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TRIPADVISOR - Laura - 8 Mar 2019 - - - Beautiful setting but huge let down - - - On the second day at the pool, staff walked through the pool area with a large tray of raw, uncovered chicken thighs - we were horrified. We went out of hotel most nights in a taxi to nice restaurants as we didn’t want Zilwa to ruin our holiday. For reference, Taxis are not cheap. But the Grand Baie area has a good offering. The hotel is in a beautiful setting and the facility overall is well maintained. But the sea is not clear blue water (murky / slimey under foot), and sea shoes are an absolute must. While we were there we saw three people get their feet sliced open whilst walking in the sea. The beaches at the hotel feel man made. The swimming pools were a bit murky, and not adequately sized for the size of the hotel. The hotel suffers from sunbed syndrome where guests put towels down really early in the morning to reserve beds as there aren’t enough shaded areas for guests. Mosquitoes are a big problem. The tennis court at the hotel was the best bit, never being used and easy to book. Lovely concept, but poorly executed - relying heavily on the natural landscape. Good places to go: ile aux cerfe, mont choisy, trout aux Biches, beachcomber hotels all look great, grande Baie, la botteghita, the beach house. (https://tinyurl.com/y4etwhpo)
When we arrived at the hotel, we were ‘welcomed to paradise’ by the porter. Then again by the bar staff and then again by the receptionist. At this point our expectations were high. After 20 hours of travel, we wanted to get to our room and have a shower, but the receptionist wanted to give us a welcome briefing. This wasn’t appropriate at this time. We filled in an online questionnaire for the hotel on the second day as Zilwa issue one. Telling them all of the above, we then had dinner at the beach restaurant. The manager came over to discuss the issues we had flagged. That night we had a great meal and good service. But after this the place was straight back to previous form - poor. The evening offering at the hotel is like butlins at the main bar, hectic and definitely not relaxing. The boat bar by the sea is devoid of atmosphere, and the staff are unfriendly and moody. No pride in what they do.
When we got to the room, it smelled a mixture of damp & urine - this continued for the entire trip. The room did not meet our expectations, we booked the superior beachfront room - there was nothing superior about the room, it was basic and smelly.
We were told we had to reserve the hotel restaurants, so for our first night we tried to book the Asian restaurant and were told it was full for the next 3 days. This is the tone for all the restaurants. And when you walk by them at 8.30 at night, they are sparsely filled. So we believe management only want a specific quota in the restaurants each night and the rest must eat in the buffet - which was average. We ventured out of the hotel for dinner as the service, formulaic approach and quality was poor.