We looked forward to our first trip to Mexico and to this hotel based on the reviews. Whilst conscious it was 3 star, the reviews gave the impression that the food, staff, surroundings exceeded the 3 star rating. We were disappointed. When we were there there was a dispute with the immediate private residential neighbor. Loud music played with outside speakers from 7am to 11pm. Not the hotels fault you say? No attempt to advise hotel guests about the issue and what they were doing about it. We had to ask after enduring it for two days. The resident had even built up piles of rubbish outside his house, guests from other hotels walking along the beach were stopping to take pictures! When we asked what was happening, we were offered a room in the apartment block.We declined as we had paid for the ocean front beach hut and there were 5 of us. Sorry we cannot do anymore we were told. Other people moved and luckily the hotel was not full. Okay bad timing you say, after 4 days it stopped, then we felt the quiet and fantastic views of the ocean begin to take over. Queue the staff to pick up the service that they were famous for, nope just fine and polite nothing above standard. The pool was a nice break from the windy ocean front, bit chilly mind. The food. Really people? Come on - whilst the options were great (one day main course options were 2 types of fish, wtf?) it was okay. The breakfast was the best for options and amount you could have. Ignore the whiners about the road, its fine. I would agree with bungalow 1, don't take it as its the main thoroughfare to beach front and next to the toilets. Family friendly? Just about, in fact if it was not for the oceanfront, we would have picked another resort. Still surprised at the number of WOW reviews, almost too good to be true and you know what they say about that! It clearly works from a marketing point of view and good luck to the management for getting it that right, maybe we were elevated to the heightened frenzy by other reviews and let down when we got there? I ask my fellow reviewers to be realistic please.
Room Tip: Not backing on to the restaurant and definitely not bungalow 1
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
9 February 2012
Hello Canada Scott,
I would like to respond to your review, first by saying Thank you for taking the time to write it.
It is so important to have feedback that allows the hotels and properties to improve their services and also help the readers and travelers make the best of their vacations.
Second, I would like to ask:
why did it take you one year to write it? or
Why did you leave that piece of information out while writing it?
It is evident you felt misguided by the "Wow reviews." I hope you are aware that your review may misguide potential clients, simply because you (I hope unintentionally) omitted to mention that you were here in FEBRUARY 2011. A year ago!
I believe you have the right to question the reviews of others on this site, after all, they are there to be evaluated by new readers, they are not supposed to posses the "absolute truth," hopefully they serve as instruments that help others making travel plans. I am sure the majority of readers, visiting TRIPADVISOR, know that the reviews only depict individual points of view of a particular traveler. So as long as everyone knows that, each review deserves validation.
Independet to all that, I am very sorry that you, as well as a lot of other guests, had a rough week back then. I feel compelled to comment on the topics in order to shed some light on the issues.
DISPUTE WITH NEIGHBORS,
Yes it is true, our neighbors, kind of prominent, bullying types, decided that it was our obligation to provide them with an access to their property, they requested that we build a road through the hotel so they can access their beach front house. Well they were wrong to expect (and demand) that, but they decided to give it a shot, the hard way, exactly as you put it : Noise, trash... I was forced to attend several, long hearings I invested hours of work and energy. that ended when the authorities ruled on the case, (in our favor) and offered our neighbors solutions to their problem. As you precisely point out, the situation ended 4 days into your visit. Fair to reiterate that I was spending many hours of my manager time to handle this situation and was neglecting some of the day to day operation decisions. Being a family owned an operated resort, I had no choice but to leave the hotel in the hands of other management staff that, while diligent and hard working, made some errors, like neglecting talking with you about the issue and the way we were handling the situation. That was not the case for all guests. I am sorry it happened to you.
The good news is that in recent months we hired a very capable and smart young man to occupy the operations manager seat (which I was covering) . We realize how helpful it would have been then to have him, during that time of trouble.
THE FOOD,
We are very careful with menu planning and we provide two options of entrees at dinner every night, except when we serve buffet style (twice a week) where we offer 4 entrees. We ensure that the options are varied. I was wondering what may have happened that night you say we had two types of fish. The only thing I can imagine is that some supplier did not deliver the other meat for the other option, which, by design, would have been beef, pork or chicken. I'd say the chef was forced to work with what he had at hand. I wondered if you talked to our head waiter or the concierge, I am sure we would have been able to provide one or two portions of another type of meat. (They did not do that for all the guests, because they did not have enough to cover half the number of guests). Our staff is trained to do stuff like that. We even accomodate, (other reviewers have mentioned this) dietary restrictions and needs. We are trained to provide options that please the guests.
Another thing worth noting here is that, being a 47 room hotel, we do not have a walk-in cold room, (nor do we want one) we buy fresh produce (or as fresh as we can get ) in small amounts. We have been told that our food tastes fresh and I personally believe that the way we do it, has a very possitive impact on the final dish.
So far, guests seem to agree with that.
Thank you for telling "the whiners who complain about the road," that it is fine, but unfortunately, today, a year after your visit, the road is not fine and we are preparing to fix it. Winter rains have damaged it.
You see? Things change in a year !
(Dear readers, do not worry about it though, te problem exists on an unpaved section of about a 100 yards, the road into the hotel is about 1.5 miles, all of which is paved, except for that 100 yards in question. We are already working on it)
Before signing off, I would like to address that asking the reviewers to be more realistic, implies that they are not... Well... another option is possibly that they lack the ability to see things clearly. In either case, not a compliment to them. Another possibility and this is what I prefer, is that, perhaps, these reviewers had, opposite to you, a delightful experience during their vacation at Petit Lafitte.
My sincere thankfulness to them for their input and praise and to you, the best of luck on future travels.
Sincerely
Ivan Fuentes
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
