insurance does not apply to our situation...

In all evidence, Sandals does not mind getting business being listed as an approved quarantine facility but when they are unable to offer the specific service we expected, perhaps because of shortcoming on their side, they wash their hands of it and force you to buy a trip you do not want nor need. I haver documents and exchanges in writing to confirm everything that is being mentioned in this complaint.