The Residence Mauritius

B Fur

After spent a week in a great Airbnb in Flic en Flac we hoped to end our holiday in a luxury environment in The Residence, well it stayed with a hope.. one needs to set expectations right and The Residence being part of GHA Discovery and a 5* our expectations were set high. Concluding it is not on par with other GHA Discovery 5* like Anantara and behind other 5* beach resorts we visited in other parts of the world. One can conclude that this a Mauritian issue where all hotels are overpriced for what you get. Positive: - great beach and clean surrounding. However keep in mind that the beach is public and it is certainly not relaxing during weekends, also many powerboats going back and forth. - size of the room and view from the balcony - walkable to some restaurants (which is nice as you can if then get some better food, there is a really nice lunch place on the public beach and with normal prices) - Generally staff is friendly but many seem to have little experience. - Food in the plantation (a la carte) was really nice. However all comes withe a hefty supplement and you end up with a bill easily comparable to any western european restaurant. Too limited selection of items without supplement. - enough beach activities like SUP, canoying, snorkling (great reef!) One comment to the hotel: due to low tide the snorkling boat and engine hit the reef a few times! This is a no go! Improvement areas: - The overall feeling in the hotel and area was a bit claustophic, we were unfortunate to be there at times of full occupancy and struggled to find beach beds. Pool beds were even more difficult to find. Despite the message that one cannot reserve seats this was widely done without taken action as we witnessed. Overall too many rooms for the hotel space - Food was a dissapointment with exception of The Plantation. Breakfast is fine but not at 5*, ie no barista coffee's or anything special, not bad but again not 5*. Buffet was not good! From undercooked gambas at seafood buffet to undercooked steak at Italian buffet (which I felt at night!) Food is extremely repetitive besides 2 cooking stations. Again not 5*. Quite strange as we read positive reviews about the food.... we can only compare to other 5* and local restaurants and this is not on par. - Breakfast and Dining room, especially the larger area is like a canteen. Extremely busy, staff running around, very noisy (echo) and zero ambiance. - We figured out there was a butler on day of departure by finding a card in our room.. well we haven't seen or heard anyone. - Safety as mentioned in the comment about the rooms. Cleaners leaving the door open the entire day is a no go! - The room door is absolutely not soundproof. - Poor service on the beach. If lucky we had someone asking once in an afternoon whether we would like something to drink. - Weird there is no pool bar..something we missed. - despite mentioning on check in several times I was GHA Titanium this didnt ring a bell. Even on check-out they asked if I wanted to become a GHA member... - Cleaning is a hit or miss. On two occassions only the bed and towels were done but still a lot of sand on the tiles and bathroom table wasn't cleaned and 3 days no water replenishment. - Gym is very very very sad! This is in the basement without any day light. Equipment is probably from when the hotel started 25 years ago. Many machines but old and cramped. - Zero activities in the evening. Besides some mediocre singing and some poor dance performance there is nothing to do. After 10pm it is dead. At least get some pool/darts possibility. Overall this is a solid 4* hotel but don't come here for a relaxed time (unless it is half full). Interesting is to see differences in the room prices. We ended up paying 250 euro/night whilst direct their best price was more than 100 euro/night higher and some prices are even around 450 euro/night. This hotel is certainly not worth more than what we paid, but again this is a Mauritian issue. One tip: rent a car! Without a car it is far from everything and you can enjoy good hikes in the south.

Steve Hutchings

Stunning location, great service across the resort. Good choice of water sport and activities included. Beach is beautiful. Great steak at the Plantation restaurant.

Gérald Pilard

We enjoyed our stay at The Résidence. It has a touch of colonial classy that makes it remarkable. The beach is nice. Activities are well organized with very nice packages like cooking courses and Rhum tasting. Rooms are nice, quiet and functional. Only downside is service as we found employees are overwhelmed, disorganized and thus are not as smily as in other big hotels. But that can be managed. Overall we had a very enjoyable stay and we will come back.

F H

Stunning hotel! Great stay and welcoming staff. My friend and I had a massage at the hotel spa and it was divine! Would definitely recommend Komal and Divya. My husband had one with a man who did wonders too. Would definitely go back when we go to Mauritius.

Dennis Hermle

Is it worth it? Yes it is! First of all, we had a booking issue. Wegen we have been in our room, an employee campe to us and upgraded our room to an ocean View terrace. The best is definitly the happiness and the Support of all the employees in the whole Hotel. It is very clean, very calm with in my opinion the best Beach of the Island. The only thing that could be improved is the food. The food is not bad but not very good either. Average. There is definitely room for improvement in terms of taste. Nevertheless, it gets 5 stars.