My best friend and I recently took a trip to Cayo Santa Maria and stayed at Grand Memories Sanctuary, a 4.5 star hotel. Our experience was not a pleasant one and wanted to inform Sunwing and perhaps the hotel itself. By the second day, we rated this hotel a 2.5 star. Why? According to the description of the hotel we received personalized check-in; butler service; preferential reservation at all a la carte restaurants; however we did not receive the following: proper late checkout; nightly turndown service; premium amenities in room; use of in-room robes; mini-bar to be restocked daily; evening hors d'oeurvres afternoon snacks including desserts in lounge and drinks in the drink dispenser in our room.
The hotel was not maintained; buildings seemed to be breaking down; some rooms had broken patio doors; telephone in the room did not work; ants and small bugs were crawling in our room.
Here is a detail of our displeasure:
1. Our Room: We got to the hotel around midnight on Thursday, August 8, 2019. We received our keys and went directly to our room. Once inside the room we noticed that our room was equipped with one king size bed and the balcony was facing forestry. At the time of booking I had requested two double beds and a room facing the pool. We complained and eventually were given a room on the third floor, again facing the forest.
2. Telephone: From day one, our telephone was not working. This was reported the following morning. When we left on August 14, the telephone was still not operational.
3. Full Bar: Our room was not equipped with a full bar. We were only given one bottle of water, a can of I believe 7-up, and a bottle of beer. As we were two people in the room I wasn't sure how it was going to work with one bottle of each item.
4. Beach Towels: We tried to exchange our beach towels and were unsuccessful until Saturday, August 10. Every time I went to the towel location, either the sign indicated the unavailability of towels or the door was closed. I tried different hours of the day and was unsuccessful. The only way our towel was exchanged was via the manager of Sanctuary. During our 7 day stay we only were successful in exchanging our towels twice.
5. Bugs: During the evening, we were beaten alive with small black bugs. These bugs caused an allergic reaction. We had no warning about these bugs. On Tuesday, August 13, the day before we were leaving, around 7 pm we could smell a strong gasoline odor. We noticed a truck driving around the resort spraying something that gave a strong odor and cloudiness in the sky. My question to you is why spray at that time when vacationers are going to the restaurants to eat? Shouldn't the spraying occur during the nighttime when people are asleep?
6. Neighbour: We had a neighbour from hell. I believe it was a family of four people. The noise that came from that room was outrageous. It felt as if we were in the same room as they were. My girlfriend had to walk to the front desk to complain as our telephone was not working. This is now day 4. The front desk was sympathetic and said a security person would go to the room in question. NO ONE came.
7. Excursions: Prior to leaving for our trip, I booked two excursions. The first excursion was the Sea Tour Zone 1 and the other was the Buenavista Social Club Zone 1.On Thursday morning, I went to the Sunwing desk to exchange my vouchers for both excursions. Buenavista Social Club Zone 1 was not an issue. The Sea Tour Zone 1 was the issue. I was told that the Sea Tour Zone 1 was not available and had no guarantee that it would be available and was told to switch our excursion to the Dolphin Swim-Zone 1, which cost us each an addition $20 USD. Needless to say we were not happy and had no choice.
8. Room Check Out: We were curious about how the check out would work. On Monday, August 12, 2019, we spoke to a very pleasure woman at the front desk inquiring about this issue. She informed us that we were entitled to two free hour and any additional hours requested would be an additional 1.00 Cuban Peso. We asked if we could pay right then and she indicated we had to come on the morning of our last day. So on Wednesday, we proceeded to finalize our check out and was told we would be charge 9.00 Cuban Peso per hour. So how come the huge difference in two days?We asked if there was a complimentary room, which they were not happy we were asking, and they asked us to book a time when we wanted this room and was told we would only have the room for 30 minutes
9. Luggage: We were told that the bell boys were available anytime we needed help with our luggage. We needed help to take them from our third floor room to the Sanctuary main lobby; to the complimentary room; to the main lobby of the Grand Memories. No one came to help us perform these tasks. We had to take our luggage down three flights of stairs; then wheel them over to the lobby; carry them to the complimentary room, which was on the second floor; then carry them down the two floors; wait for the golf cart for 30 minutes to take us to the main lobby of the Grand Memories hotel. If this is what they consider helping us I'm confused.
10. No to any of our requests: Every time we requested something we were told no we don't have that, or no we can't help you. The hotel had absolutely no customer service.
This isn't our first time to Cuba, and especially Cayo Santa Maria. We were very disappointed with the hotel; food at the a la carte restaurants were not tasty exception would be the Mediterranean Restaurant;, in fact we would leave the restaurants, (exception would be the Mediterranean Restaurant); and head over to the buffet restaurant, the bar tenders need a lesson in mixing drinks; and absolutely, without a doubt no customer service. We feel you had to be notified about our experience. People have asked us about our trip and the only two positive things I have told people is the amazing, clean, clear water at the beach and our concierges (or butlers) for our building.
I look forward to hearing from you about our experience.
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