LUX* Grand Gaube

My wife, son and I stayed here in March, making it from the UK into Mauritius before the lockdown. The first couple of days were especially great, with all facilities available including snorkelling, PLAY, spa and tennis courts. However within a couple of days, these services closed in view of the escalating virus crisis. Despite this, the staff maintained a tremendous level of professionalism. Many were staying on site to ensure the guests were well looked after. The restaurants too mainly remained open and provided a very good selection. At all times, the service was exemplary and staff went above and beyond to make our stay comfortable with difficult constraints - particular mentions to Ashwin, Purgun and Thannen. We would hope to come back again in the near future when/if normality resumes.

Would like to say Thank-you to everyone at the Lux Grande Gaube! Myself and the family had a lovely 2 weeks at the hotel! The food was unbelievable and the staff where great. Really want to say thank you to Adrien and Fabrice especially. They where always there to help and making activity’s even better! A credit to the hotel. Will be sure to visit again.

My wife and I stayed here for 8 nights in March 2020. We debated how to rate this hotel as our experience across the stay was very variable. Overall this is clearly a very modern and attractive five star hotel but at this price point one expects a uniformly high level of service which was unfortunately lacking. There is quite a considerable price jump from half board to all inclusive and I would suggest looking carefully at your likely consumptions against the prices on the online bar and restaurant menus as unless you are ordering a lot of drinks half board is much better value. Pre-arrival: Good communication from front of house and spa teams with a few queries. Around two days before arrival we were emailed a link to bid on a room upgrade (having originally booked an entry-level superior room) and successfully bid to upgrade to a deluxe room for €13 per night (the hotel was at a relatively low occupancy during our stay). Do check carefully when bidding for rooms as one option was a Lux Suite however the pictured room was the higher Prestige Junior Suite. I did point this rather misleading error by email but received no response. Transfer: We booked a private transfer through our package company but it’s worth noting this hotel is around 1 hour 15 minutes from the airport. Arrival: A fairly standard welcome with a refreshing soft drink but the handover from porters to front desk staff was a little muddled and didn’t feel particularly polished. Room: We upgraded to a Deluxe Room. The deluxe rooms are all located in the second crescent of rooms which all all adults only with deluxe rooms on the ground and first floors and the two prestige junior suites at the ends of the crescent. They face a very quiet lagoon and are much closer to the water than the other room categories which are located around an area of gardens set back from the main beach. They are all sheltered from the prevailing wind whereas a few of the rooms in the main crescent (those closest to the Banyan Area) face directly to the East and would have been very windy. The decor is fantastic with a very large and comfortable bed, ceiling fan and quiet air conditioning. The balcony has some very comfortable chairs. The bathroom was excellent with a large roll top bath and large rainfall style shower. The rooms are well soundproofed with very little (if any) corridor or neighbour disturbance. Beach: The sea in the lagoons around the hotel is not clear but rather a murky turquoise-green. The glass bottom boat and snorkelling trips (both twice daily and free of charge) take you out to some much clearer waters at the reef. The adults only beach in the Banyan area is very peaceful whereas the main beach is rather busier with some boat and seaplane traffic. However the sand was slightly softer at the main beach and the loungers were cushioned at the main beach but wicker at the adults only beach. Both beaches are serviced with call bells on each parasol. There are dispensers with a selection of flavoured filtered water free of charge at both beaches. Neither beach has the postcard soft white sand of some other resorts. Pools: Both pools were very pleasant. The loungers surrounding the adults only pool do not have any parasols for shade which was disappointing but the adults only beach is only a few steps away. The loungers at both pools were fine but not cushioned or as luxurious as we have experienced at other five star hotels. Food: Palm Court is the main restaurant of the hotel and is primarily buffet style with live cooking stations. The breakfast selection and quality was the best we have come across and the dinner food was of a much higher standard than most buffet style restaurants. If you have booked via a third party do double check which restaurants are included with your package; since October the hotel are not including Bodrum Blue in the dinner package for half board, however Virgin Holidays (as of 13/03/2020) are still advertising it as included and after discussions between our rep and the hotel it was included for us. Unfortunately Creole Smokehouse was only open for dinner on two nights during our stay and was closed at short notice for one of those, it was very windy on the one occasion we were able to dine there. The hotel advocates the Lux App for booking restaurants but I would not advise relying on it as we were able to make reservations directly at the restaurants or via reception when the App said there was no availability and one evening seemingly managed to book Beach Rouge for dinner when it was closed for a cocktail event. Spa: Very nicely decorated and very quiet when we visited. We choose an ‘Island Style’ massage based on the description in the menu - but this involved being rollered with large bamboo sticks which came as quiet a surprise as this wasn’t described in the menu. It was still a very good experience but perhaps the description could be a bit more specific. Service: This is where the hotel let itself down with inconsistency. There were a few individuals who really stood out for excellent service: David at Beach Rouge and Reedo on the main beach, but otherwise we were never blown away and on a few occasions felt that they really dropped the ball. One evening we went for drinks at Bodrum bar, were given menus and then ignored for around 25 minutes at which point we left and were still ignored by the staff. One lunchtime on the main beach our simple lunch order took well over an hour to arrive and on another occasion with lunch at Palm Court my burger arrived around 20 minutes before my wife’s. On our last night one of the bedside mats at turn down had the remains of a very large bug on it which the staff seemingly didn’t notice (see photo); I emailed a picture of this to the front desk and the general manager and never received a response. There was a lack of a ‘can-do’ attitude; I requested a cocktail which is on the menu of the French Kiss bar whilst at the palm court bar and was told that they couldn’t make it at a different bar. I made enquiries via the app about boat trips and was given information about one option but then told to speak to concierge about another options. Neither was quite what we were looking for, but in fact at the Boat House you can charter the Explorer speedboat with a captain for 4500 rupee per hour but the hotel seem to not advertise this at all. Overall: A beautifully renovated hotel in a good location sheltered from the worst weather but in need of some refinement in service level to be a real premium resort