LUX Grand Gaube

We stayed at LUX* Grand Gaube for 8 nights at the beginning of August in a Family Suite on an all-inclusive basis. Unfortunately, despite the beautiful location and some genuinely wonderful individual staff members, the overall experience was extremely disappointing. Based on this stay, we would choose to stay elsewhere if we returned to Mauritius.

From the beginning of our stay, there were multiple issues with our Family Suite. The coffee machine, telephone, safe and bar fridge in the living room were all not working. These issues were reported to the hotel early in our stay, yet it took approximately three days before everything was finally resolved.

The air conditioning in the main bedroom was another significant problem. It was simply not powerful enough to keep the room comfortable, particularly overnight. The system repeatedly went into an “eco” mode, and the room became uncomfortably warm during the night.

The toilet in the main bedroom also did not flush and required further complaints before it was repaired.

For a resort positioning itself as a luxury property, having so many basic facilities in a Family Suite not functioning properly was extremely disappointing.

I would strongly reconsider the all-inclusive option

Based on our experience, I would also strongly advise against choosing the all-inclusive package.

Service around the pool was particularly poor. Despite having call bells positioned around the pool, staff themselves admitted that these were not actually connected to anything and were therefore completely useless.

On most occasions, rather than being able to order a drink from our loungers, we had to get up and walk to the bar ourselves. Even when we did order drinks, the wait was often extremely long.

The drinks themselves were also disappointing, with the overall quality and service falling well short of what we would expect from a luxury all-inclusive resort.

There were also repeated problems with towels around both the pool and beach. On numerous days, towels simply weren’t readily available and finding them became a daily struggle. We were given various explanations for the shortage, and it appeared that other guests were experiencing the same problem.

Given the amount we paid for an all-inclusive stay, we certainly expected a much higher level of service.

Food poisoning and management response

We ate exclusively at the resort during our stay. Unfortunately, my wife became ill with what we believe was food poisoning after eating at one of the resort’s restaurants.

What disappointed us most was not simply that she became ill, but the response from management. Rather than properly acknowledging our concern and investigating it, the response was essentially that perhaps her individual stomach simply “didn’t agree” with the food.

Given that we had eaten exclusively at the resort, we expected considerably more concern and professionalism when reporting the incident. At the very least, we expected our complaint to be taken seriously and properly investigated.

Promises of special arrangements that were never delivered

Following the various problems we experienced during our stay, the hotel insisted on arranging a special occasion for us at one of the restaurants where we had a dinner reservation.

To be clear, we never asked for or expected any special treatment. We were perfectly happy simply to have our dinner and enjoy our holiday.

However, once the hotel had told us that something special would be arranged, we naturally expected them to follow through. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the restaurant, nothing had been organised.

This happened twice.

Ironically, we genuinely would have preferred that nothing special was arranged at all. The problem was not the lack of a special occasion — it was being told that something would be done and then arriving to find that nobody appeared to know anything about it.

After an already disappointing stay, this simply added to the impression that communication between management and the various departments was poor and that promises were being made without proper follow-through.

The incident that really concerned us — our 2.5-year-old daughter

The most concerning incident of our entire stay involved our 2.5-year-old daughter.

She accidentally locked herself inside the main bedroom. To be completely fair, this was not the hotel’s fault — accidents involving young children can happen anywhere.

The issue was what happened afterwards.

We immediately contacted the hotel and asked them to come and unlock the bedroom using a key. Despite this being a Family Suite, the hotel staff told us that they did not have a key that could open the bedroom door.

Our daughter was consequently trapped inside the bedroom for approximately 30 minutes while staff tried to work out how to gain access.

Ultimately, I had to use a ladder to reach the second-storey window and get my daughter out of the room through the window. Only after this did hotel staff break down the main bedroom door to gain access to the room.

Having a 2.5-year-old child locked alone in a bedroom for around 30 minutes was an extremely stressful and frightening experience. More importantly, the fact that the hotel did not have an immediately accessible key or appropriate means of accessing a bedroom in a Family Suite is extremely concerning.

Credit where it is due

I do want to make it very clear that not every member of staff contributed to our disappointing experience. In fact, there were several individuals who were genuinely excellent and who went out of their way to help us throughout our stay.

I would particularly like to recognise Ashkay, Steeven, Fredy, Reedoo, Madhvi, Viresh, Saurev and Thiery.

These staff members were friendly, helpful and attentive, and we could see that they genuinely cared about their guests. Whenever they were involved, they made a real effort to assist us and improve our experience.

I want to specifically acknowledge them because it would be unfair for our criticism of the hotel’s management and operational issues to reflect negatively on individual employees who were doing their best.

Overall

We chose LUX* Grand Gaube expecting a high-end luxury family resort and paid accordingly. Instead, during an 8-night stay, we experienced:

• Multiple maintenance problems in our Family Suite, taking days to resolve
• Weak and unreliable air conditioning in the main bedroom
• A non-functioning main bedroom toilet
• Very poor pool service and extremely long waits for drinks
• Pool call bells that staff admitted were not connected to anything
• Disappointing drinks despite being on an all-inclusive package
• Repeated shortages of pool and beach towels
• A disappointing response when my wife became ill after eating at the resort
• Two occasions where the hotel promised special arrangements that simply hadn’t been organised
• And, most seriously, an approximately 30-minute incident where our 2.5-year-old daughter was trapped inside our bedroom and the hotel had no key available to access it

The resort itself is beautiful and there are some genuinely fantastic members of staff. Ashkay, Steeven, Fredy, Reedoo, Madhvi, Viresh, Saurev and Thiery deserve particular recognition for their efforts.

Unfortunately, good individual employees cannot compensate for what we experienced as significant problems with the hotel’s maintenance, service, communication and management.

For us, this was not the luxury family holiday we expected from LUX* Grand Gaube.

Based on our experience, we would not return to this resort and would choose a different property if we visited Mauritius again.

From the moment we arrived, utter luxury was experienced. A very welcoming NEHA assisted us with check in and orientation of the resort. The facilities were immaculate and the service was beyond professional. The duo of CHEF DEEPUCK & CHEF SAURAV were the main highlights who accommodated our dietary requirements beyond measure. The food was absolutely fantastic and honestly the largest spread of veg and vegan options we've seen thus far in our travels. KEVIN was polite, graceful and worked hard and well in ensuring anything we needed was catered for in the communal areas. Honestly a wonderful resort with 5 star truly resonating throughout each and every aspect of it.