Gran Courlan luxury? Far from it.
Posted: Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:14 pm
We have just returned from a week's stay at the Gran Courlan and to use the words "4*" or "luxury" in the same sentence would be inappropriate!
This place has no, and I mean ZERO concept of customer service. The majority of waiting staff (there are a couple of exceptions, but not many), were surly, slow, moody, and acting as though they were doing you a favour by being there. Orders are taken whilst staring off into middle distance, food and drink delivered without eye-contact, let alone a smile.
Whilst on the subject of food, it is distinctly substandard. The menu in the formal restaurant (very appealing looking) bore no resemblance to what was actually served. (eg. chinese vegetables turned out to be carrot and potato and such like!). I did not eat one thing this week that I would offer to a guest in my house, and I've eaten better burgers at McDs. At breakfast, they saw fit to make one single cook with one single hob available to cook the eggs to order, which resulted in long queues and long waits for everyone.
The early evening "canapees" were essentially deep fried dough and fried plantein, with virtually no variation on a day to day basis.
With buffet meals, no one seemed to be checking the trays, so that often, especially during the later meal shifts, there was nothing left, and no one seemed to be in any hurry to supply re-fills.
If you didn't like the house wine (which is fairly grim), the cost of actually purchasing halfway decent wine was exorbitant. They charge $39 for a bottle of wine which would cost $9 max in a UK supermarket!
The tennis courts are in ropey condition and on 3 consecutive nights it took 3 different people to figure out how to turn the floodlights on.
There aren't enough umbrellas to go round in the sunlounging area, and half the ones that are there are in tatters.
The rooms are clean, spacious and what I would call "standard Caribbean" in style, nothing special, but fine. The plumbing however, has it's problems and if you turn on the shower, the pipes emmitt a sound similar to someone's bowel reaction to a bad Vindaloo! The sliding doors of the wardrobe were so old that they barely shifted.
As for the Spa treatments... they pre-book everything for you and there is no flexibility to change treatments, usually on the grounds that "the hotel is full". Strangely, if you want to pay for addition treatments, appointments are suddenly available. As for the treatments themselves, frankly, when I am paying for a treatment as part of a package, I expect these to be proper treatments of at least 1/2 hour. Sitting in a bubble bath with Lavender Oil in it, is NOT a treatment. The massage I received was ill administered and lasted a maximum of 20 minutes. The salt scrub was a complete waste of time, and again, sloppily adminstered, working on two people in tandem to save time. The result is that you have about 10 minutes therapists attention. We gave up on the treatments after day 2.
There is a dive shop by the beach, but there seem to be some "issues" between the hotel and the dive company, the reception was certainly not helpful in putting me in contact with the dive center, and were even vague in their description of how to get there. The dive center itself, Eco Divers, were largely friendly but not overly organised. It was not unusal for dives to set off over an hour late and most dive plans were completely abandoned as soon as we hit the water. But their rental equipment seemed in good condition (I brought my own so can't speak from personal use) and I saw no equipment malfunctions whilst I was there. They carry oxygen on the boat, which is a converted fishing boat, and which can get very crowded on occasion.
Back to the hotel though, there really isn't one single positive thing that I can say about this place. It is third rate, and I would strongly dissuade anyone from staying here until they go through a serious upgrade.
I'm sure some people would consider this to be a lovely place. But if you have ANY previous experience of 4* plus accomodation and treatment, then you will find the Gran Courlan sorely lacking.
This place has no, and I mean ZERO concept of customer service. The majority of waiting staff (there are a couple of exceptions, but not many), were surly, slow, moody, and acting as though they were doing you a favour by being there. Orders are taken whilst staring off into middle distance, food and drink delivered without eye-contact, let alone a smile.
Whilst on the subject of food, it is distinctly substandard. The menu in the formal restaurant (very appealing looking) bore no resemblance to what was actually served. (eg. chinese vegetables turned out to be carrot and potato and such like!). I did not eat one thing this week that I would offer to a guest in my house, and I've eaten better burgers at McDs. At breakfast, they saw fit to make one single cook with one single hob available to cook the eggs to order, which resulted in long queues and long waits for everyone.
The early evening "canapees" were essentially deep fried dough and fried plantein, with virtually no variation on a day to day basis.
With buffet meals, no one seemed to be checking the trays, so that often, especially during the later meal shifts, there was nothing left, and no one seemed to be in any hurry to supply re-fills.
If you didn't like the house wine (which is fairly grim), the cost of actually purchasing halfway decent wine was exorbitant. They charge $39 for a bottle of wine which would cost $9 max in a UK supermarket!
The tennis courts are in ropey condition and on 3 consecutive nights it took 3 different people to figure out how to turn the floodlights on.
There aren't enough umbrellas to go round in the sunlounging area, and half the ones that are there are in tatters.
The rooms are clean, spacious and what I would call "standard Caribbean" in style, nothing special, but fine. The plumbing however, has it's problems and if you turn on the shower, the pipes emmitt a sound similar to someone's bowel reaction to a bad Vindaloo! The sliding doors of the wardrobe were so old that they barely shifted.
As for the Spa treatments... they pre-book everything for you and there is no flexibility to change treatments, usually on the grounds that "the hotel is full". Strangely, if you want to pay for addition treatments, appointments are suddenly available. As for the treatments themselves, frankly, when I am paying for a treatment as part of a package, I expect these to be proper treatments of at least 1/2 hour. Sitting in a bubble bath with Lavender Oil in it, is NOT a treatment. The massage I received was ill administered and lasted a maximum of 20 minutes. The salt scrub was a complete waste of time, and again, sloppily adminstered, working on two people in tandem to save time. The result is that you have about 10 minutes therapists attention. We gave up on the treatments after day 2.
There is a dive shop by the beach, but there seem to be some "issues" between the hotel and the dive company, the reception was certainly not helpful in putting me in contact with the dive center, and were even vague in their description of how to get there. The dive center itself, Eco Divers, were largely friendly but not overly organised. It was not unusal for dives to set off over an hour late and most dive plans were completely abandoned as soon as we hit the water. But their rental equipment seemed in good condition (I brought my own so can't speak from personal use) and I saw no equipment malfunctions whilst I was there. They carry oxygen on the boat, which is a converted fishing boat, and which can get very crowded on occasion.
Back to the hotel though, there really isn't one single positive thing that I can say about this place. It is third rate, and I would strongly dissuade anyone from staying here until they go through a serious upgrade.
I'm sure some people would consider this to be a lovely place. But if you have ANY previous experience of 4* plus accomodation and treatment, then you will find the Gran Courlan sorely lacking.
) returned after two delightful weeks at LGC and, after many years of business and personal travel staying at some of the best (and worst) hotels in the world, DO feel competent to make comparison. I can honestly state that, for the money spent on this holiday, LGC exceeded my expectations in every respect.