Is an upgrade to a villa a possibility if one is staying on Visa free nights and has the upgrade certs?

No, and you do not really want the villa unless you need space. All rooms are beach facing except for the villa, which does not have a view.

Note: I was there several years ago, so they could have built new villas.

no new villas. I recommend a main floor room as you get a nicer deck space.

Do upgrade certs here work with free night certs to put you in "junior suite"?

At our last visit (July 2015) this property did not accept the certificates. But the rooms are quite similar - the suites have slightly different decor and the little deck which is directly behind (elevated) the main beach.

Correct. Upgrade certs can't be used at this property.

But as you say, the rooms themselves are very similar. The main difference is that the ground floor "unior suites" have a large patio with direct access to the beach while the rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floor have a large patio.

I personally actually preferred the former since the patios offer zero privacy.

any problem using sign up nights with you listed as additional guest? Did they require account user with cert's to produce id? reservations asked pointed questions about was the person making the reservation staying there. This is second room for daughter as I have another using my cert's.

If I have reservation for 2 and show up with 3 (17 year old daughter) will I have problems if we stay in one room and I forget about second room?

Thanks

Any recent review of Fairmont Barbados?

There are some mostly positive reviews in this thread, however nothing earth shattering either. I see rates upward of 850 USD per night including tax in early December, almost double other options I am looking at from Small Luxury Hotels which are both below 500 USD. Just looking at price I am sure Hilton is in a completely different category given the price (only 200 USD) but Fairmont 4x higher? There are not many places in the world where I would pay 4x more for a Fairmont than a Hilton. Double price, yes, but 4x, really? And it's not like the SLH options are poorly rated for half price so is Fairmont really worth all that?

Lots of folks here were fairly satisfied of their stay at Fairmont Barbados in this thread, but many were using free night certs. Having never been to Barbados myself I am not sure it's very good value for the money now that certs are gone. Fairmont seems to include stuff like airport fast track and luxury airport transfer but I am not sure I value these things very much.

From @Jasper2009 several years ago:

I haven't returned to the property since, but it did undergo an extensive renovation 1-2 years ago.

Rates have increased significantly since then - I guess they're trying to compete with Sandy Lane, arguably the only other hotel in the 4.5*-5* segment.

Any recent updates on this property? Thanks in advance.

This Fairmont informed me that they do not take Accor Suite Night Upgrades for any date, because they have "low inventory". However they are not part of the exclusions listed in Accor's document attached which is noted to be up to date as of October 2021 so it should not be very obsolete.

https://all.accor.com/loyalty-progra...pdf-snu.en.pdf

Is this Fairmont making up their own rules to refuse upgrades? :confused: Is there anything that can be done about it? I might save myself the trouble and book at another hotel rather than fight this.

Well, the hotel does not really have any suites. All rooms essentially are junior suites. The ones located on the ground floor with direct beach access are called "Beachfront Suites", but aside from a larger patio (and possibly some added services), all rooms are virtually identical.

IIRC the property also didn't accept suite upgrade certs back in the FPC days, so this doesn't really surprise me.

Even if the hotel allowed SNUs to be applied, I would save the SNUs for another property.

In that case, probably not worth arguing with them much. That said, I would be less disturbed if they simply put their name on the exclusion list rather than take the liberty to opt out "secretly". I often find that when hotels do these sort of things, it can be an indicator that they have less than customer-centric attitude on many other issues. So for me it's a warning sign to consider before booking there.

After I pointed out the exclusion list, the hotel apologized and offered me a guaranteed upgrade to Luxuryfront Suite without Accor Suite Night awards. :tu: So after eyeing that property for a few years I will finally get to try it :cool:

Fairmont Royal Pavilion Barbados = Prime Location on the Beach
 

Introduction Last time I stayed in Barbados a few years ago I ended up choosing a different hotel than Fairmont and for my latest stay Fairmont was my first choice but I almost did not stay because the hotel was originally unresponsive but thankfully in the end they made things right. I am glad I finally got to try this resort; compared to the other Fairmonts in the area (one in Puerto Rico and two in Bermuda) I think Barbados is overall the best of the 4 based on my previous stays. Pre-Arrival I had lots of Accor Diamond Suite Night awards to use before they expire at the end of the year so I contacted Fairmont and asked if I could use them to upgrade to a better room. At first they did not bother answering at all so I cancelled my reservation and booked at a Marriott chain hotel instead, then I told Fairmont to forget it because I had moved on. Thankfully they responded at that point, apologized for the lack of answer and told me that they would upgrade me to a beachfront suite without the need for using SNAs; in addition they noted SNAs are unusuable at their hotel anyway. Given the service recovery it convinced me to rebook at Fairmont and cancel my reservation at the other hotel. Check In Upon landing at BGI airport, Fairmont immediately makes it clear they are a more luxurious hotel than many other Fairmonts because there was someone with a Fairmont sign waiting for us before going to immigration, the staff escorted us to the fast track lane and then to baggage claim. Once we had our suitcases we were led to the BMW hotel car for the perfectly smooth transfer door to door. This was not a special arranged transport; I believe this is the normal procedure for all Fairmont Royal Pavilion guests. Room When we arrived at the hotel our room was not ready but we were given another one to relax for a couple of hours which was greatly appreciated. That first room was on the top floor of the (low rise) hotel and had decent views. To be honest without an upgrade I would still be quite happy with this room type.Once our room was ready I was notified that we could move and we settled in our suite. Some reviews previously commented that the suite is essentially the same room as the non-suites except for the terrace outdoors; I did not find this to be entirely correct. The space available indoors for the suite was exactly equal to the total space indoors plus the balcony for our initial room, so comparing indoors vs indoors the suite was clearly more spacious. In addition the terrace outside our ground floor suite was larger than the balcony of the previous room so if comparing the total space indoors+outdoors, the suite exceeded the non-suite by an even greater margin.By far and away, the main highlight of the room was the fact that we were so close to the beach – very rarely do we find any resort where this is the case, we were possibly 15 meters from the water line. The main advantage of being nearly on the beach was that staff walking by to serve guests on the beach could also serve us from our own balcony; we also had dedicated chairs for us (obviously) rather than use any random hotel chair. Service Not only the service in the hotel was excellent upon arrival, but there were also butlers which provided a higher level of service than most other Fairmonts in the world. For example in the morning on occasion our butler would make the rounds to greet guests and ask if we needed anything, and it was the same on the beach during the afternoon so the service style was more proactive than reactive. I would also note that unlike some Fairmonts, this property was quite small: two buildings of 3 floors and around 13-14 rooms wide, all of them facing the ocean so probably around 80 rooms. It makes it easier to provide personal service with a moderate number of rooms. Dining Breakfast seemed to be included in all rate types so it was not really an Accor Diamond benefit. There was a buffet to go along a quite nice a la carte menu and we were allowed to order whatever we wanted without any limit. It was clearly not a boring standard North American breakfast thanks to the special dishes on the menu including a breakfast wrap, avocado toast, etc. Pool This hotel is a great fit for beach lovers but the flip side is that the pool was nothing to write home about. I don’t think guests should travel there simply to use the pool. Wifi Wifi was slow with download speed of 2 Mbps although upload was better with 10 Mbps. In addition there were several interruptions; this was the main and possibly lone issue we encountered during our stay. Overall Overall Fairmont Royal Pavilion is not cheap but given the unique position on the beach, the luxury level of service and the above average breakfast, I was pleased with our stay and I can recommend this hotel if budget allows.