Colony Club, a Luxury Collection Resort, Barbados

We come to Barbados often and visit hotels up and down the island. We visited Colony club many times before the renovation, and visited in September’25 we were impressed with the renovations and the food and looked forward to visiting again when it would be busier. Tonight Oh my word terrible !! The staff were not interested or friendly they do not want to be there - stood around talking and ignoring customers and the drinks were not drinkable !! 5 drinks 151$$ Bds The hotel had no atmosphere what so ever it was dead !!!!!! Not what you would expect at the busiest time of year - Absolutley awful

Facilities, landscaping, pools, beach

A bit pricey, hot tub

The ambience, the hotel staff, staff on the beach bar.

That outside visitors could walk into the beach lounge area and use the loungers without any restrictions.

We just completed a 2-night stay at the Colony Club, a Marriot Luxury Collection property, before a Ritz Carlton cruise departing out of Barbados. I am debating if this is a really good 3.5-star property or a bad 4-star property. The Good • Rooms - The rooms are recently renovated and quite nice and, for the most part, well thought out. We had a pool room and could go down a set of stairs and go into a pool right out our back door. Bedding was first class even the pillows were really good. Big shower and bathroom. • Check In and bell service – Both excellent. • People – The staff was friendly but not very efficient. • Location-Very easy to go to Holetown with many good restaurants (we really enjoyed Nisshi). The Not So Good • Beach/Pool Service – It is nonexistent. Typically, when we are staying at nicer beach resorts, they set up your chairs with towels when you arrive. Not at all the case here. We got to the beach, found chairs and then went to find towels. When we found them, we got the last 2 to put on our chairs and no more were added until much later in the day. Later, in the day guests were unstacking and moving their own beach chairs to where space was available as staff looked on. At a minimum, have enough beach/pool towels. No beach food and beverage service seemed to exist. They did one time in the five hours we were on the beach bring around frozen grapes which was nice, but there did not appear to be any beach or food service. You can go up to the bar and get your own drinks and take them back to your chairs (very 3 star). • Lunch at the restaurant beside the beach – It was impressively disorganized. There seemed to be no order as to who was responsible for which tables. It took 15 minutes to get drinks after we were seated. My husband actually went to the bar to get another drink because it took so long to get the first and no one seemed to notice our glasses were empty. When he got the bill, they charged us for the drinks he got and paid for at the bar since they were on the table. They removed the charge but this was typical of the experience. In all fairness, the food was pretty good. The breakfast buffet was pretty good. But again, inattentive service and all they had to do was fill our water glasses. Staff would benefit from some extensive training and some efficient processes put in place. My husband and I each have Ambassador status with Marriott and are very loyal to the brand. However, this hotel is supposed to be the nicest Marriott property on the island and it is lacking anything that feels like a luxury feel from a service perspective. Next time we would choose a different hotel brand for Barbados. The Coral Reef Club next door looked very much up to par.

Last time in Barbados we stayed at Fairmont which I thought was a lovely hotel but we wanted to try something different for this trip. Colony Club used to be independent, they closed for renovations and reopened in September as Luxury Collection brand but to be honest it's more in-between Autograph and LC, in other words they are not yet at luxury level. Some features are luxury such as the quality of the room but they messed it up with a split air conditioning unit. The hotel common areas are nice and look luxury. Some parts of the service are indeed better than at Fairmont, for example the General Manager came to greet us when we were feeding fish with children and he offered to take our family picture. But some other aspects fall short. For example there is no a la carte menu for breakfast and a very small cramped area for the buffet. Breakfast ends at 10am which is way too early for a resort of this nature and some items ran out at 9:30am and not replenished. Some staff are inadequately trained, I appreciated the bottle of champagne as welcome gift but they did not serve it in an ice bucket. So we had a warm bottle and it had been recently significantly shaken because as soon as I half untwisted the metal cord, the cork exploded. This ain't a bottle of red wine folks... But for me the biggest drawback was the upgrade as Bonvoy Ambassador Elite. The resort is built in the opposite direction of Fairmont in the sense that at Fairmont all rooms face the ocean and the hotel is built on a long waterfront property, but at Colony Club most rooms are inland and only a handful are at the far end of the resort and close to the water. Due to scarcity, they decided that their highest room category are the rooms near the ocean, ahead of suites inland. This is what they upgraded us to: we had second closest room to the ocean so very close but the view was still partially blocked by trees and nowhere near as good as Fairmont, where even standard rooms are so close to the water, in fact the closest to the water line as I have ever seen of any hotel in the world, it's quite unique. At Colony Club I cannot see any kind of upgrade which would make me feel I have a better room than anything I could have at Fairmont regardless if I get an upgrade there or not. It's that extreme.

Beautiful location on the west coach. Fantastic pool and general setting. Rooms are all refurbished to a nice standard. Peaceful beach setting to enjoy the sunsets.

Food still falls behind the quality of the hotel. Thankfully a lot of lovely restaurants in the area, but would be nice to enjoy more meals in the hotel. Expensive menu and average quality. Would suggest some bbq evenings to encourage guests to stay in with a good atmosphere. Lunch menu is good and enjoyable. Drinks are also quite expensive for what they are (despite being on Barbados where you expect higher prices).

We returned recently from an 8 night stay at Colony Club, our favourite hotel on the west coast. We first went there in 2007 and have returned many times since. First I feel I must mention the lovely staff. After the long closure for renovation, we were so pleased to see so many again who we remembered and who remembered us. We had such a warm welcome. We were afraid that many might have moved on. The extensive renovation is, we think, fantastic. The guest rooms - we had a garden view junior suite - are really beautiful, a lovely fresh new look, even down to the pretty china and kettles. Nice new re-designed bathrooms too. The Laguna restaurant and reception area look particularly good with the black and white tiled flooring and large pot plants around. The staff were pleased that we loved it, which was nice, they are obviously proud of it. Food is good - it always has been - and it's nice to know that they use their own 'home grown' produce. We actually dined in every evening, we have been out to so many restaurants in the past and couldn't be bothered booking restaurants and getting taxis as we were unfortunately only there 8 days and no hire car this time. There was entertainment every evening too, a singer or saxophonist - who was excellent. Happy hour between 4 pm and 6 pm has finished. Now it's 2 drinks for the price of one between 5 pm and 6 pm., although of course that could change. As far as I know that would be beer and cocktails, not wine. Colony Club is one of the few remaining hotels which is not all inclusive on the west coast. It is also the most reasonably priced, except perhaps for high season (Christmas to Easter), when prices everywhere go through the roof. We think it's the prettiest, with the beautifully landscaped gardens, freeform pools and lovely casuarina tree lined beach. The Sunset Deck beside the beach is great for watching the sunsets, drinking and dining. But it was a shame that the torches are no longer lit in the evening, maybe a safety issue with the parasols and trees. We would highly recommend this lovely and friendly hotel.

Having stayed many times in Barbados, I found this hotel by far the best, over the years,  I paid a brief visit this time to the other 5star hotels, none of them lived up to the overall quality of the colony. The manager, Alex, is especially good, and it shows from the very first meeting.  The staff all excellent throughout, including Wayne the head chef Overall, the refurbishment is great, with a few minor issues that will undoubtedly be fixed as soon as possible.

Overall it’s a nice hotel but there are issues. We really enjoyed our stay but doubt we would return. Firstly the good stuff. The gardens are stunning and beautifully maintained. There are several pools with planting around them. If you’re lucky you may get to see a monkey or two. The beach is decent and the reef just off the beach is amazing with a wide variety of reef fish, including a shoal of about 1,000 blue tangs. Take your snorkels! The free water sports are good - sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding. We also did a fantastic boat trip on the Calabaza. The hotel is only a 10 minute walk to Holetown with a big supermarket, gift shops and restaurants. On the whole the staff were very friendly but some of them lacked much knowledge about the hotel and activities, notably at Reception. I only saw someone at the Concierge desk twice in 12 days. The Rum Vault may be pricey but combines a rum education (by the excellent Corey) with 4 delicious cocktails and a gourmet meal. We also did the mixology class (with the fabulous Sherfilia) - US$40 each to make, and of course drink, a lot of cocktails. Much cheaper than the bar!! Now for the not so good. Our room was near tall trees at the back of the resort so was quite dark and the balcony was swarming with mosquitoes. Take bug spray. There is only one restaurant even though the website gives the impression that there are several. It’s expensive, on a par with the high end local restaurants, but not great quality (either in terms of food or service). Book outside - The Tides was our favourite but Lonestar, QP Bistro and Paul Owens were all good. In case you aren’t familiar with Barbados it is very expensive especially when the GBP is weak against the USD. Breakfast is ok but the servery area is half the size it needs to be so it’s always a scrum. They also charge for “speciality coffees”, so despite paying £40 for breakfast you have to pay another £6 for a machine made cappuccino. They offer activities but we only found out by accident after a few days as they don’t market them at all. The gym is small but thankfully I managed to get on a running machine every time I went. So all in all, a great venue but a few tweaks would make it better.

Here’s a tidied-up version of your review: --- I visited the Colony Club over 15 years ago for dinner and enjoyed the best mojito. More recently, we stayed for a week after the refurbishment and absolutely loved our experience! The staff were helpful and friendly, particularly attentive to young families. One guest in a wheelchair struggled with mobility, but the staff treated them with dignity and support, assisting them to the beach and restaurant. Our room was beautiful, and the gardens and pool were well-maintained. My only minor concern was that you need to get up early (around 6:30 AM) to secure a lounger on the beach, and there was a bit of hassle from individuals offering trips. Breakfast was good, but the buffet area was relatively small and could get chaotic when busy, especially near the omelette and hot food stations. Nevertheless, the restaurant staff were super attentive. I also found the all-day menu could use more creativity. As a Bonvoy member, I didn’t feel we were treated any differently or offered an upgrade (which we would have paid for), but we were satisfied with our garden view room. We were fortunate to be there on Independence Day and enjoyed Bajan-inspired options and an incredible steel band. Thank you to the amazing staff; we look forward to visiting again! --- Feel free to let me know if you would like any more