We stayed at Carlise Bay last December and having travelled all over the world to benchmark what we found, had a very disappointing stay - poor value for money experience.

A number of guests we met at the Hotel had problems and complained to the manager at the Hotel - being in the Industry I chose to write to the Owner of the Hotel and never received a response.

We would not go back and would not recommend Carlisle Bay to anyone who enjoys a luxury holiday experience.

I've posted a copy of my letter below - with just one or two details blacked out/ammended


Gordon Campbell-Gray
c/o One Aldwych
1 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4RH

25 January 2008

Carlisle Bay, 16 December – 28th December 2007
Not a complaint, but hopefully some constructive comments – we shan’t be recommending it or going back though.

My wife, Lorraine, our 5 year old daughter Trinity and I stayed at Carlisle Bay as noted above. To contextualise my comments, our recent Christmas and New Year holidays have included Beau Rivage, Mauritius (twice), Dinarobin, Mauritius, Plantation, St Lucia as well as trips to Tobago (twice), the Seychelles and Maldives.

Whilst quite pleasant in many ways, I don’t think Carlisle Bay offers a value for money experience for what was a £25K holiday. It most certainly did not, in any way, meet our expectations. Rather than list a whole catalogue of points, some of which individually might be considered insignificant, I offer my thoughts under three headings proposed as requiring change:

1 – Leadership by example
We stayed for 12 nights. The senior management team are not evident through the Hotel. Yes certainly the General Manager was at the Christmas Tree Lighting event combined with his management drinks party – but we did not meet any of the management team. Occasionally someone I deduced was a member of the management team would come into the restaurant of an evening and stand by the host desk. They would not approach tables, did not get involved in service and I never saw anyone senior dealing with the service or food quality issues in the restaurant that were repeatedly evident.

I once saw the General Manager on the Beach, but no-one else.

If the staff do not see the management team leading by example, knowing their guests names, asking about the holiday, enquiring if all is well, dealing with minor issues before they become major ones then they will not learn to do so themselves. I think it is a missed opportunity which sets a tone in the Hotel.

2 – Attention to detail
There are many items needing attention, from maintenance such as the cracked glass in the sunbed tables on the beach (ours remained with us for the whole holiday despite me putting it to one side on more than one occasion), the loose arms and missing feet sliders on dining room chairs, the broken pane of glass in the gymnasium window, the gym TV remote held together with black insulating tape through the fact that currents wash the beach with broken glass all day long and it is left to guests to pick it up to the linen par stocks needing attention as the towels in the room on arrival were approaching threadbare and these improved through the holiday as more stock was introduced to cope with occupancy I imagine – but the old ones were still in circulation. The mattress was most uncomfortable and I suspect is approaching the end of its useful life. There are insufficient umbrellas on the beach and when the couple next to us had the one they had damaged in the wind they were told they could not have another as there were no more bases. They had to not only ask repeatedly, then insist, but show the beach attendant how to remove the damaged end from the base and replace the umbrella themselves.

I used the Gym on 10 out of 12 days. It was attended just twice within that period.

The Christmas gift of a digital picture frame was well received, but why an unknown Chinese brand with a USA transformer and plug attached that you can’t use in the UK.

The day of check out when we were initially told we would have to vacate our room by noon although not leaving the Hotel until 7.00pm but could have a shower in the Spa simply lacks thought, attention and preparation for the needs of the guest. Eventually, after having to make ourselves difficult, we were allocated Room 16. A very poor state of repair, a rather unsavoury odour and no hot water had us heading for the Spa showers anyway. We shouldn’t have to make ourselves difficult to get what we want though; it should be thought through and dealt with in advance.

3 – Exceeding expectations – providing a wow factor
We’ve been to some wonderful places for Christmas and New Year and so we know what exceeding expectations looks like. For Food and Beverage, I’d suggest that you might look at the Christmas Day or New Years Eve buffet at the Dinarobin Hotel in Mauritius which rates as one of the best Food and Beverage experiences we’ve ever had. Instead, the roulade of Goats Cheese and roulade of Turkey was honestly, and after some reflection, simply the worst Christmas Day meal I can actually recall ever eating and I understand some people actually walked out. 12 nights eating in Indigo cause menu fatigue of the biggest order and the abundance of fresh fish, simply grilled, that was promised in the marketing material failed to materialise. Repeatedly sending Tuna back to be cooked as ordered becomes tedious.

My wife had an aromatherapy massage in the Spa, as a direct result of that treatment did not sleep for three days and when we insisted that the Hotel do something about it, and an arrangement was made for an osteopath to visit, the Hotel attempted to add a 50% service charge addition to the specialist’s bill.

Two Christmas Trees don’t constitute Christmas Decorations to us, I’d suggest looking at a Mauritian Hotel will demonstrate the way that “low key” as Andrew calls it Christmas can be done in a local and stylish fashion.

Children’s tea, especially with the number of children in house, provides the opportunity to be so creative and wow the family, but so often the food approached being inedible and the loose organisation of a few chairs and tables scattered around an area of the bar lacked the vision and imagination to set it aside that we’ve seen in many other locations.

Gordon, this letter is not a complaint, it is simply fact that we were very much looking forward to our annual Christmas vacation and it cost such a lot of money that we are so disappointed that the Hotel failed to live up to reputation, expectation and our interpretation of what value for money looks like.

On reading Trip Advisor.com upon return I see reviews of Christmas and New Year for Carlisle Bay are 50/50 mixed. Hopefully my comments may be able to help your team change that ratio.

If you would like to meet up and discuss any element of my feedback in more detail, or perhaps expand on our experiences as I have chosen not to include every occurrence or observation, then my offices are in London and I’m sure we would be able to find a mutually convenient time.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Metcalfe
cc Peter Williams, Chairman, Seasons in Style