Sandals Butler Service

Sandals Butler Service: Is It Worth It?

By Erik Ritland | Updated on May 6, 2025

After zeroing in on the perfect Sandals Resort destination, you might be thinking about splurging on a Butler Suite to make your special occasion truly unforgettable.

The Butler Level suites are the most lavish accommodations Sandals has to offer with spacious layouts and spectacular views. This room category takes 5-star luxury to a whole new level with your personal butler to tend to your every beck and call.

But the first question that always comes to mind is “is it worth it”?

As a Certified Sandals Specialist who has stayed in several Butler Suites from Jamaica to St. Lucia, and beyond, I’ll share my first hand experience on what you can expect with the Butler Elite service to help decide if it’s right for you.

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    What Is Butler Elite Service At Sandals

    When you make a booking in any of the Sandals Butler Elite Level suites, it will come with personal butler service. Picture someone who anticipates your desires, and solves any issues, before you even know you needed it. The butlers are in fact trained by the Guild Of Professional English Butlers to ensure the highest standards when meeting your preferences. Of course, having a butler is not for everyone, but getting a suite in this category ensures that every detail is very personalized for your romantic getaway.

    What’s The Difference Between Butler And Club Level At Sandals

    There are three room categories at Sandals Resorts: Sandals Luxury, Club Level, and Butler Elite. Sandals Luxury are the entry level rooms that have the most affordable pricing.  Club Level rooms will come with some additional perks like Club Sandals access, and generally have higher end accommodations and better views than the Luxury Level rooms. While Butler Elite is the highest category that offers the most luxurious rooms with personal butler service.

    I recommend comparing the different Sandals Resort locations, because it can be possible to get a Butler Level suite at one location for the price of a Club Level room at another location. That said, no matter which room category you choose, the all-inclusive benefits like dining, premium liqueurs, airport transfers, entertainment, unlimited water sports, and so much more will be available to you at no additional cost.

    What Does Sandals Butler Service Include

    Sandals Royal Barbados Rolls Royce Transfers
    There are plenty of advantages that come with booking a Butler Elite Suite.  During your stay, your butler will handle everything from arrival until departure. When you check in you are given a small phone to communicate with them for any requests you have. Here are some of my favorite benefits you will enjoy with the help of your butler.

    Pre Arrival Butler Preferences

    • You will submit a list of preferences before your trip so your butler is prepared for your arrival.  The account login for your butler preferences can be found on the Sandals website here. 
    • I highly recommend taking advantage of the preference form before arrival. This includes categories like food and beverage preferences, activities, room setup, special requests, and communication style. 
    • Your preferences should be specific so that the butler can make sure they are met.

    Upon Arrival At Sandals

    • Greeted at the airport and provided a private VIP transfer to the resort (depending on the Sandals location, this can be in a Rolls Royce or BMW).
    • You will be welcomed by your butler with a fresh lemongrass-scented towel. 
    • A welcome champagne flute or cocktail before getting a tour of the resort and escorted to your room.  Your check-in will also be private so you skip any lines.
    • The butler will handle your luggage and even unpack everything for you. They will also iron or press anything you need.  
    • At this point the butler will also ask some additional questions about your preferences – this helps set the table for them to exceed your expectations over the course of your vacation. 

    During Your Stay

    • Beach Assistance: Your butler will ensure you always have beach or pool lounge chairs reserved, and can deliver any food or drinks you want.  They are also able to pack a cooler
    • Dining reservations:  Ensure you are able to get any reservation you want at the restaurants of your choice.  They can also get the best tables with the best views. 
    • Excursion And Activities: The butlers can make excellent recommendations for excursions or spa treatments and then coordinate all of the bookings for you.
    • Exclusive room service: This means you can order any dish off any restaurant menu in the whole resort, and have them deliver it directly to your room. They will even set up the table on your balcony or around your suite so you have a nice romantic meal.  Don’t forget about breakfast in bed either 🙂
    • Club Sandals Access: Your suite will come with a Club Sandals access key. You can attend all Club Sandals events, including the weekly cocktail parties. The club room itself is open between 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM.
    • Bedding Requirements: If you have bedding preferences like the number of pillows, hard or soft pillows, light or heavy comforters, or extra blankets, the butlers can take care of all that. 
    • Wardrobe Upkeep: They will do any laundry, shine shoes, or iron clothes that you may need throughout your vacation. 
    • Special Celebrations: Butlers are masters at making anniversaries, birthdays, or honeymoons memorable. They can create decorations, deliver birthday cakes, set up candlelight dinners, and more. 
    • Transportation: In the larger resorts like Sandals Ochi,  Regency La Toc, or Barbados (just to name a few), the butlers can transport you around the property in a golf cart.  This can be nice to save time and walk way less. 
    • Personal Touches: This is my favorite part. The butlers will create fun messages on your bed with flower petals for your anniversary for example. Or leave specific snacks or beverages that you like after returning from the beach. My wife’s favorite was the bubble bath with rose petals after a long hike. It’s the little touches that the butlers are so good at that make the experiences amazing. 

    Departure Time

    • Upon departure, the butler will help you fold and pack your clothes if needed. They will also bring your bags to the departure area. 
    • They will assist you with the checkout process in the private Butler Lounge.
    • Lastly, the butler will coordinate the transfer back to the airport. 

    Pro Tip: Don’t be concerned that your butler will get in the way of an otherwise romantic vacation. Your butler is well trained to understand when to give you your space and when to be on the spot to help. You can always call them with the mobile phone that is provided at check in if you need anything. 

    Tipping Your Sandals Butler

    Sandals Butler Room Service

    Sandals Resorts does indeed have a no tipping policy, but the only exception to that is for butler service.  It is typical to tip your butler approximately $50 per day, give or take depending on their level of service that day.  For reference, $50 would be a great tip for the day, while $20 would be appropriate if you didn’t interact with them too much or their level of service was less than desirable.

    Also keep in mind that you will likely have 2 or more butlers servicing you over the course of your stay since they rotate shifts. If that is the case for you, then you should be mindful to tip each butler appropriately.

    Some guests prefer to tip each day, while some guests prefer to leave the entire tip at the end of their stay.  There’s no correct way to do it, it’s entirely up to you.  I personally do it at the end of the stay so it’s all in one.  Importantly, leaving your tip in cash is best so there are no credit card fees deducted, and they can get it right away.

    Advice To Maximize Your Butler Service

    Butler Service Hours: Butler service is not 24 hours a day, but we found them to be generally available between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM.  That said, you do still get 24 hour room service, which is not available for the other room categories. 

    Share Your Butler: Your butler is not solely assigned to you. They will likely be working with a few other couples at the same time, so you might need to cut them some slack during the busy times. 

    Take Advantage Of The Preference Form: Making sure the butlers understand your preferences up front is the best way to ensure your needs are met.  When you first check-in, also take a moment to go over your preferences so everyone is on the same page.  

    Tipping Is Key: We noticed that if you tip your butler more, they seem to be more accessible and willing to go out of their way to help. I suppose this makes sense, although I feel that they should try to cater to everyone’s needs equally. 

    Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff: Do not overwhelm your butler with tons of small details so they are instead able to provide bigger picture benefits. They are professionally trained, so remaining fluid allows them to exceed your needs before you even know what you want.  Your job is to sit back and relax to enjoy your vacation!

    How To Get Deals On Sandals Butler Suites

    There are a few ways to get discounts on the price of Butler Suites at Sandals.  For the best deals, I highly recommend keeping an eye on the 777 Deals.  These update every week on Wednesday and can have amazing deals on some of the best Butler Suites available. Some other easy discounts include Anniversaries, where you get a free night if you stay for 7 nights or more. Service members and veterans will always get 10% off.  Lastly, the last minute deals can offer huge savings if you have flexibility.

    There is a trick that you can use, which is to stay half of your vacation in a high end butler suite and the other half in a less expensive suite. This way you get the best of both worlds without breaking the bank.  I would suggest you message me to help you with this (or any other deals) as it can take a little leg work.

    Is Butler Service Worth It At Sandals

    Having a butler can make a huge difference in the overall experience at a Sandals Resort. After staying in several Butler Elite Suites, I can say that the butlers were game changers.  They did a fantastic job anticipating our needs and delivering on the little details. This is especially true if you are celebrating a special occasion or simply prefer the lux life, but it really depends on what you want to get out of your vacation. 

    What I Love About Sandal Butler Elite Suites: 

    • Making All The Reservations: One of the biggest benefits is getting all of your reservations and logistics pre-arranged from the butler.  This saves a ton of time by avoiding long lines for both activity and restaurant reservations. You don’t have to wait at the airport because you get a VIP transfer. You also get immediate service on the beach and by the pool.  And that all really adds up!
    • The Suites Themselves Are Phenomenal: The Butler Level Suites themselves are the best rooms that Sandals has to offer.  These include overwater bungalows, skypool suites, rondoval suites, and plenty of other unique accommodations. From this standpoint, you are getting the most luxurious rooms, so the butler service is an added bonus!
    • Extremely Well Trained:  As mentioned before, all of the butlers at Sandals Resorts are certified by the Guild Of Professional English Butlers, in addition to ongoing training. I have stayed at other luxury resorts that offer “butler service”, but it was essentially like a semi-personal concierge that is not very well trained in the art of being a butler. 
    • Exclusive Room Service: You can get food from any restaurant at the resort delivered to your suite.  The butler will even prepare your table in your suite or terrace so it is more intimate for you and your partner to have dinner.  The second aspect of this is the 24 hour room service. There is a late night room service menu with some pretty solid selections.  Did I order pizza at 4 AM on New Year’s Eve? Yes, and it was fantastic. In contrast, the Club Level rooms only have room service available between 7:00 AM – 10:00 PM. 
    • Luxury Airport Transfers: At first I thought the VIP airport transfer was a bit of hype, but once you get picked up from the airport in a Rolls Royce, it was definitely worth it! The actual car will vary depending on the resort, but at Sandals Royal Bahamian or Royal Barbados you have the option of a Rolls Royce or Mercedes when you stay in one of the top-tier suites. The Jamaican locations at Royal Caribbean and South Coast and will also have BMWs for the airport transfers. 
    • The Personal Details: It’s great to have a butler who leaves personal notes that greet you when you return to your suite, creates fun decorations to celebrate a birthday, or draws a nice bath with rose petals and champagne.  The possibilities are limitless, and pay attention to the personal details to ensure your stay is filled with special memories. 

    Some Things That Might Not Be Worth It:

    • The High End Rooms: For those that don’t intend on spending a lot of time in your room, going with a Club Level or Luxury Level room is an easy way to save. Then you can always allocate that money to excursions or spa treatments. The good news is you can’t go wrong either way.  Regardless of the room category, you will still get the 5 star service that Sandals is known for and have access to the all inclusive amenities. 
    • The Size Of The Resort Matters: I noticed that at the larger resorts, especially during peak times, our butler was more difficult to get a hold of.  There is just more ground to cover. In some cases we literally saw them in the morning, and then at dinner time.  That said, we are pretty low maintenance, so I’m sure if you really needed something they would be on the spot to help.  
    • The Club Sandals And Butler Level Events: There are events that are exclusive to Club and Butler level guests, like a weekly cocktail party for example.  We didn’t feel the need to attend any of those since the rest of the resort had great bars and restaurants, and live entertainment every night. 

    Which Suites Come With Butler Service

    The nice thing with Butler Elite Suites is they are all absolutely exquisite. When you are looking at the different rooms at a particular resort on the Sandals website, simply check the box that says “Butler Elite” to filter by room level. Note, however, that pricing for butler suites can differ significantly between the different categories and different resorts.

    Some resorts will be more expensive and have more intimate butler service. For example the Royal Plantation in Jamaica is an all butler suite resort with only 74 rooms, while overwater bungalows will run approximately $900 or more per person per night.  It’s worth doing the research to find the right room for your needs at the best price.

    Here are some of my favorite butler suites to help get the inspiration flowing.

    View All Top Butler Suites →

    Conclusion

    Overall, I do think that Sandals Butler Elite suites are worth it. For those that want to be pampered on a luxurious Caribbean escape, there is no higher service than the butlers at Sandals.  It does feel a little weird at first, but after some time we got more comfortable with our fantastic butlers and how they can help.  The suites themselves are also in a league of their own.  Maybe you don’t need to stay in a butler suite every time, but I would suggest going for it at least once!

    Now, I have also stayed in several other room categories at Sandals, and have had just as amazing of a time.  Personal preference and budget play such a big role in this decision. A lot of folks are just not too comfortable with having someone wait on them as well.  Also consider how much time you will spend in your room. If the benefits of the Butler Level rooms are not checking your boxes, then a Club Sandals or Luxury Level room is a better fit and you’ll save some money.

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