We took my mother in law here for her birthday. First the good--the hotel was exquisite--an incredibly beautiful Tuscan style resort with very ornate décor set in a beautiful canyon. The resort got off to a great start by letting my 5 year old daughter pick a treasure from a pirate treasure chest and they also left her a big cookie in our room upon arrival (which some people may not like, but we were OK with it). The food in Amaya and Club M was also very good albeit very pricey (entrees at Amaya were $20 to $50 and I suspect the budget conscious will go off property). We also had two memorable customer service experiences with Garrison (a waiter) and Dave (a Bellman) putting in perfect performances.
The bad--the hotel is pricey and you are nickeled and dimed for everything even though people have to pay a resort fee of $50 per day (our package waived this fee). Want to print a boarding pass? Pay. Want to use a computer in the business center? Pay. Want a plain bagel and a glass of orange juice? $10. The list goes on. In my view, if resort fees are standard, this kind of stuff should be included.
The bad--we had two very significant customer service failures at the hotel. At the pool, our towels were taken away while we were swimming. The problem was that my room key was thrown...We took my mother in law here for her birthday. First the good--the hotel was exquisite--an incredibly beautiful Tuscan style resort with very ornate décor set in a beautiful canyon. The resort got off to a great start by letting my 5 year old daughter pick a treasure from a pirate treasure chest and they also left her a big cookie in our room upon arrival (which some people may not like, but we were OK with it). The food in Amaya and Club M was also very good albeit very pricey (entrees at Amaya were $20 to $50 and I suspect the budget conscious will go off property). We also had two memorable customer service experiences with Garrison (a waiter) and Dave (a Bellman) putting in perfect performances.
The bad--the hotel is pricey and you are nickeled and dimed for everything even though people have to pay a resort fee of $50 per day (our package waived this fee). Want to print a boarding pass? Pay. Want to use a computer in the business center? Pay. Want a plain bagel and a glass of orange juice? $10. The list goes on. In my view, if resort fees are standard, this kind of stuff should be included.
The bad--we had two very significant customer service failures at the hotel. At the pool, our towels were taken away while we were swimming. The problem was that my room key was thrown away/lost in the process. The pool manager went to get us a new one, but changed the key codes as a security precaution. The problem was...we had a grandmother wandering the resort and she now could not get into her room. My wife had to leave the pool and find her (the mother in law did not have a cell phone) and give her a new key. The problem was that my mother in law had wandered off to the golf resort and it took my wife 2 hours to track her down (she found her futilely trying to get in her room with the old key). The net effect was that my wife had lost an entire afternoon of precious time with her family and my elderly and infirm MIL wandered the resort homeless. The hotel did not seem to understand what they had done saying "it happens" and saying "we will take care of you at club M" where we were dining that night. We went to club M and had dinner. When the bill came, only our drinks were comped (two Diet Cokes and a glass of wine).
We were annoyed, but just let it slide and went to SeaWorld and LEGOLAND. On our final night, we started putting our 5 year old to bed at 7 PM (her normal bed time). During this process, very loud music started playing outside. The hotel was hosting a charity event with a band and large sound system literally 30 yards from our window. The music was so loud, the glass in our windows rattled. We put up with this until 9 PM when I called to complain. The volume went down a little, but not enough for sleep. I went downstairs and confronted the manager. I gave him a hard time about hosting a concert at a hotel at night and told him he should warn guests before they check in if they are going to host a night concert. I also reminded him of our poor treatment at the pool and asked for this nights stay to be free. He apologized profusely and graciously agreed to my request which saved me over $800 on two rooms.
The bottom line--this is a truly beautiful if pricey hotel. Service (excluding the notable failures) is very good. The hotel management seems a little lacking in empathy, but recovers nicely when you explain the consequences of their actions.More
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