Sadie Wats (Sadie Rob)

After the retreat she sent extremely rude texts to paying attendees, and proceeded to talk badly about them to mutual friends and other attendees (trying to take the blame off herself/pin it on other people). see photos attached. She acted like this was a friends trip she planned for free and was doing us a "favor".... we paid professional prices to be there, and she acted like a child and gossiped about her attendees.

The most emotionally stressful and draining week...

I am writing this review after attending the Switzerland photography retreat hosted by Sadie. As someone who deeply admired her work, I invested in this experience expecting a professionally curated itinerary, structured hands-on education, styled shoots, and reliable mentorship. Sadly, that was not the case

The retreat fell vastly short of what was advertised, and when confronted, Sadie not only took zero accountability but put the blame back on attendees (paying attendees)!

Photographers considering future retreats or people planning to book her for weddings/shoots please do your research and beware of people like Sadie!

She is using people to go on free trips and get content for herself, there was very little care for her attendees or education and she pocketed our money instead of investing it into what could of been a remarkable experience.

I will highlight several major issues experienced throughout the trip:

1. There was no formal slideshow educational presentation night and no collaborative editing night ever took place like she promised. She one morning asked people what camera settings they used and called that the "education presentation"

2. There were severe schedule delays and canceled shoots
The first day, our first shoot was delayed by six hours due to her late arrival, forcing our second shoot of the day to be cut short running out of daylight. This trend only continued throughout the week with constant schedule and location changes, and half of the time we didn't know where to be and when because she did not follow an itinerary

3. There was lack of advance location scouting and planning
Having us drive around the country and led to multiple location changes and reduced shooting times. She failed to make any reservations in advance for our outings

One shoot was canceled completely because the promised models did not show up. We later learned no contract was ever put in place to secure them and she doesn't pay or style the models. Models were asking the attendees what to wear and where to go.

The lack of route planning resulted in over 20 hours of excessive driving, leaving minimal time for meals, rest, or photography. We were exhausted, getting home at midnight each night and there was no time to have proper meals due to her poor planning.

On our free day, she picked a hike 4 hours from the airbnb. Some of us were left waiting over two hours for Sadie to get there, and scheduled hiking time was lost. Another group of paying attendees drove 4 hours to the location, only for Sadie to tell them not to come because the lift to the hike "was closing" she failed to look at the hours of operation in advance...

Sadie had a shoot planned on boats in lake como. She didn't reserve the boats till the day of, and only reserved a boat for herself. We had to ask her to book a second boat for the rest of the attendees. Sadie placed herself on the first boat along with 3 attendees, her sister, and two models, leaving the remaining attendees to board the second boat, which was booked under her name. This left that group without Sadie present or available - causing them to not be able to get on the boat until 40 minutes into the reservation (she would not pick up phone calls from the boat company calling about the second reservation) this caused the second boat to miss the shoot completely.

Despite knowing that the schedule was already very tight, Sadie chose to take the first boat to a destination approximately 40 minutes from the dock. As a result, we were unable to return on time and exceeded our allotted rental period which was for only 2 hours. The boat rental company ultimately had to retrieve us. During the return trip, Sadie engaged in an argument with an employee of the boat company. The employee repeatedly stated that, if payment was not made for the additional time that had impacted the next customer's reservation, the police would be contacted. Despite these warnings, and despite having attendees on board who were directly affected by the situation, Sadie continued to argue with the employee rather than resolving the matter by agreeing to pay the additional charges. This created an uncomfortable, stressful, and highly unprofessional situation for everyone involved.

On a free day when the group requested to practice photography together, the host left the attendees to go paragliding with her sister for personal leisure.

4. unprofessionalism and hostility
When we raised concerns about the shifting schedule or lack of organization, Sadie met feedback with defensiveness, hostility, and blame. Rather than taking accountability, attendees were accused of creating a "negative atmosphere" and sent group messages calling them "disrespectful" for asking for clarity on an event they paid thousands of dollars to attend.

Final takeaway...

Instead of a luxury educational retreat, we spent the week navigating last-minute logistical confusion, canceled events, and hostile communication. A thousands of dollars investment should yield structured mentorship, seamless planning, and professional leadership. Instead we were exhausted, anxious and uncomfortable in the environment she created.

She also completely refused to provide a partial refund to make things right. I strongly advise against attending a retreat hosted by her, or hiring her for any photo services.

She is scamming people.

If you are going to run a business you need to grow up. And stop scamming people. This is fraud behavior and it is sad to see you continue to do it after getting negative feedback again and again