By Steve Griswold, Pixie Vacations — Sandals Chairman’s Royal Club Platinum Elite advisor. Reported August 31, 2026.
Quick answer: Sandals kept roughly 2,000 Jamaican team members on payroll for the entire ten months its three storm-damaged Jamaica resorts were closed, and has compressed what executive chairman Adam Stewart calls “three years of work” into about nine and a half months of rebuilding. That was reported by the Jamaica Observer on August 27, 2026. The Sandals Foundation also channelled about US$6 million into community assistance after Hurricane Melissa. Sandals South Coast reopens November 18, 2026; Sandals Montego Bay and Sandals Caribbean Cay follow on December 18, 2026.
Most of the coverage of Sandals’ Jamaica rebuild has been about buildings — new restaurants, new suite categories, the $200 million price tag. Last week the Jamaica Observer published the part almost nobody has written about: what happened to the people who worked in those buildings while they were shut.
What was reported
- About 2,000 team members stayed on payroll across the three closed Jamaica resorts for the duration of the closure, rather than being laid off and rehired at reopening.
- Roughly US$6 million in community assistance was channelled through the Sandals Foundation following Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica in October 2025.
- “We have done three years of work in what will be about nine and a half months,” Adam Stewart, executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International, told the paper — describing how the company folded a long-planned renovation programme into the storm repair.
- The award roll for the year included two Jamaica-based sellers who each moved close to US$6 million in bookings in 2025 — Peter-Gay Rhodes at US$5.9 million and Tia Matthews at US$5.8 million.
Why this matters if you are booking Jamaica this winter
There is a practical reason to care about a staffing decision, and it is not sentiment.
When a Caribbean resort closes for a year and lets its staff go, the reopening is effectively a new hotel with a new workforce. Service is inconsistent for a season while people learn the property, the menus and each other. That is the single biggest risk in booking any resort’s first weeks — and it is the risk I spend the most time talking clients through.
Keeping the team intact changes that math. The bartender who knows your drink, the housekeeper who knows which villa gets afternoon sun, the dive staff who know the reef — those are the people who make a Sandals stay feel different from a rate on a screen, and by this account they never left.
It is not a guarantee. A resort that has been gutted and rebuilt still has new rooms, new kitchens and new systems to shake down. But “same staff, new building” is a meaningfully better opening than “new staff, new building.”
The three resorts and their dates
| Resort | Rooms | Reopens |
|---|---|---|
| Sandals South Coast (Westmoreland) | 380 | November 18, 2026 |
| Sandals Montego Bay (St. James) | 255 | December 18, 2026 |
| Sandals Caribbean Cay (formerly Sandals Royal Caribbean) | 291 (84 of them new) | December 18, 2026 |
Room counts and reopening dates as announced by Sandals Resorts International in its June 2026 “Sandals 2.0” briefing. Verified against published reporting on August 31, 2026.
Sandals Montego Bay is the one with the history attached. It opened in 1981 with 99 rooms and was the first property in the company — which is why the Observer framed this rebuild as something closer to a restoration than a renovation.
What I would actually do with this information
If Jamaica is on your list for this winter, the useful takeaway is that December 18 is a hard date on three of the biggest room inventories on the island, all landing in the same four-week window as JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar’s December 1 opening. That is a lot of rooms hitting the market at once, and openings almost always price softer than the same room will price a year later.
The trade-off is the one every opening carries: some outlets will not be finished, some concepts will be running a limited menu, and the property will be finding its feet. If your trip is a milestone — a honeymoon, a 25th anniversary, a first big family trip — I would rather put you somewhere already running smoothly and save the opening weeks for travellers who enjoy being early.
We track which rooms and which weeks are actually released at each of these three as inventory opens up. If you want the honest read on whether an opening week is right for your trip, that is a five-minute conversation, and there is never a fee for planning with us — ask us for a quote and we will tell you when the answer is “wait.”
Related reading
- Inside Sandals 2.0: exactly what is changing at all three Jamaica resorts
- Sandals airport transfers in 2026: the real drive times
- Pixie Honeymoons: the best Sandals resort for a Jamaica honeymoon
- Griz All Inclusive on YouTube — long-form Sandals and Beaches resort walkthroughs
Sources: Jamaica Observer, August 27, 2026; Jamaica Observer, August 30, 2026; Travel Agent Central, June 19, 2026.
