Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita

We came to Four Seasons Mauritius for a family vacation with our closest friends and our toddlers. One of our friends was five months pregnant and this was her babymoon.

We came expecting a relaxing, special holiday. Instead, I genuinely felt more relaxed at home with my own staff than I did during this family vacation.

Far too much of our time was spent following up on things that should have been simple.

The service failures

• Restaurant service repeatedly fell short: We regularly had to wait for basic things like menus and water, and food could take too long.
• Basic in-villa requests needed repeated chasing: We requested small plates for our toddler, and at one point I was literally cutting grapes for her on my hand while waiting for them.
• Our toddler’s milk was repeatedly mishandled: The apple milkshake we ordered once simply never came. Plain milk was sent instead, and the actual milkshake had to be chased and made later. We also repeatedly had to remind the team that her milkshakes needed to be properly filtered and that her milk needed to be replenished. We had already explained her requirements in detail and repeatedly. Yet we were still interrupted during dinner at least four or five times, either with apologies for missed service or questions about her milkshake. We were there to have dinner with our families, not to keep revisiting the same basic request.
• Endless explanations instead of solutions: When we asked for almond butter for our toddler’s milkshake, we were told it wasn’t available at that restaurant and would have to be brought from another restaurant within the same property. This became a recurring frustration. There seemed to be a constant stream of explanations for simple requests, when what we really needed was for someone to take ownership and get them done.

A very upsetting babymoon

• Hair burned during a hair appointment: My friend was five months pregnant and on her babymoon. During her first, morning hair appointment, the curling tongs were dropped onto her hands. Later, when another stylist came to try and fix her hair, multiple sections were found to have been burned and hidden inside her hair by the morning stylist.
• Inadequate medical assistance: A nurse came after the incident and tried to apply a cream that was not pregnancy-friendly. We had to independently research the medication ourselves and ultimately stopped her from having it applied, without meaningful assistance from the medical professional who was supposed to be helping her. The aloe vera gel we had requested was also not brought. We were simply told that she would check and get back to us, rather than actually bringing it or resolving the situation. For a five-star resort, this was deeply concerning.

This was particularly upsetting because she was five months pregnant and this was supposed to be her babymoon. What should have been a relaxing and memorable experience became something we had to actively manage.

Even the assurances didn’t hold

• Burnt food, immediately after being assured things would improve: This happened immediately after the Experience Manager, Cecile, had spoken to us about our concerns and assured us that things would be taken care of. We genuinely hoped that conversation would mark a turning point. Unfortunately, another very basic service failure happened almost immediately afterwards.

What improved

Things around food and dining did eventually improve significantly once Amit, the Director of Restaurants, became involved.

We started receiving clear updates on when food was ready, and restaurant service became much more efficient.

It showed us that the resort is capable of delivering the level of service we expected. The problem was that this level of service was not consistent.

The people who did make a difference

There were individual team members who were genuinely wonderful.

Chef Sonam consistently took excellent care of us during our dinners at both the Japanese and Indian restaurants. He went above and beyond by curating a vegetarian menu for us and even bringing us samples of some of the new dishes he was working on in the restaurant.

Darshini, our babysitter, was wonderful with our toddler, and some of the housekeeping staff took very good care of us.

When I actually think about what went well during this vacation, or what I would tell my family and friends about the hotel, I genuinely struggle to think of one positive aspect of the overall hotel experience.

There were individual staff members who were wonderful, but the experience as a whole did not leave us with a single thing we would say, “That was really well done.”

A deeply uncomfortable interaction with management

Cecile, the Experience Manager, told us that staff cannot work 24/7 and need to sleep, despite never having asked or implied that anyone should work 24/7.

She then explained the roles of housekeeping, concierge and private points of contact to us. There is nothing wrong with explaining how these roles work. It was the tone and manner in which it was communicated that felt patronising and condescending.

Given the context of the interaction, it also felt to us like there were racial undertones to the way we were being spoken to.

The bottom line

We absolutely understand that mistakes happen. One or two things going wrong during a holiday is understandable.

What was difficult to accept was the repeated pattern of basic requests being missed, having to chase them multiple times, and then having to escalate them to get them resolved.

At this price point, and from a brand like Four Seasons, we expected a consistently high level of service and ownership.

We came here to spend time with our families, enjoy our children, relax and make beautiful memories with our closest friends.

There were certainly people here who cared and tried their best. But overall, the experience was nowhere close to the level of service and care we expected from Four Seasons.

Decided to splash out for our last night - what a treat to have dined at Awase at the four seasons. Excellent service and spectacular food and what a hotel to have dined in. You can certainly tell this is one of, if not the best hotel on the island! Back to Awase, food prep, dishes and service were outstanding. We started with soft shelled crab and prawn tempura followed by seafood laksa then by California maki, salmon and yellow fin tuna nigiri then onto blackened cod and a soy pork belly finished with the Pearl and a chocolate yuzu bar. Honestly one of my nicest dinners anywhere . A fabulous dining experience and superb cuisine.