As you can see from my previous reviews; we've been very lucky over the years to experience some fantastic holidays and hence I’m always excited about sharing our great experiences with fellow travellers. Unfortunately, and with much regret, I can't say the same about the Colony Club...

Which is why this is a very detailed review, as we feel the hotel can improve their services. The management have been informed by all this and to this date we haven't heard anything back yet.

We normally never return to the same destination twice as there is so much to see in the world and not enough time. Even though the Sandy Lane was our first choice, we felt that as we met at the Colony Club 10 years ago; we ought to make an exception to this rule and return there for our celebrations. At the time the Colony Club was considered number 1 on the island and the service and surroundings were excellent, at least that’s how we remember it.

Our stay at the Colony Club was ok. Don't get me wrong, the location, pools and gardens are great, even our room was lovely.

The low points:
Our much anticipated arrival at the Colony Club was nothing if not absolutely awful!
There was no bell boy present, my husband went inside to try and find someone. Eventually he located a chap, and he begrudgingly come to the car, didn’t offer to help unload our luggage from our car rental, until we prompted him, to which he arrogantly told us “You can’t park your van here, go and park it in the car park!”, we looked at each other in disbelief wondering whether we might have misunderstood ( the accent can be a little tricky sometimes), our puzzled looks on our faces made him repeat the same sentence again. We don’t know what sort of training they received but we’ve never been addressed anywhere like this before! I told him we’d appreciate if he’d valet park the car instead, (not the van!) for us. This really surprised him and clearly ruffled his feathers.

We then made our way to the front desk, and at this point, still nobody had said “Welcome”, no cold towels or drink offered as you used to and most other hotels in Barbados do.
Five ladies were chatting amongst themselves at the front desk and we stood there for at least 30 seconds before anyone acknowledged us. I had our hotel voucher in my hands, luggage in tow; one would assume we were checking in. She looked at us and said “Yes?” Again another incredible thing to say to customers, we told her we were here to check in, and finally at this point one of her colleagues said “Welcome to the Colony Club!”. Hurray! Finally someone acknowledges us we thought, and I couldn’t resist commenting on that and saying that it was nice that finally someone said welcome after our arrival. Needless to say, judging by their faces, this didn’t go down well; Fiona told us abruptly to go and sit down in the living room and someone will come and see us. We sat there for another few minutes whilst the ladies were just chatting amongst themselves at the front desk. Fiona then came to us, didn’t welcome us at all or mention our names, let alone welcome us for our anniversary, she barely looked at us and proceeded about telling us all the hotel information she learned off by heart very well about the do’s and don’ts. Her whole demeanour was abrupt, arrogant, and rude. We asked several questions and eventually were told that our room wasn’t ready, no apology offered, and this stunned us at it was 4.30pm at this point and check in is foreseen at 3 pm. We had to wait another 20 minutes. At this point I asked if they no longer provided a welcome drink, she then instructed Kareen who came into the picture and kindly offered us some drinks with a lovely smile.

When the room was ready she handed over the keys to me looking at my husband and saying “I’ll give them to her as she’s clearly the boss.”!!!!!! This was unbelievable and totally unacceptable. At this point my husband asked to speak to a manager, and Kareen who introduced herself as the guest relations manager came to us. We explained everything that happened. She said she was sorry to hear about it and would send up a bottle of champagne to our room. This is a nice touch, but in all honesty we would have preferred to have a smooth, nice and friendly check in, no waiting and no stress. At this point I was ready to walk out and go somewhere else!

At the time of the booking last august, I asked to have a private and quiet room with direct pool access. When we were shown to our room (238), at first we were disappointed it was on the first floor so no direct pool access. The room looked nice, there was air conditioning and I started unpacking, then at 7 pm a band started playing right outside our window. So much for the quiet room… We called the front desk to find out if this was a regular feature and we were told yes 4 times a week till 11pm. As Kareen mentioned the hotel was fully booked, we thought it was pointless to ask to change rooms and besides I had fully unpacked and was too tired and stressed to get into another big discussion.

Then there were the inconsistencies with the housekeeping; the bed wasn’t made properly the first night (the end at the mattress where our feet were bare), no mattress protector either; which is highly unhygienic. I called housekeeping the next morning and asked to have the bed made properly with a mattress protector. This was never done. The dirty towels at night weren’t always taken away. Even in the morning some of the used towels were put back or not removed. Then, several days we found used foreign objects in our room; such as a dirty large knife by the bed, dirty cleaning cloth on the terrace, etc…

Out of the blue on day 3 we received chocolates by the bed at turndown, but then not the following night; again inconsistency.

The stairway to our room was dirty every day; the floors appeared never to get cleaned, dirty ear tips or tissues scattered on the floor, or a used old fridge, or mattresses or clear plastic bags full or rubbish were left in the corridors or stairway for everyone to see. We even saw a rat run from the terrace below our room to the next building, told security about it but they said that was normal! The pools, though beautifully designed, were let down by not being cleaned thoroughly and green moss growing on the walls in several areas, again not very hygienic.

We had high hopes for the food to be good, but on our first night my salad was ok and my husband's steak overcooked when he asked for rare. The first morning breakfast was nice and fresh however on all consecutive mornings the eggs Benedict were dry and items such as the hash browns appeared to have been there for hours. So needless to say eating at the hotel didn’t inspire us at all.
Finally the worst was a chicken Caesar salad my husband ordered at lunch time, to find that some of the chicken was RAW!!! We sent it back, no apology given at all, but “we’ll deduct it from your bill”. Of course, that was the least they could do!

Up until then we had decided not to say anything anymore as we were desperately trying to enjoy the rest of our holiday and not make a big deal out of it, but at this point we lost it and my husband insisted on talking to the general manager, but were met with Sophia, who listened to him, didn’t say much about it and then came to see us a few hours later with an invitation for dinner at the hotel. At this point eating at the hotel was the LAST thing we wanted and we had already a reservation at La Mer that evening anyway, so we declined.
Upon our return from the restaurant that night we found a bottle of “Laurent Perrier Rose” Champagne ( which happens to be our favourite) sitting on the desk with an amuse bouche desert inscribed with happy anniversary. This was really nice, albeit a couple of days late, but as you can see at this point we were beyond the point of caring. We did however thoroughly enjoy it whilst watching our last sunset in Barbados. Nevertheless, it’s a shame it had to come to that, because if the service had been consistent throughout, the souvenir of our 10 year anniversary would have been more memorable, whereas we sadly left having more negative feelings rather than positive ones.

The good points:
There is good news though; the best thing about our stay at your hotel was the concierge “Bernstein”. He was fabulous!!! We explained why we were in Barbados what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go for dinner and that we would love nice romantic table by the water, and he got us the best tables in all the restaurants, we were greeted like royalty wherever we went, congratulated for our anniversary everywhere, were given lovely artistic deserts and just had the best time every night! And that really is all thanks to him! It also showed us that friendly people and good service are possible in Barbados, just how we remembered it.
Every night there was " Happy Hour", with half price cocktails at sunset. We loved working our way through the huge cocktail list with the "BBC" being our favourite whilst watching spectacular sunsets , night after night!

At the end of the day it all comes down to expectations, and I guess not everyone’s expectations are the same as ours. When you pay to stay in a 5 star resort, with 5-star prices, we expect 5 star service and our experience was more 3-star compared with the many other places we have been lucky enough to stay at in the past.
We heard of several guests who love it there and are faithful customers and return year after year, and we also heard from other guests who felt the same as us, which in a way was nice to know we weren’t alone or that we weren’t “just being difficult”.

Our love affair with Barbados definitely continues, but we won’t be returning to the Colony Club and can’t really see ourselves recommending it to anyone in the future.

We spent a week here at the end of February.
The hotel was lovely - clean, spacious room (we had a junior suite) and a nice bathroom. The food at breakfast was good and we had lunch and dinner at the hotel once, both of which were excellent.
The pools are a little small but I think that is typical of most Barbados hotels as space seems to be at a premium along the coasts on this popular island. However, with the beach to use too, the pools didn't get crowded at the times we used them.

The beach was nice and we were hardly accosted at all - just once or twice each day. The swimming area was a bit too restricted for me, I like to feel open and unrestricted in the sea and have a good long swim, but the cordoned off area was relatively small to allow for all the various watersports that were on offer.
When we came to the pool later in the day (ie mid-afternoon) there was usually a frustratingly long wait for pool/beach towels (one man waited almost an hour) and no apology offered when they finally did arrive

Whilst some of the staff were helfpul, most gave the impression that it was all a bit too much trouble. I appreciate that the attitude in the Caribbean is more laid back but this was just plain rude at times. They would do as you (politely) asked, but with a huff and a puff. Its almost as if many of them are carrying a chip on their shoulder. The staff at reception were very helpful.

So in summary, the hotel was very good and a beautiful setting but not as fantastic as I would expect for the cost.

We stayed at the Colony Club for a week before Easter. Naturally, our plane was delayed, forcing us to check in after midnight. The night crew, desk, security/bell hop, cocktail waitress were cheerful considering the hour. They brought us our welcome cocktail - too strong for our tastes but good nevertheless.

We had a deluxe ocean view room - slightly different from the ocean view suite that was discussed in the next post. These rooms are on the second floor, above the one bedroom suites, allowing a view of the pool and beach. They are not ocean front rooms - I guess the only ocean front rooms were some on the other side of the complex. The room was nicely decorated - their website does a good job of showing the room. The poarch with the day bed was a nice way to be outside and still be out of the sun.

Morning, afternoon and evening waiters and waitresses were all nice and usually thoughtful and the bar tenders and their waitstaff were fairly attentive except on the beach. We often had to chase down someone to help us.

As for the beach vendors, be nice, say no thank you and they will leave you alone.

On a negative side, I felt that the price we paid for March (I know it is high season) was way too much, all over the island. For the $$$ we paid, we could have had much nicer, ocean front suites on other, more interesting islands in high season. I felt that we never got out of a dinner, either at the hotel or around the island, for less than $140 per couple. The food around the island and in the hotel was good, however, and service around the island was well above average.

Would I go back to Barbados - no, there are other islands in the area that offer as much, look better and aren't as expensive in high season.

Would I stay at the Colony Club again IF I went back to Barbados - yes, compared to the other offerings on the island, the location, the facilities, the cleanliness of the rooms and the grounds, the service and the overall feeling on the property, I would stay at the Colony Club again.

Swimmin' M

We stayed at the Colony Club for a week at the end of Feb, 2008. We chose this particular hotel based on the reviews on this site and we were on the whole not disappointed.

On arrival we were met with cold towels and complimentary drinks whilst checking in. The staff were informative and told us every thing we needed to know about the restaurants, shuttle bus, taxis etc. They had even booked us in for dinner that evening. We were taken to our suite one of four 'ocean view suites'. The room was well appointed with a large outdoor lounging area (day beds) with privacy curtains and an area for dining. During our stay we didnt use this area at all due to the positioning of these suites. Our four poster bed was one of the most comfortable I have ever slept in. The bathroom was large, with a whirlpool bath separate. A kitchen area with a fridge, tea/
coffee making facilties, crockery and glasses were also a very useful addition. (ask at the bar for the bottles of milk to keep in the fridge). There was also a separate lounge, with flat screen TV (slightly smaller than the one in the bedroom), sofa (bed) with access onto the patio. All areas were air-conditioned with soft lighting via standing and table lamps. We had two double wardrobes, drawers and a small library of books. Each evening turn-down services left ELEMIS samples and/or cakes/chocolates, and bottled water. We had fresh fruit every day and there was a waiting chilled bottle of champaign on our arrival. My only negative comments on the room were that it was not in any way an ocean view. Not even on tippytoe could you see the sea. During the day the suite was very dark due to being ground floor and facing north west and hence why the day bed area would rarely be used. However, it was a very warm cosy room in the evening due to the soft lighting and warm toned furnishings. Had the room not been so pleasant I would have complained about the ocean view.

The staff and operation of the hotel we could not fault. They went out of their way to accommodate your requests and always greeted you with a smile. The concierge staff were to be complimented. Breakfasts were good, although the food could do with being a bit hotter. We had one al a carte meal and this was very good food wise but the staff were struggling to cope service wise. The out door eating area was pleasant, though watch the high heels on the decking and negotiating the sand for the buffet. Well us ladies like to dress for the evening and I did eventually resort to flatty shoes to avoid a falling over carrying your dinner spectacle. The BBQ was the only meal that let the hotel down due to the food being undercooked.

We enjoyed our stay at this hotel and would recommend it for adults who want a quiet time, with a gentle evenings as the entertainment is limited and the inside bar area is very small should you need to be inside. Our biggest comment to the hotel management would be please, do something about the beach vendors. I was quite upset some days is the interruptions were constant and some would not take no for an answer. One 'gentleman' whilst my other half was off jetskiing came back and harranged me again about why i wouldnt buy anything and had i got out of the wrong side of the bed, why wouldnt i look at him. All I had said was 'no thank you' (about five times) and carried on reading my book. I found them quite stressfull.

A great little hotel, in a good area for 'shopping' and restaurants outside, with some really nice touches, good food (most of the time) and great staff. It is not the Sandy Lane but then again you get what you pay for and this was really good value for money. Well done Colony Club.