We have visited Barbados 8 times, and previously stayed at The Sandy Lane or Royal Pavillion. We just returned from a week at The Crane where I booked a 2 bedroom oceanfront suite. We arrived to no welcome, no rum punch, and no orientation. The elevator to our room in The Palmetto building was in need of cleaning. The rooms did not have adequate air conditioning. The bathrooms had extremely poor lighting and the cheapest and smallest of towels. There was no turn down service or bottled water. Two of three toilets did not work well enough. Some batroom windows needed serious cleaning. There were no pool attendants for set up services or food or drink services. Each guest is only allowed one towel, so once you use it for chair coverage you are at a loss for how to dry after a swim. Everywhere we walked we saw some sign of disrepair...workers, machines, orange net fencing. It would seem maintenance should be preformed prior to the beginning of tourist season. On Wednesday we were left a note from management that there would be a planned maintenance on our building for Thanksgiving Day...therefore, no water from 9 to 5. As it turned out we had no hot water all day that Thursday, through 1:00 the following day when we checked out. Had I been told about this planned maintenance when I booked the trip I would not have chosen this resort. Hot water is not a luxury it is a basic provision.

Restaurant service and food were spotty, though Janell was of great service at breakfast. I had requested a birthday mention for Thursday evening, but it was totally forgotten. The best restaurants are not on this side of the island. To travel to the east side is a cab fare of $40 each way.

The resort is situated in a beautiful spot and both the ocean and pool water were enjoyable. The pools could have been better maintained, however.

Overall, I could not recommend this property. It is in serious need of management and maintenance to a higher standard. Though rooms were spacious and staff was friendly, this just could not over compensate for all the shortcomings.

My wife and I stayed with some friends at The Crane for two nights this November because it was recommended by many both local to Barbados or from where we're traveling in Canada. Their advice was spot on, here's our quick review:

Check-in: A breeze. We had our room keys within minutes and were rum-punched up (super good) immediately.

Pools: Absolutely lovely. There are 5+ pools located on multiple levels of the grounds. The bedding beside the pools was selectively placed with adequate amounts of shade and sun (for whatever your looking). Some of the pools also had spectacular views of the ocean. There were no swim-up-bars, but the restaurant beside the top pool was close enough to provide any libations.

Grounds: The grounds are nothing short of gorgeous. The mix of new-style architected buildings plus old-style made the feel of the resort quite nice. The large (20+ person) whirlpool in the midst of the open four walled structure overlooking the ocean ... wow! We also really enjoyed the "town-like" feel of the buildings where the restaurants and open air bar are located. The bar was great, but very quiet and could have used a bit more room or livelier music to draw in people. Even a pool table, dart board or another form of entertainment was something we chatted about while enjoying a glass of wine.

Restaurants: L'Azure was fabulous, the food outstanding, and the view even better. Zen was excellent, but coming from a Sushi-laden location we call home, the prices caused minor heartattacks. It's definitely worth trying as the food quality is amazing.

Beach: The beach is beautiful. Although it's a public beach, access to it isn't just a quick park and a stroll for the locals so it's typically more of a tourist beach for the resort. An elevator ride or quick jaunt down the stairs and you arrive at a white sand, fairly quiet beach. The waves on this south east coast of the island can get a little rough so be prepared to go to battle if you hop in for a quick dip. My wife lost a bathing suit (R.I.P.) to a rogue wave that frantically had me pulling up her bottoms and doing the "uh what do I do" cover up of her top before a second rogue indulged us with a greeting. Suggest you get the rum punch drinks out of fresh fruit on the beach. They're quite strong, but very, very tasty!

Room: We stayed in a ground level room (2 bedroom) a bit further back from the beach that included a secluded plunge pool and whirlpool, plus outdoor gazebo area. We made use of it during both days of our stay and enjoyed the stars at night. Truly relaxing over a bottle of champagne! The living room and bed room both opened up to the outdoors and made for a great fresh air feel. The second bedroom included two single beds and absolutely no decor whatsoever. We felt that a little odd. The suite included a full kitchen/dining area as well, which was quite convenient.

Note, the mosquitos here are a real pain in the butt, so bring bug repellant en masse. That would probably be our biggest gripe about the resort to be honest.

Would we go back? Yes. We'd try a beach-front, ground level 1 or 2 bedroom with pool for our next trip.

We just came back from an eight day stay at The Crane Residential Resort in Barbados. This was our first time going to Barbados and our first time staying at The Crane, but it will not be our last. The Crane resort is just beautiful, sitting on the cliff about 65 feet above the very blue Atlanta Ocean. We played in the amazing clear blue water and surf for hours everyday and sleep like a babies, in our one bedroom ocean front suite (unit 934) after a day at one of the best Beaches in the World. We would just spend hours sitting out on our balcony looking at the ocean. The Crane has one, two and three bedroom units starting with the older 100 building which is the original hotel from the 1900's which is beautiful but does not have central air. Next are the eight newer (2005/6) building (200’s-900’s) that are each 4 stories tall and all face the Atlanta Ocean. The newer build all look like they are all from the 1900's but with stainless steel kitchens, six piece travertine baths and old world mahogany furniture’s this units are incredible. There is some updating work going on at the Crane when we were there, to improve the look of the resort and customer services but all work was done when we were at the beach. The Crane also has some a few units in what is called the Park that are not Ocean front units, but very nice building 1000-1200.
Next service, the customer service and work ethic of the whole staff at the Crane is truly unbelievable, from the General Manager down to the beach staff everyone worked to make our stay at the Crane the best Week of our Lives.
Food, There are four great restaurants at the resort, first for breakfast there is the Sunday Gospel Breakfast at L’Azure, outstanding food and music over looking the Ocean. Next for lunch there is the Carriage House and it has fresh fish and sandwiches at the top of the ridge, overlooking the resort and ocean. For dinner there is Zen’s (Japanese/Thai), L’Azure (international and the best seafood) and D’Onofrios (Italian). We also when to other restaurants in the town of Oistins on Wed/Friday for Seafood (checkout Pat’s, the line is long but the food is worth it. Cutter’s also is just down the beach from the Crane for lunch and dinner and the food at the Harbour lights is also great.
To make a long story short, the eight days we spend in Barbados at the Crane what one of the best weeks of my life and I what to personal thank everyone at the Crane, our driver Cat m.h.k.ktaxiservice@hotmail.com and the people of Barbados for everything they did for us.
Thankyou
Keith De Cay
629-A Boulevard NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
Keithdecay@aol.com

The property is breathtaking, on a hilltop along the ocean. Ocean views from many rooms and from common outdoor areas. A large property in a gated community, with a beautiful beach (small, but lovely) below on the north end of the property. We stayed in the "historic hotel" section, in a 2 bedroom suite that was oddly configured (lockout bedroom but you can't lock the whole suite from the outside). The shower in the master suite was completely broken on checkin, someone came to look on Sunday and said it needed a part they didn't have but it would be fixed Monday. It didn't get fixed until Tuesday and we left Wednesday. By the time the shower was repaired we realized there wasn't enough hot water to last a full shower. But we had a lovely view from the balcony and were able to shower in our friend's bedroom. Their toilet didn't work too well. We met people in an adjoining room who didn't have air conditioning, so I was thankful that ours was working.

The restaurants were not bad, we preferred Azure for food and views - we had a few excellent meals there. We had one "ok" meal at Zen, most things were fine but the lobster was very overcooked. We got several apologies but were charged full freight. Lunch at the Carriage House was fine, nothing special, but the views from there are also stunning and worth it.

Checkin was an ordeal. They served us lovely rum punches (the best we've ever had), but we could still tell time.

The beach elevator was out of service the first day we arrived, but was back in service after that. Power went out in the coffee shop the next day so no coffee. The General Store onsight is fine for basics and beverages.

The beach is public but security guards keep the local hustlers within limits during the day. I would have loved to go down for a walk at night but didn't feel quite safe without the gendarmes.

There is almost nothing to do at night. There's a lovely indoor/outdoor pub but any entertainment (minimal while we were there) shuts down at 10 pm.

There was construction noise outside our room several days, waking us earlier than we'd have liked.

Still, despite all the negatives, we had a lovely, relaxing, romantic getaway.