On arrival to our room the first thing I noticed was that many of the slats, which formed shelves, in the wardrobes were missing and I was afraid that these may have been used as supports for Tom, Dick or Harry !!
All fears were unfounded. A new management structure is in place. The General Manager is a workaholic, doing eighteen hours plus a day, seven days a week. It was very rare he wasn’t seen somewhere on the site.
We only required the services of the maintenance team once, a blocked basin drain. This was cleared within an hour.
The hotel has an enthusiastic backlog maintenance programme underway and day by day improvements to the buildings, grounds & gardens etc. was obvious.
The hotel doesn’t claim to be five star and it isn’t. It doesn’t claim to offer top class cuisine and it doesn’t. It does, however, offer a warm, friendly, environment at a very fair price. Although all inclusive, we found the menu far more varied than most AI hotels we’ve been to in the past. If there was nothing on the menu that one could eat the management were more than happy to do a ‘special’. The food was promptly and pleasantly served, always hot and very tasty. Most evenings we were served at our table, not the normal AI scramble to the buffet. Breakfast was also very well presented with plenty of variety and an abundance of food through out the serving time. Perhaps the lunch menu could be varied, it did become a little monotonous.
The bar staff were always pleasant and served as fast as they were able. I did read a report on these pages that somebody had questioned as to why the staff seemed to hang about in the corner and did not always see new people come into the bar. The reason being that all drinks served have to be written down and the client’s signature acquired, even for AI guests. Before the close of play the hundreds of receipts have to be priced and totalled up. Quite a tall order whilst serving at the same time. Perhaps a more automated system needs to be introduced.
My wife became ill with a savage throat infection and dehydration, eventually requiring hospitalisation ( now that was an experience ) during our stay. The hotel staff couldn’t have been more helpful, showing kindness and concern at all times, also preparing food to take to the hospital.
The Brits are well known for keeping their reserve and not complaining at hotels if something is not to their liking. They seem to prefer to get home and then moan. Try making the hotels’ management aware of the problem, giving them a chance to put the matter right. If you don’t get satisfaction you can still complain again when you get home.
Although our holiday was somewhat curtailed we have nothing but praise for the management and staff at the Tropikist and hope that the owners support the innovative and radical changes that the manager is introducing.
Overall, a very good place to stay, at a very reasonable price and no hesitation to visit again.
NB We did try the Chinese Restaurant, next to the hotel, which has been promoted on these pages. A very good meal but if you have the chicken beware of the copious quantities of bone shard. I think the chicken must have meet with a serious road accident or had a very unpleasant encounter with the mad axe man !!!!!!
