The first few hours I thought I was on candid camera. Check-in was pretty efficient, but once we got in the room the problems started. Wi-Fi is not working. We asked to be relocated to a room with Wi-Fi and were told that wouldn't be possible. So we went to the beach. We asked for towels at the kiosk, where we were told they were out of towels. A very rude employee told us that they'll get some towels "ten minutes after the sunset." Why, thanks, that's great, we're only paying $300 a night and wouldn't expect towel service to be included in that price! We've decided to go have a beer instead, and waited about half an hour to get our drinks, and 10 more minutes to get our sandwiches.

The list of inconveniences goes on: at the buffet dinner and breakfast they would run of chicken, or cheese, or other items some 10 minutes after service started. For $60 a person, a dinner of lentils and potatoes is not so great, particularly if you're a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy! The Japanese dinner is a much better deal, but still nowhere close to what you would expect from a four star establishment.

We've seen a big cockroach in our room one night. Otherwise, service, when provided, is very slow.

Now for the good part: the beach is great and well maintained. The views and the water are wonderful. There's a large pool that we haven't used, but which looks great. There's free sailing (unfortunately the fleet is not well maintained). Snorkeling is also great (do it on your own, not using the scheduled trips from the boat house which give you about 15 minutes of actual snorkeling). Unfortunately all the good pales when considering the lack of value for money that the hotel provides overall. While one of the most expensive hotels we've ever stayed in, Sofitel Mauritius has the worst service by far among all hotels we've tried (including a Motel 6 outside of Portland, Maine).

My partner & I had 3 nights at this resort. It was just superb. The location is fantastic. The staff were extremly helpful & pleasant. Our room 202 was a good location with all the comforts needed. The bed was comfy which provided a good nights sleep. The buffert restaurant has lots of variety. You can even get some Mauritian food for breaky!!!! The coffee is just spot on served in your own plunger. The pool is clean and a good size with an easy walk to the beach for a change. We used the kayaks for leisure. The lunch beach menu had adequate choices while we sat relaxing and they brought the food to your spot with a smile. At night, the entertainment was simply entertaining. The band had a great vibe and were tight with singers had good voices that sang in tune. Overall our stay there was just devine. I highly recommend the Sofitel to any one.

I travel frequently to Mauritius on business and occasionally on vacation. This is the first time I have stayed at the Sofitel, and while I cannot fault the location, room decor, cleanliness etc there are several areas where the Sofitel falls below my expectations (and the expectations of my team and clients, who are also staying here)
1. Very limited room service menu, nothing very healthy or simple as an alternative to the usual stodge and burger/fries, pizza etc. No snacks.
2. Tried to visit the alternative restaurant: Jacaranda, with clients and it was closed. Embarassing, so we went to the Hilton instead, where 2 alternative restaurants to the buffet were open
2. Not all of us want to indulge in a vast buffet every evening, especially after lunching out with clients, and I would expect either lighter options or bar snacks to be available at night in both the Beach bar and Pink bar. Hotel managers must cater to business travellers too, as many of us return again and again bringing important revenue to the island and form strong brand loyalties with Hotel chains when our needs are met, see also next point
3. Erratic Wifi - although mine was ok, 1 of my clients had to move rooms as the wifi coverage does not fully cover the whole property. This really needs to be improved and extended to the entire property.
4. On first evening I arrived back to my room to find water pouring out of the ceiling from the AC all over the floor. I would add that this was dealt with very promptly and courteously.Talking to other customers this is not uncommon, so an upgraded system is required.
5. A/C - on hot days this is just about adequate, as long as the cleaning staff do not change the settings!! I came back one evening, to find my room like a furnace as someone had changed the temp and fan speed in my room...
6. I have stayed in hundreds of hotels around the world and can honestly say that I have never, until this week, managed to lock myself out of my room and be trapped on my balcony..... This should not even be possible, such a safety risk, what if there is a fire??? You should only be able to gain entry from the balcony by key card, and the door lock mechanism needs to be changed to something more sensible. This was ridiculous as I had to virtually scream over the noise of the evening entertainment to finally attract some attention. The most bizarre door lock/security I have ever encountered. Ok, I can see the funny side, but honestly this is too bizarre!
7. One beach towel per person rule - really?
8. Room service never answer their phone, this is an ongoing issue, so you have to go through the same protracted performance every time, try calling them, no response, try via operator, puts you through to voice mail, call operator again and ask them to get someone from room service to call you back. Every. Single. Time. When you have had a long day and are coming back to the supposed sanctuary of your "5 star" hotel, things like this can be very irritating.
9. Its not all bad!! The breakfasts are nice, layout and decor is very pleasant and the spa is nice - the beach setting is lovely, beach is nice and wide here and the sun loungers are really well spread out, plenty of room for everyone, but that's the least you expect and Sofitel has a lot of competition here. I'm sure that you can have a great vacation here, but I will be considering my next business trip very carefully. GRIFF

This is a lenghty review, but i think for Indians this will be really helpful.

Landed in Mauritius on the 17th October 2012. We were picked up from the airport by our tour guide and was straight away driven to Sofitel in Flic & Flac. The moment we entered the resort, we felt that the place is amazing and the hotel itself is built beautiful. The view from the front office to the pool and after that the beach was very nice. We would say picture perfect. We were welcomed by the front office person with a very warm smile and we did the check in formalities which went on without any snag and we were allocated our room well before the check in time which was a nice feeling. The welcome drink, it’s not a big deal, but was a very nice touch and the drink itself was very good. The front office person who attended us was very pleasant and gave us the details of the resort.

We checked in to our respective room "212" and "214" and found that the room was quite good and very neatly arranged. we were there with the package from our tour operator where we were given the option of having breakfast and dinner. The entire stay at Sofitel was very good when we see from the resort perspective and also the place in which it is situated. Now getting into the pros and cons of the resort and its staff

Pros

1. Resort is absolutely good and it is situated in a picture perfect place. The resort is very cleanly maintained with good security.
2. The pool is really good and well maintained and you can relax in the pool side which is absolutely good.
3. The best part of the resort is the beach, you can relax and walk in the beach with utmost peace and you will never forget that.
4. Some of the staff in Sofitel are really good and they know what service does mean especially Pravind and another person whom i have forgotten his name but was there in the main restaurant. He not only helped but also understood our requirement very well.
5. Indian Chef - at least there is one person who knows something about Indian food.
6. Coffee replenishments given as you ask them which we felt it was a nice touch, since we are coffee drinkers and have many number of cups of coffee a day.
7. Without any question we were offered a late check out, this is was good one from the hotel management, but unfortunately we had to check out much before our stipulated time.
8. It was my birthday and my wife had approached the staff for a cake and the resort people had readily accepted that and did bring in a beautiful cake served at dinner time. It was really a good one and they did not charge for the cake which they offered.
9. In one of the dinners, where we took my parents down to have dinner after a lot of persuasion, we were dumb founded to see that there was just plain rice for vegetarians. I had no choice but requested the staff to call the sous chef. He was kind enough to understand our request and said he will prepare rotis and dhal within the next half hour. It was pretty frustrating to see that there was no food for us, but felt good when the staff was kind enough to help us out.

Cons
1. The front office needs to learn that customer is first and rest all is next, especially Dorothy who was there in the front office and when i went there to change the defective room keys, she made us wait for nothing for more than 10 minutes and at last when we raised concerns asked another person to help us out. She was acting though she was too busy looking at the monitor of the computer. Her attitude sucks and just because of one person mistake or carelessness, my opinion about the hotel changed and even thought there is discrimination for sure, which i didn’t feel with any others.
2. The door keys not working properly. We had to walk to the front office at least 10 times to get the room keys activated. This was an irritating fact and the front office people were good enough to keep rectifying the issue, but never provide a root cause and give a onetime solution.
3. Charging of water - there were three people in my room i.e. 2 adult and 1 child, but still only 2 half liter bottle of water is provided. We believe strongly that water is one of the essential item for a human where it should be provided as much as needed to anyone without hesitation, but looks like Sofitel wants to earn that extra bucks exorbitantly, so any extra bottle of water comes at a huge price which you have to shell out from your pocket
4. Charging of water in the restaurant - this was very funny that they serve food and when we ask for water, they again ask you to sign for charging and that too a whopping 130 bucks where in you get the same water for 20 bucks in a shop outside, which by any means you cannot walk and get. So you have no option but to grin and sign the receipt. This is again a way of strategy for Sofitel to earn additional bucks.
5. AC - no complaints about the air conditioner effect, but when you switch off the air conditioner, then in some time, you can see water seeping off from the lights and dropping off to the floor. An irritating factor.
6. Indian Food - they have a Indian Chef, but in all the 6 days of time we ate there, we felt that the Indian chef does not know enough of Indian Cooking or does not have the facility or ingredient to cook real Indian Food. Making Indian curry with leaks and watercress is something no Indian will eat, i don’t know if the chef really understands this or not. The only thing which was good was the nan which he made. All other Indian food made are not with authentic Indian spices or vegetables which we generally use for Indian cooking. Not blaming the chef entirely but probably as i said, looks like the Indian chef might not have all the necessary ingredient to cook real Indian food.
7. Linen change - there is a card which mentioned that if you keep that card on the bed, the linen would not be changed. But in my entire trip i did not keep that card on the bed but never in my entire stay period the linen was changed. Looks like the house keeping department has clearly trained the staff not to change the linen even if the card is not placed in the bed. I had to call housekeeping and request them to change the linen, but looks like that information never reaches the person who really does the job. So we had to put up with the same linen for our entire period of stay which was disappointing.

Also before getting here we was constantly verifying trip advisor for all the details which the travelers enter and in most of the comments entered by the travelers, we feel the CONS which i have faced were also faced by other travelers and the general manager has ensured to reply that corrective action would be taken, but we did not see anything coming into good, since we too faced the same issues when we stayed in Sofitel.

The handling of customer is primary for a business which is in the service industry, but for Sofitel, there are a handful of staff who really makes up for all the issues which we face. But for a 5 star hotel resort, we would definitely expect more from them.

Overall, the resort is a fantastic one to stay and relax in the beach, use their beach toys which is part of the package and also the pool which is very nice or relax in one of their beach beds which is a fine touch. But all these comes with a lot of conditions like you should have a big pocket with lots of additional money to spend for drinking water, you should be a person who should eat all cuisines and not be a vegetarian( by any means this is not a vegetarian or Indian friendly hotel for food in spite of all the note which was mentioned in trip advisor by the general manager). Would recommend this hotel only for people who are comfortable to eat cuisines which are not palatable for Indians.