Founded by Jamaican-born entrepreneur Gordon "Butch" Stewart in 1981, SRI is based in Montego Bay, Jamaica and is responsible for development, service standards, training, and day-to-day operations of the resorts.

[12] Due to the laws in the countries in which they operate, the company had a policy dating from 1981 that could not allow same-sex couples into their "couples-only" resorts.

This policy received a great deal of publicity when stays at their resorts were offered as prizes in various promotions by companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo!, and US Airways in 1999.

The companies involved promptly severed their relationships with Sandals, stating they were unaware of its discriminatory practices.

[16] In January 2013, the government of Turks and Caicos Islands and Sandals agreed to a settlement of US$12 million around local corruption allegations, without admission of any liability.