Recently returned from this hotel, we stayed in an oceanview room on a bed and breakfast basis. The room was spacious with 2 double beds and plenty of storage and a balcony overlooking the beach. The bathroom was a little dated but perfectly adequate. The rooms and bathrooms could both do with updating.
The breakfast buffet was great, cooked breakfast, fruits, yoghurts, cereal, croissants and toast. The all day menu served from lunchtime was also good. However, the buffet meals in the evening I thought was very overpriced. We had the bbq buffet and thought it was very poor value and they run out of chicken.
Complementary afternoon tea and cakes were served every day by the small pool and we also attended the Managers Cocktail Drinks on a Monday.
The beach was superb, but if you wanted a sunbed under the palms then you had to get up incredibly early. However there were always plenty of sunbeds available.
We were very lucky to see turtles hatching on the beach one day, a truly magical experience. You could also see fire flies in the palm trees on the beach in the evening.
Southern Palms was in a quieter position on the gap and within easy reach of restaurants for an evening meal. We did find that Barbados was very expensive, however we had researched and were prepared for this.
Would recommend Southern Palms and hope to return.

We have just returned home from a truly wonderful 10 night holiday at Southern Palms.
What a fantastic hotel .
We can't recommend it highly enough .
All the staff are so friendly and helpful it's the best hotel I have ever stayed at .

We spent 5 days at Southern Palms with 4 other couples. We had done a lot of research ahead of time and picked Southern Palms for the beautiful beach and the photos of the rooms. The beach was beautiful! However, the room was a huge disappointment. We had spent the money to splurge on a room with an ocean view. Because they put us in a room on the first floor, your ocean view was through the pool area and some shrubbery. The room itself was no bigger or better than a motel room in the U.S. and for that we paid $400/night! In addition, in order to use the safe in our room, we paid an additional $3.00/day and it stopped working twice so we had to call maintenance. I don't think I've ever stayed in a room where you paid to use the safe. Our friends who opted for rooms without ocean views had really small rooms and a number of the electrical outlets didn't work for charging devices. The bathrooms were old and small. The restaurant food was okay but overpriced. The lunch was probably the best. The breakfast buffet and barbecue buffet were way too expensive for what you received. BUT the worst part of staying there was the noise from across the road where there were loud entertainers who didn't stop until midnight some nights and 2am other nights. The bathroom vents and our door let the sound in like they we singing outside our room. Ear plugs, turning up the A/C, nothing prevented that noise from interfering with our sleep! I understand from our friends that the garden facing rooms did not have this issue. However, I wish that I had read this on TA because I would not have booked this hotel. And I would definitely not return to Southern Palms. I'm still rather mystified by all of the great reviews.