Worst. Honeymoon. Ever.

Something about this sounds “fishy”. It seems the resort went above and beyond to meet the Salamon’s demands. IMHO, they expected and were lead to believe they were getting one product and ended up with another. I think the responsibility lies with the consulant used at Am. Ex. I question how he can link the bed bugs and illness to the resort. No supporting information. I’m sure he had dined in other restaurants during the time period. They just had dreams of a certain honeymoon and didn’t get what they expected. I think they made their mind up leave shortly after they arrived and nothing was going to change that. I also think that the problems described would have been reported by other guest and on blogs.

Boy, I am not sure what my opinion is on this. Tripadvisor has this resort rated very highly, there are the normal bad comments, but you get that for all properties.

Anyone who has been to St Lucia knows that this is not a Vegas style island. I don’t think that other than downtown Cancun, there isn’t a resort area in the entire Caribbean that comes close the party atmosphere and attractions.

Paying $5,300 for a weeks stay? Did they do any homework at all? That was an insane amount to pay. Comparable properties it the Riviera Maya can be had for half that amount. They could have gotten a deluxe suite on a high end cruise ship for the week for that, with air fare.

Service standards for all inclusive properties in that part of the world leave a lot to be expected. Doesn’t matter if you are staying at a Sandals, Rui, Palace… the properties may be five star in apperance, but the food and service is more three star.

Also, it sounds like the manager remembered them very well. Offered to make them as happy possible with the resources he had at hand. but remembering them well is the key. I am sure there were plenty of other folks on the property that were having a great time, but they managed to stand out.

Regrettably bed bugs are a way of life for travelers now and are spreading like crazy. The resort can only try to control, but can’t guarantee that they didn’t hop into bed the bed you are now sleeping in with the guests luggage.

Service people don’t wash their hands across the world, yuk I know. This isn’t a Sandals issue either. Are they sure it wasn’t an airline catering employee that was the source of the contamination?

Are they unhappy, I am sure they were. Were other people happy at the same resort? tripadvisor certainly indicates that.

So my opinion, this was the case of caveat emptor. They rolled the dice on a very expensive vacation based on a recommendation of someone they had no personal relationship with and ended up in a place they didn’t like.

Should the get a full refund? I don’t think so. Sandals has been more than fair, they got more compensation that I would have expected in similar circumstances.

What they should have done was some homework first, and also booked with a travel agent they know and trust. I think they got themselves into this…

Honestly? If they wanted Vegas crossed with Disney World, they should have spent three days in Vegas and three at Disney. Really. Certainly, their travel agent didn’t do them any favors. Still, it sounds like the Sandals management tried to make them happy, but it looks like they weren’t in the mood to be happy. Personalized menus? That’s really going the extra mile.
The compensation has been more than fair.

First, this isn’t the worst honeymoon ever, by far – very misleading headline.

I supervised the customer service department for many years at a leisure travel wholesaler similar to Classic (now out of business) and can tell you that this is a very typical complaint for any Caribbean or Mexican hotel, from 1 to 5 stars. It is also VERY generous compensation. I have seen every complaint from “someone touched my vitamins” to “you didn’t tell me the sand was going to be dark” to “there were 3 ants on the sink” as well as real problems where people were robbed or treated badly by uncaring staff or had lost luggage their entire vacation. But 90% of the complaints were like this, people who paid more than they could afford and found out that Fantasy Island doesn’t exist. If you think this is the worst honeymoon ever, then you should find a way to see the hundreds of customer complaints that come into travel wholesalers on a daily basis.

If your honeymoon is important, and you are spending more than you can afford, then why would you trust a stranger on the other end of the phone line to make a recommendation after a one minute phone call and not do a minute or research yourself? (I am assuming they called Amex 800# and didn’t go into an office or speak to someone they had experience with.) So many complaints like this are due to people not taking responsibility for their decisions. It sounds like they are expecting their airfare to be refunded too, which is not reasonable. Did they call their travel agent while they were there and try to get moved to a different hotel? I’m sure Classic would have done that for them without a blink of an eye, it’s done all the time to satisfy people who don’t have a good fit with their hotel. Sandals probably would have driven them over there.

Most people are very satisfied with Sandals, and there is a ton of things to do. It’s been purposefully designed to meet the desires of couples looking for a romantic getaway, so making that recommendation on the phone to people you have no idea what they mean by “Disney & Vegas” sounds like a pretty safe bet. Activities are planned almost around the clock, and even watersports are included. The food is decent, the rooms spacious and clean, the beach is beautiful, there are several pools, and no children making noise. I’m guessing that the high price was due to a June peak honeymoon season combined with a top of the line suite that they splurged on. If they went this past June perhaps the resort was quiet from the recession? I don’t know, but usually there is dancing at night with live entertainment that can range from stupid to fun, but it changes every night.

If they wanted Vegas they should have thought to themselves ‘there is no gambling in St. Lucia so maybe we should go to Bahamas, Puerto Rico, or to Vegas or Disney!’ They didn’t specify what it was that wasn’t included that they expected, because really, Sandals includes pretty much everything. Did they think there would be rides like Disney? Did they look at one photo of the resort before they went? Since they turned down the offer for the city tour and spa treatments, which was also very generous, what else exactly did they want to do?

Bottom line: they were treated more than fairly, and they got back $3600, which is quite a lot, plus have some credits for future travel. They were compensated very fairly. My guess is that most of what they didn’t get back was for airfare ($850 per person? Could be, depending on where they were flying from).

A little research on the couple’s part before booking would have gone a long way here. It sounds like the resort did a lot to try to accomodate them. If there were medical problems because of the trip, provide the medical reports and maybe that will get something, but you can’t expect a full refund because you got bed bug bites without sending documentation of some kind.

I do hope that the Salamons are reading this article, and the comments thread. The opinions expressed in here are almost unanimous, and contain some excellent lessons:

1. Never just accept the recommendations of a travel agent blindly. Travel agents are, in the end, salespeople, and their sole purpose is to make the sale. PLUS, as Christopher pointed out, they are incentivized to sell particular properties, so their motivations for pushing one over another are not always based on what’s right for the customer, but what’s best for their own wallet. Not all travel agents are like this, but if you blindly call a large travel department like Amex, you are likely to get one who is more concerned with commissions than customer satisfaction…certainly more likely than if you walked into a local brick-and-mortar agency and developed a personal relationship with someone within your own community.

2. Never travel ANYWHERE without doing your own homework, so you know exactly what you are getting. That should be item #1 in any traveler’s list of travel-planning tasks . To just show up somewhere without having any clue what the place is like, what is included, or even the most BASIC concept of the region at all, is just irresponsible. While I agree that the TA was wrong to send them there based on their stated preference, did the Salamons not even bother to do a simple search on St. Lucia the island? It’s about as far away from Vegas and Disneyland as you can get.

3. Never book an expensive vacation without doing some comparison shopping. The list of wonderful places they could have gone for $5300/week is staggering! It sounds like they just went to the first place recommended by some faceless TA on the phone…and they can’t figure out why they didn’t like it? They had no idea where they were going!

Frankly I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the Salamons. They seem to have handed off all the decisions for one of the most important trips of their life to a stranger. Yes, a *professional* stranger – but in this day and age you can’t just assume that any professional you encounter is going to have your best interests in mind. In fact, the truth is the majority of professionals in any kind of sales capacity have their OWN best interests in mind. That’s just the way of a free market.

To be fair, I suspect this couple are very young, and this was their first experience planning their own big trip. (I hope so, because if this is an older couple with some travel experience, then they have no excuse whatsoever!) Young people often haven’t been indoctrinated into the harsh realities of a free economy…they are prone to accepting what someone in “authority” tells them, and don’t realize that sales people aren’t your friend – they are just trying to sell you something. It sounds like this might be what happened here. I hope that they learned their lesson, as expensive as it was, and in the future will take some responsibility for their own vacations, instead of handing it all off to a stranger at the end of a 1-800 line.

As for a refund, my personal opinion is that they already got back more than most people would have, based on their complaints. The reality is that the resort gave them exactly what they were sold – they just didn’t like what they were sold. (Heck, they didn’t even KNOW what they were sold!) The bed bugs and illness thing – I’m not convinced, especially, as others have pointed out, because the bed bug bites didn’t show up until later. Did they spend any time on the beach? Could have been sand fleas, which do exist all across the Caribbean.

One last comment: based on their description of preferences and complaints, I would suggest they take a Royal Caribbean cruise. That is about as close as they’re gonna get to Vegas and Disneyland together, without going to Vegas and Disneyland.

Unfortunatly, I dont think this guy should get a full refund for his vacation. I think it would be in the best interest for the resort in question to give a full refund on account of bedbugs, and herpangina getting out could cause alot of people going elsewhere instead of taking a chance.
However if this guy wants a full refund he needs to get medical documentation of the herpangina and proof that it most likely came from the hotel staff as well as pictures proving its bedbugs.

@Chris in NC – I’m with you…to a point: I would place the blame equally on the travel agent and the couple themselves. I have to agree with Merlin that they should have done their own homework. Who goes on a honeymoon and doesn’t even bother to do even the slightest bit of research? A simple google search would have shown them that St. Lucia is pretty much the antithesis of Vegas/Disney.

But the travel agent completely blew her professional responsibility, and I do believe that they are entitled to some compensation just for that. There is a fiduciary duty to her clients, which she violated by sending them somewhere that is the complete opposite of what they asked for. AMEX bears some responsibility for that.

However, I think they’ve met that. I agree with you and other commenters in here that they have already received all the compensation they deserve. I hope they take their $3600 and go on a nice trip somewhere. Maybe to Vegas and Disneyland? ;-)

@Merlin – I too hope they are reading this, and have learned something — mainly, to NOT just trust some sales rep that you talk to on the phone, to have your best interests at heart. Especially for something as important as a honeymoon. Caveat emptor!

@Jennifer ” I believe it may have all the more to do with the rain than anything else.”

That’s EXACTLY the impression I got when hearing the resort’s response. The resort sounded very accommodating (pardon the pun) but the Salamons had already decided they wanted to leave and would exagerate any complaint to make it happen.

@my fellow readers

I really believe that most of you have traveled so often and for so long that we have forgotten what it is to be an inexperienced traveler. The level of sophistication that we would be expected to exhibit comes from these years of frequent travel. I’ve been traveling since I was 5, and I suspect most of you as well.

Most of us here know to check Tripadvisor, but then to use its reviews with some amount of suspicion. Most of us know to use google, and flyertalk and other resources to maximize the likelihood that our trips will be error free

But most folks are not travelers and do not read travel blogs like this one. Leisure travelers travel once a year if so often.

Knowing that he is a newbie, I submit that the OP did the only rational thing; He consulted a travel professional and took his or her advice. I’ve used Amex travel once. They can be some pushy bastards. One agent berated me for choosing American at $2800 over United at $5500 for an international leisure trip because American had a layover.

I would also remind you that this is a honeymoon. The OP presumably has a job that he goes to every day, plus is planning a wedding with his wife, and we want him to then second guess his travel agent and do due diligence in an area he is obviously not seasoned in.

Let’s cut the newbies some slack.

@Carver – you have a point. And given that this was their honeymoon, I think it’s likely they are also very young.

That said, I still maintain that their $3600 refund is sufficient. They did travel to, and spend two nights at, a beautiful resort on a Caribbean island. It clearly wasn’t what they wanted, but they do have to assume at least SOME responsibility for not having the slightest clue where they were going. And I have to also agree with some others that the fact that it rained the entire time they were there played a role in their dissatisfaction.

Sometimes lessons cost money. This was not a cheap one. I’d be willing to bet they won’t make this mistake again, and the next time they plan a trip they will do some research on it.

But they now have a nice fat chunk of change for a second honeymoon. $3600 is nothing to sneeze at, and can buy a pretty nice consolation trip.

@LeeAnn: “And given that this was their honeymoon, I think it’s likely they are also very young.”

But the generation 30 and younger is basically glued to technology with information at the fingertips. This isn’t 30 years ago when the Internet wasn’t around…today’s generation uses technology basically every day. Even if they never planned a vacation before, you would think that they would know how to research for themselves and read about a place before putting down such a large amount of money.

@Jen – you will not hear me argue! I am fully in agreement. I’m just trying to display at least a little bit of understanding of their predicament. But you can definitely count me among the vast majority in here who cast a large percentage of the blame on the couple themselves.

I need to clarify my position a little.

I don’t think that the resort did anything wrong and I don’t lay any blame on them. Accordingly, I’m not addressing those issues.

My issue is solely with the travel agency. It was paid to perform a service and if the OP is to be believed, the TA failed in that service.

That seeems to me to far outweigh any lack of diligence on the OPs part.

My vibe is that these are extremely inexperienced travelers. For $5300 there are so many amazing once in a lifetime things a young couple could do on their honeymoon. The fact that they booked using a generic AMEX 800-number and the fact that Sandals in St. Lucia sounded like a great honeymoon experience (and $5300 a good price) really tells us all we need to know regarding this couples’ breadth of travel experience.

With that being said, the more I think about it the more I feel AMEX travel totally messed up … but I still feel Mr. Salamon, if he’s old enough to get married and carry and American Express card, should be old enough to know that a salesperson only gets paid to make “sales” – not satisfy a customer.

Mr. Salamon should use this as a learning experience. Him finding this web site is a great jumping off point – and I bet when he plans his next vacation there will be a ton of web searching and investigation involved.

Sounds like this couple is full of sh#t!
They were very gererously compensated!

Sound to me like the chonic complainers we in the travel business know all too well. Sandals went above and beyond what was required of them to make these two happy and the “Honeymooners” were determined to be miserable no matter what. All I can say is, they deserve each other and god help their neighbors.

Hi Everyone,

I’m the Adam in this story. Let me set a few things straight. I’m a very experienced business traveler and went to American Express on the recommendation of others. Unfortunately, I should have done what I usually do and booked everything myself. AMEX insisted that the food, entertainment and hospitality here would be second to none. Obviously it wasn’t.

Sandals never requested any documentation from me. I have pictures of the bug bites and a doctor’s report for the illness.

My complaint here isn’t with the price I paid. I am more than capable of the cost and I was told by AMEX that this was an amazing price and amazing location. A quick check of the Sandals website confirmed we were paying less than their web price by over $1500. I freely admit that I haven’t traveled to the islands before. That’s why I went to a travel agent!

For those who think I’m just complaining or just trying to get my money back, you’re wrong. I already paid out an additional $2000 to take my wife on a real honeymoon to Vegas and lived it up. I’m upset about the treatment I received and I want to know why AMEX seems to think that they went “above and beyond”. I’ve been jerked around for months by them and each person I talk to continues to perpetuate lies about what actually happened.

Thanks for all of the comments and thoughts. Thank you Chris for bringing this to the light for more people.

Adam; thanks for your response. I am so glad that you finally got the honeymoon you deserved. Good health and luck in your marriage. the Amex travel agent was not truthful. To tell you the truth I would have been furious at that lie; promising you eveything was second to none forget it.Atlantis in the Bahammas has been rated as excellent.Iate there several times,and the food was just ok. The agent should have come with something that met your exectations ;not sent you to Sandals. Try sending your medical report to Sandals and see how they respond

Katie and Adam; I just read several about 50 reviews in Trip Advisor, the excellent as well as not so excellent. Several did mention bed bugs. Also I do believe Sandals lied to you. They advertise no tipping- joke. As far as the service ,even in best reviews not great. Overall the total rating was 78 percent; not the best not the worst. For that price Iwould be very upset. You and your husband are fairly upscale. No way is this an upscale vacation at all. If you wanted to escape the freezing winters up north possibly.

If you intend on using travel agents in the future instead of making your own plans, I’d recommend trying a brick and mortar one in your community. Despite the advent of the Internet, there are still plenty out there.

Instead of talking to someone at the end of an 800-number, you can sit with somebody face to face and talk about the kind of vacation experience you want. You can then research the suggestions together before you book. Ideally you’ll build a rapport with this specific agent and eventually he/she will be able to read you like a book. That being said, until you have that level of trust and rapport built up – do your own research!

Mazal tov on your marriage – and I wish you lots of pleasurable vacations in your future together.

@Jesse – This AMEX travel office is a brick and mortar site. They’ve been there for over 20 years too.

@Everyone else – Our lesson is certainly learned as far as travel agents go. Fool me once… We’ll be sticking with what’s worked in the past; asking around and booking it ourselves. To clarify about our “compensation” that is being referred to. That was from my credit card company, none of these merchants have compensated us AT ALL, not a single penny.

And thank you all for the congratulations :-)

The Salamon’s were at the resort for 42 hours.

The Salamon’s contacted the Cherry Hill American Express office 4 times prior to leaving St. Lucia and when Sue Hefner from the Cherry Hill American Express Office called back, the call last less than 4 minutes. What could she have said, other than listening to Adam and then stating, “They have to wait for Betty to return to the office as she was out on medical leave.”

Sue then referred them to Sandra Lito, Regional Manager, American Express, who did not care that she had not been given all of the facts nor cared that Sue Hefner or Betty did not provide her with all of the facts. Sandra Lito could only state,
1) They did not try to call the Cherry Hill American Express Office
FACT: The 4 phone calls from Adam’s cell phone to that office are listed on his cell phone bill, so is their one call back to him several hours later. Sandra also did not want a copy of the cell phone bill.

2) They should have called the 800 # on the back of their American Express card.
FACT : They do not have an American Express card. Sandra Lito just did not seem to understand, “They do not have that credit card”

3) Sue and Betty told her the Salamon’s never spoke to Winston Anderson (GM Sandals St. Lucia. FACT: Prior to leaving the resort, Winston Anderson provided a letter stating they were leaving the resort. Sandra Lito did not want a copy of that either as Sue and Betty told her the Salamon’s did not talk to anyone prior to leaving the resort.

I think after 2 months of frustation with the Cherry Hill American Express Office of Sue Hefner, Betty and Sandra Lito, they wrote letters to the CEO of American Express, Customer Service American Express in New York and Unique Vacations (owners of Sandals) only to get no where thus turning to Elliot as a last resort.

Beg Bugs – there are pictures, Did I mention that Sandra Lito, Regional Manager American Express, said, “You’re an experienced travelor, beg bugs are something that we have to put up with now.” Can you imagine that !

When you sit down with a travel professional and described your ideal vacation, one does not expect to wind up on a vacation that one didn’t want. It is apparent that Betty did not do her job, she just didn’t care as long as she made her commission. I think the Betty needs to return her commission she earned from the sale of this vacation back to Adam Salamon as she certainly did not do her job as a travel professional.

@Simon – I’m guessing you aren’t a business traveller based on your comments. Business travel doesn’t involve fun in the sun, just conference rooms and a lot of airports. There seems to be some confusion here. I’m not complaining about the cost, I was willing to pay it then and would still be willing to pay it if I got what I paid for. I also don’t remember talking about my income I, unlike far too many, know how to save for something I want. The point is that I was taken advantage of and I shouldn’t have to pay for services that weren’t rendered. I’m sorry you feel that I’m bragging or scamming, I’m not sure where you got that impression.