Awkward to recommend, but a good experience for us.
Apr 19, 2024 Karl W Sidmouth, United Kingdom
We had a great ten day holiday here and very much enjoyed the hotel and location.
The hotel has many room types/positions as well as the ‘Diamond Club or not’ question, so I can see why it gets hugely varying reviews. If you were to pick a room type and position that does not suit you, or at a particularly busy time then you are unlikely to get…
Read more
We had a great ten day holiday here and very much enjoyed the hotel and location.
The hotel has many room types/positions as well as the ‘Diamond Club or not’ question, so I can see why it gets hugely varying reviews. If you were to pick a room type and position that does not suit you, or at a particularly busy time then you are unlikely to get the holiday you want (but this is true of almost anywhere). It occupies a large somewhat hilly site set in a wonderful landscape, with great beach and grounds – but won’t suit those with mobility issues.
We booked a Beach Walkout Room, which is only available with the ‘Diamond Club’. The room wasn’t big, but was well decorated and equipped.
Room plus points:-
Great bed, Good air-conditioning (when you’ve worked out the control). Well stocked mini-bar/fridge. Nice coffee machine. Good toiletries. Great position relative to beach/ pool/ bar and lunchtime food.
Room minus points:-
The lock on the patio door is poor/very awkward to get to securely shut. A lot of light at night - smoke alarm, under the door (bring an eye mask). Some of the sealant in the bathroom needed replacing. No bath.
This is not a hotel for ‘foodies’, but as people with ‘wide tastes’ we found plenty of good options across the hotels restaurants. The food options did seem a little odd at times and options did seem to be unavailable a little more than you would expect. The air-conditioning in the Indian is sufficiently good that you may need another layer of clothing and the French was very noisy, when busy. We found the experience of the Italian for breakfast to be wonderful, but that was principally about the location (Diamond Club only at breakfast). We also very much enjoyed the Coffee shop, which also did milkshakes, ice cream and some pastries.
We found the majority of the staff to be very friendly and helpful, but levels of ‘professionalism and ownership of quality’ seemed to vary and communication between the hotel ‘areas’ appeared poor.
The gym was very good, as were the classes and fitness staff.
Hotel ‘entertainment’ is not really our thing and did lead us to leave this area on a couple of occasions (one person’s pleasure is another’s poison!).
We found the ‘Diamond Club - Butler’ situation somewhat odd, but it largely worked.
Overall – we had a great holiday, but the hotel at present is a four star rather than a five. It could easily be a five, but the management need to see things more from a customer perspective and ensure effective communication to address issues in a more timely way. An example of this was our ‘Diamond Club’ check-in. We arrived very tired (and were personally and friendlily greeted), but were ushered to stand to the side whilst we watched the non-club people checked in and go off to their rooms – without us being offered a drink/flannel/seat. We were then were taken by buggy to the lounge for check-in, which didn’t have the drink we requested and then didn’t get us the second choice drink we requested, before we went to our room. We are easy going and this didn’t upset us in anyway, but gave a very poor first impression and with a little more thought could have been massively improved without much effort (what you have a right to expect from “All in luxury experiences”).
NB – I am deliberately not ‘name-checking’ any staff (although some were very good) as I tend to distrust reviews that reel off a list of names….
Read less
