Sands Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Indian Wells

I'm sorry but I cannot give this hotel five stars. My wife and I stayed literally a week at this hotel. We were upgraded to a suite which actually was quite nice except for the furniture somewhat old. There were two outdoor patios one with an old but large sofa and the other with a very interesting old outdoor bathtub. The bed was actually comfortable and I believe a California king. The bathroom was excellent with a large shower and an individual lavatory with a double sink vanity. The reason I downgraded this review is simple. There was no refrigerator in the room and you had to ask for ice every time you needed it there was no ice dispenser. The resort fee was $42 a night and no ice, refrigerator or microwave. They packed the room with expensive snacks, wines, and Spirits including a $75 bottle of Macallan scotch. Water was $5 to $10 a bottle if purchased in the room. If you can stick around for a minute longer I'll give you the real reason for the three star review and that had to do with the Pink Cabana restaurant. The first night we were at the hotel, we decided to eat dinner at their on-premises restaurant. Actually a very pretty place with expensive prices but we expected that. What we did not expect was a restaurant of this caliber allowing dogs into this place where a meal can cost over $200 for two people. We asked the waitress about this and she said that this was not usually allowed. I was worried about my wife who has asthma. A total of four dogs were allowed in including two large poodles with sat literally 10 ft from us at the bar with their owners. When the two poodles came in one of the other dogs actually ran towards it barking but thankfully no fight. Frankly, I became upset and The restaurant manager, a man named "Brick" looked over at me and saw that I was upset and just gave me this stupid looking grin and walked past. We finished our meal and paid the check and left. Later on I went to the front desk, I spoke with the very friendly young lady named Ashley who listened to and understood my concerns. Unbeknownst to me, she made my concerns available to the restaurant manager and he casually walked out of the office near the front desk and sort of ambushed me wanting to know what was going on. In very plain talk I made it clear to him that allowing dogs inside a restaurant that charges as much as they do for a meal is totally unacceptable. Further, I didn't like his smug little grin as he passed me when this was going on in the restaurant. I also made it eminently clear to Brick that had my wife had an asthma attack because of those animals, we would have been having a very different conversation. He also was informed that this would be part of my Google review after which he did say, what can I do to change things. I just said you can't change what's already happened. Just think about what you do and its effect on your customers. As pertains to the rest of this review even the food at the restaurant was excellent for the price. The pool area was very nice though the cabanas, sofas, futons whatever you'd like to call them appeared to be old and some of them stained. There are only 46 rooms at this Boutique hotel and frankly my wife and I would probably come back if some things were changed to make it...

I am a native to the desert and recently had to find temporary accomodations as i transitioned from one home to another. I lived at the sands for 2 weeks. if you are a visual person , this place is a cornucopia for the senses. I was able to experience 3 different rooms. so here goes: the first room i was in was the least expensive that wasadvertised on hotels tonight for $99. it was beautiful.. even at that rate you get e first class experience. the bathroom was ample in a bohemian kind of way and plenty of mood and space for "couples " showering. The only drawback to this room was that it did not have a bathtub. I'm a tub soaker so this is an integral part of my daily life. I asked the front desk (way more sophisticated than that) if they had rooms with a tub and they IMMEDIATELY moved me to a room with an insane Kohler soaking tub sitting in the middle of this huge morrocan themed tiled shower. I was in heaven.. they provide Acqua di parma products for bathing and I smelled like a walking spa.. it was lovely. On the second night my partner was fiddling with the fixture and somehow got something stuck in the position where we couldnt use the tub so we called the "front desk" and they moved us to the suite that had a bathtub, get this, outside on a separate enclosed patio. I was blown away at how beautiful this was.. additionally they still had a HUGE walkin shower room with double sinks. a wall that was centered with openings on both sides to walk around to a huge sitting area that had its own private terrace with bench seating covered in cushions and pillows. My dog was welcome there with a flat fee of $100 and the armoire that served as the bar was beautifully appointed. I enjoyed the pink lemonade jalepeno mix in a bottle. The ONLY draw back to this place was that you had to call down to the lobby to get ice. mind you it was delivered in a gorgeous golden pineapple brass ice bucket but when it was gone you had to call for more. I think the guests would be better served if they could get it themselves. in the sumptuous lobby you could get muffins and fruit daily although I found them slightly dry and would have preferred croissants. My favorite was the Moroccan tea that was available in the afternoons. They had cold water by the pool with orange slices in it. They pool was a bit warm for actually cooling off. This might be relieved by adding those sprinklers on the side that spray the water through the air to cool it plus it looks pretty. All in all I would definitely stay...

We’ve stayed at Sands Hotel & Spa twice this year. The first in July shortly after they have opened and we just got back from our last longer visit yesterday.

The hotel itself is beautiful and small. With only 40+ rooms, it’s perfect for a relaxing weekend getaway.

The hotel also has a restaurant attached, The Pink Cabana and pool side service is available. Everything sounds great in theory. And because the place is beautiful, I guess it’s natural to have high expectations in terms of service?

On our first visit, the rooms where still fresh and the pool side loungers were without stains. It’s unfortunately how in less than a year, the same room we stayed at during our first visit now smelled like wet dog. The rug has more than a few stains and the patio walls were dirty.

We were so excited about visiting the Sands again despite a few mishaps during our first stay. When we first dined at the Pink Cabana, our food took more than an hour to come out because they initially gave our order to another table. We understood, they had just opened and it was a busy night. At this recent visit, the service has gone down even more. We were waited on by a guy with a brimmed hat. He seemed confused, and made us feel like we weren’t suppose to be ordering from him? Was he not our waiter? Perhaps he was a manager or the owner. Either way, I think he should have made a better attempt at making his guest feel comfortable even if it meant directing us to the right waiter if he wasn’t.

I would also note that, since July the menu at the Pink Cabana has not changed. Its quality however, has also gone down tremendously. It’s a shame.

The poolside service is also wonky. At times, it’ll be seamless and charges made poolside automatically get charged to your room. Which is perfect. Other times, you will have concierge and your waitress hunt you down and call you at your room asking for your credit card information. Not exactly ideal for a relaxing stay.

Overall, the place is beautiful, you find multiple photo shoots going on. It’s a bit of a scene, I mean it’s instagramable so that’s a bit expected. The service or lack thereof is unfortunately not acceptable. You’ll be taking your own bags to your room.

We really wanted to love this place but sadly, we won’t be returning. Even if it’s less than $100 on...