overall i liked waves. my friend and i were allocated a standard beachfront room 214. this is an amazing room. very large. a small double and a queen size bed. balcony and uniterupted views of the carribean sea which was absolutely fantastic. lovey sandstone bathroom with multi-shower j ets and toiletries from the white company no less. i think the lady that owns the hotel is british and it shows. the rooms are decorated in a modern boutique style kind of like "next" modern and comfortable.lovely beds and good pillows and beautifull high thread count sheets. understated luxury. a note on rooms. they vary widely and its not about cost. its the build of the hotel. i saw other rooms and i did not like them as much as our standard beachfront room. it was truly lovely.some of the views are really not very good. for example overlooking a mouldy looking pool on the beach side of the hotel and the generators are very poor views but we had a standard room and it was fab. i did not mind the street views as i find this interesting seeing the locals and traffic quite fun. you have a fridge which is stocked with soft drinks and bottled water. a kettle.cups and saucers and good instant coffee etc. you have cut glass decanters with vodka and rum. a lovey touch

anather odd thing about the rooms. my daughter was given a duplex room. these are in my opinion the worst room in the hotel. they are very very small nearly a third smaller than some of the standard rooms so dont pay the extra. you are not necesarily facing the sea and like i said some views are not nice. with the duplex you have an upstairs which is a real waste of space. you do have a sink and a sofa but the space detracts from the room it does not add to it.
housekeeping was good and the staff lovely. nice ladies give them a tip they work very hard. one note i would like to see more mopping as sand is difficult to shift but other than that towels are replaced daily. the blue/white ones are beach towels a nice touch.

food was ok. not gourmet (west is the best a'la carte at waves) smallish portions but you could order as much as you wanted which we did. my daughter had noodles and no-one is going to tell me that the noodles were not the dried flavoured type for 12p a packet no-one lol.

the italian was not good. someone reviwed on here earlier that the antipasto had spam in it ....she was right. it looked ok but it was spam lol. the pizza bases were thin like a water buscuit and there was no cheese just a light dusting so very uninpressed. the meat pasta sauce was quite dreadfull. tooo sweet. no herbs just a sweet red mass! overall the dinner buffet was actually a lot better. fish fried to order and lots of it. macaroni cheese,curries,stews,fresh veg and some nice desserts in paticularly the custard and apple crumble just like homemade beautifully . met the lovely pastry chef this adorable lovely lady. actually quite typical of all the staff barring the management but more of that later.
i would class the food as home made comfort food. i quite liked most of it its not pretending to be anything other than that. breakfast was bufftet again adequate and omlettes made to order as are fried eggs sausages and bacon. fresh fruit, cereal etc oh and pancakes and syrup. like i said comfort food, we all put on a lot of weight at waves lol

beach is lovely. everyone enjoyed it. the beaches in barbados are all public but the locals are very very respectfull. they dont bother you like in jamaica so no need to worry. there were enough loungers and some lovely beds on a pretty decking area but we were there in late september not exactly high season so...

the management and some staff. management need to be more high profile as when you have a problem everyone is deaf dumb and blind as to who you should approach. we had an issue where the room allocated was grossly unsuitable for some of our party and we were fobbed off when they refused to cahnge the room. it actually spoilt my holiday as i felt that i could not trust the hotel to manage the situation proffessionally. took a week to sort it out. left a bad taste in my mouth. the allocations manager was trying to be cute by saying thats the room you paid for but as i had to reply to her that you dont know what you are going to get until you get there. the ,problem was regarding the duplex room with one bed, inadequate storage and floor space which for some odd reason she thought two women not related to each each other should share a bed with a baby. not good at all.

spa: had an incident with a very very rude girl working at the spa. she sucked her teeth when i came for my massage. not a good start. i was offered a glass of water which i declined (obviously) i left without having my massage as i felt it would not be nice. by accidet when i left saw the spa manager. a very nice polite and proffessional lady who arrnged for me to have my massage on anather day with anather therapist. it was TRULY AMAZING. i loved every minute of it thank you. i also found some of the concierge staff not helpfull at all. ALL the other hotel staff were lovely. hard working,polite and attententive. the chap who helped with the cases,the bar staff, the cooks that worked in tremendous heat (bless) the waitresses and waiters. all were lovely a++++

all in all i loved waves. its not an all inclusive resort like the bahamas,cuba or jamaica. its in a small tropical island and tbh you go to barbados to experience barbados. barbados has quite small hotels. you are not barricaded in the hotel because you can go outside (jamaica take note) as its such a lovely safe island. this is your base. it does not have a gym and i did not like the look of one of the pools tbh. but you get all your meals (food is very very expensive here in barbados) so are drinks so it still pays to do all inclusive. its a very british clubby kind of hotel which i liked. what an amazing lot of people we brits are. the entertainment is very low key but fun but be prepared to be in bed by 10.30. manage your expectation this is a relaxing lux hotel not an international resort. have fun chill and enjoy a lovely stay at the waves hotel st james barbados!