The Weekly Flyer

Does anyone have an upcoming reservation at The Grand Mauritian Resort & Spa?

I can't seem to find much information on it here or on the net. Like: was it built new or is it a remodeled hotel changed to Luxury collection?

I have a stay here in 09 and will report back then. Hoping someone has a reservation shortly after it opens on June 1, 08.

Added by mod:
Discrepancy in facility amenities from Land-of-Miles July 12, 2008 post:

SanDiego1K

According to the website, it is a new property.

The Weekly Flyer

Looks like the hotel website now says July 1, 2008. Wonder what the reason for the push back was.

MKB

I had a reservation for the first week of June at the Grand Mauritian that was re-booked at Le Méridien by an excellent Platinum Concierge when the opening date was pushed back. Not only was the rate much lower, but he told me that the booking manager at the Grand Mauritian had said she would ensure I was looked after at Le Méridien.

That translated into a confirmed upgrade to the Nirvana Royal Suite and a bottle of champagne and fresh flowers in the room.

We drove the whole length of the coastal road in this region and couldn't spot the Grand Mauritian.

Land-of-Miles

We are staying at the GM from the 8th to 10th July. We will be staying at the Hilton and Meridien immediately before this stay.

andymo99

I have a 4 night stay at the Grand Mauritian in late August, on Cash and Points.

We have a reservation for the same nights at the Le Méridien Ile Maurice, also on Cash & Points. I'd been holding that because at spg.com, the Grand Mauritian has not shown up with C&P availability for any dates that I search. Given the online descriptions of the hotels, I'd been hoping for the Grand Mauritian, but the C&P value at LM was too much to pass up on a pricey vacation.

One day while on the phone with the Plat concierge, I asked into the absence of C&P at the hotel. In the past, I've had luck with the concierge asking hotels for the inventory directly. As she typed away, she said she had availability through her system, and so it must be a spg.com issue. As a result, I'm now booked at both properties.

I am leaning heavily toward trying the brand new hotel, which seems much nicer, newer (obviously) and more upscale. My only worry is whether they will be versed in treatment of Plat guests (this is a honeymoon trip, to boot). I am guessing that as a new hotel, they will either go overboard for Plats or ignore the status completely. Any thoughts here? It does seem that the Le Méridien Ile Maurice treats Plats well.

Anyone in the know on the island who can speak to location preference of each vs. the other?

Land-of-Miles, I am eagerly awaiting your trip report! Please advise!

Land-of-Miles

OK I will give you some first impressions which may be unfair since we still have another 5 days of our stay left.

Firstly the Meridien is located approximately 3km from the GM although not exactly in a straight line. It is located next to the Maritim which you can see across Turtle Bay and is directly adjacent to a construction site which will be the new IC Mauritius in due course.

IMHO this property is not ready to be open. Only one restaurant is available in the evening and the Spa is not yet open. We were told that "arrangements" could be made to have Spa treatment but to be honest at c.€150 per massage they would have to be pretty outstanding arrangements to be tempting. Only one Pool is available and construction work is still ongoing which is perhaps why one "wing" of the property appears to be unoccupied.

The cost of things here is really quite eye-wateringly expensive. I am not a cheapskate by any means and cheerfully spent well over £1200 just in incidentals in 5 days at the Hilton but I can honestly say my Jaw has never dropped more than reading the wine list here. The mark up appears to be in the order of 700% over MRU local prices let alone prices back in the UK (around 1000% mark up). Everything is charged in Euros which offers potential for further bill padding when "exchange rates" are considered and the bill is rendered into Mauritian Rupees. I paid €72 + 5% service charge this evening for a mediocre bottle of Chablis. Wines tend to be expensive here in MRU but even South African varieties which tend to be better priced here are extortionately expensive. Again I happily spent £120+ a bottle at Melanzane at the Hilton Maurtius for bottles of Montrachet which appeared to be fair (not exceptional value) so this is not a cost issue rather it is a value issue. 2 cocktails each in the main bar (4 in total) came to €46 and they were from the cheaper end of the menu.

The property itself when it is fully open will be good, right now it lacks a certain amount of atmosphere. Eating in the sole restaurant is like sitting in the midst of a vast empty dining room. The food was however rather nice. As for the room it is difficult to tell what type of room I have. I booked the cheapest available and have a reasonably large bedroom with large bathroom and a small sitting area in front of the bed plus an absolutely vast terrace containing a sofa (yes sofa) 2 sunloungers, 2 outdoor chairs a table and 2 chairs and 2 additional soft recliner chairs. This room may be a luxury suite (it certainly doesn't match the description of a junior suite) but the internal area is nothing especially stunning even though the furniture is pleasant and tasteful. The website speaks of "personal butlers" however none have been in evidence to Mrs LoM and I thus far and we found the Butlers at the MRU Hilton to be superb (unpacking and later repacking our belongings).

Nothing seems to work as well as it should. We had no hot water for several hours after check in and this evening after dinner we found no hot water again. The phone/TV system is very high tech (Cisco VoIP phone, AVOD networked TV) but execution is poor and much content is missing. The staff are trying exceptionally hard and I have thus far managed to avoid losing my temper however I lost it a little this evening to find no turndown service had been given, dirty towels remained on the floor but we had been left some complimentary desserts and our terrace door was left wide open so our room also had some complimentary wildlife.

To be frank I would avoid the Meridien like the plague but in all honestly until I was absolutely certain that the teething problems here are resolved I would recommend the Hilton above the GM. I do not expect this resort to be anything like fully functional by the time we leave which is a shame because I think it will be lovely when it is truly up and running successfuly. I am bitterly regretting my decision to split my stay between the Hilton and the Meridien/GM (since I did originally have a complete redemption stay booked at the Hilton). I chose to move on after a week because I learned last time I came to MRU that spending too much time in one place gets a little stale. In this case I would welcome a little boredom in return for some predictability.

I will update further after my stay when I may be able to pull things into more context. My thought process has been thrown somewhat in the last couple of days however. I have prioritised Starwood over Hilton for the better part of 3 years now and until yesterday had never had a bad experience in over 70 stays, my confidence has taken a severe dent now.

andymo99

Land-of-Miles, thanks for the prompt and detailed (if disappointing) posting.

Given the values vs. very expensive paid resorts on the island, I am only considering the two SPG properties. It does seem that the GM at 4800 points + $90 is the better choice vs. LM at 4000 points + $60. Agree?

I am hoping that in the almost two months before our arrival, they will have worked out some of the kinks. As for the food and drink pricing, I just don't expect to consume much onsite. I realize that everywhere will be expensive on the island, but we'll still do better by exploring offsite for meals. Even if it were a good value, we tend to shun hotel/resort dining everywhere. We'll have a rental car.

Thanks for any other tips that you might have. I will be sure to augment this thread in a few months with our own experiences.

Land-of-Miles

I will post more details and a link to some pictures next week. As for value between the properties it is a little hard to say. Just looking at the room prices yes the GM is the better value, especially with a decent room upgrade (which shouldn't be a problem off season in August given the number of Junior Suites and rooms like ours I have noticed here).

If the Meridien staff had been better (and maybe they would be without a huge conference to deal with) then with a functional Duplex suite and access to the Nirvana facilities I might give the Meridien the edge, either way is a bit of a gamble. MRU is not a cheap place but neither is it uniformly expensive. The pricing structure at the GM is perhaps reflective of their intended target market (the St Geran/Le Tousserok crowd?). I can only compare to the Hilton which has for some time been one of the better hotels on the West Coast and whilst the GM seems a little more upscale (when fully functional) the costs for everything but rooms (where actually the Hilton is more expensive) is approximately 30-50% more at the GM.

Even with a hire car both properties are some way from anything apart from other hotels. We passed a few restaurants on the way to Grande Baie yesterday but nothing seemed massively appealing. Also you will not want to leave the property every time you fancy a drink and even if you did you will drive 4km+ to the closest small convenience store (less from the Meridien). Drinks prices were far more reasonable at the Meridien (in some cases almost 50% less for exactly the same drink) and there is more restaurant choice at LeM, the feature restaurant La Faya had a decent menu and prices comparable to Seasons, currently the only restaurant available at the GM.

Mrs LoM and myself like to get out and about during the day and stay in the hotel at night which was our pattern at the Hilton (and for most of the hotels we stay in outside of cities) so travelling around in the evening is not our preference. It is almost compulsory here however, since the menu available in the one restaurant which is open is not varied enough to be appealing for 6 successive nights.

I will probably be able to give a better overview at the end of our stay than right now. The staff at the GM are very good. If not always completely on the ball they are willing and seem genuinely keen to please. The GM introduced herself and warned us about the staff being new and that certan kinks in the service may occur, which I thought was entirely reasonable. I do wonder how many paying guests are here as opposed to comped guests and Starwood staff right now.

Whilst I accept that service kinks may be inevitable so soon after opening I would expect to see a pricing structure which reflected this (e.g. a long happy hour in the feature bar). The current opening rate promo I think extends to December, so it seems that the early guests take the pain at similar prices to the later guests who should have a smoother experience. I would also expect contingency restaurant arrangements to be in place either by extending the opening of the beach restaurant beyond the current 7pm closure or offering reservations and a shuttle to La Faya at the Meridien.

I have stayed at several properties just after opening (including the Hilton MRU in 2001) and the openings were handled much better elsewhere it seemed to me. For instance the Spa at the Hilton MRU offered discounts of 50-75% to encourage the small number of customers at opening to use the service and familiarise the staff with the treatment menu etc. I also stayed at the Hilton DXB several days after it opened (in I think 2000) and had a similar experience. Perhaps Hilton just handle opening better than Starwood?

jarino

Sad to hear that the GM opened with only one restaurant - must be really boring. As it's now off-season, even the good/popular restaurants will often look deserted and not appealing. From my experience, here are two good restaurants in Grand Baie:

Fusion
Fancy upscale restaurant offering fusion food. Coming from the south, follow the main Grand Baie coastal road heading north, on the right side close to the TOTAL petrol station there's a basic Italian restaurant called "Luigi" on the ground floor (the pizza is good though), the Fusion is on the first floor.

Don Camillo
Upscale Italian restaurant (= no pizza ).
Main Coastal road on the right side, at the CALTEX petrol station.

There are good restaurants in Mont-Choisy, too, which is closer to the GM. I have no recommendations as I stay in GB and I'm usually too lazy to drive there.

Land-of-Miles

Thanks for the recommendations we may well try them out. Mon Choisir did look quite pleasant and "Il Pescatore" looks interesting. We hadn't noticed anything particularly appealing in Grande Baie but the Fusion seems worth a go.

Have you tried the Japanese Restuarant (I think La Japanoise or something like that) in Pointe Cannoniers?

jarino

Unfortunately I've no experience with this one as I'm not into sushi etc, but it looks good from the outside. Another possibility: Many hotels accept outside guests with advance reservation in their a-la-carte restaurants. As you have the Oberoi, the Maritime and the Plantation in the vicinity of the GM, that could be worth a try.

yyzlhr

I am also at the GM now as well - was here for the opening party that the owners put on last night . The Prime Minister of Mauritius and President of Starwood EMEA were there as well. The hotel is almost only family and friends of the two owners (who also own Le Meridien).

I can say the Spa is open and operating.

The rest of the hotel is not fully operational butbesides the lack of uniforms and not all outlets are open they did a pretty good jib to get this ready. The hotel only broke ground in March 2007

LoM I have PM'd you regarding the Spa!

Land-of-Miles

The Opening Party last night was pretty good although it was a little hard to mingle given that we didn't know anyone apart from some of the hotel staff and management we had met previously.

Interestingly the Italian Restaurant menu (not yet open) was also available at the event in a section of the feature Bar. The menu was interesting although lacking a little variety perhaps and perhaps with a more southern Italian Focus. After we signed the bill we found that our whole meal was free as part of the opening event (shame we didn't know that in advance or we might have been more aggresive in our exploration of the wine list).

Overall we had a great and rather well lubricated evening. The Mauritius PM did go on a bit though

Land-of-Miles

Not sure this is the right place for it but we went to Fusion tonight and it was very very good and really reasonably priced at around £110 all in for 3 courses, cocktails, wine and water. It was hard to find any dish over £10 but I managed it with the Wagyu beef coming in at a commendable £18.

I heartily recommend this restaurant to anyone else hitting the GM, and at a price which will come in at less than your wine bill at a GM restaurant (for like for like wine).