LA MARIPOSA

The place is situated nicely at a beach around a beautiful tree. The rooms are OK and OK clean. The reception is friendly and helpful during day hours. Otherwise the rest of the staff is not engaged and directly uninterested in the guests. Food is sub-standard and kept as cheap as possible.

For every holiday before, we always had ONE highlight that comes to mind when we think back. A restaurant, a waterfall, a hike or an excursion. In Mauritius we experienced all of that too, but what we will remember most are the people itself, especially Rhaul, Varun & Dylan from the La Mariposa team and Sam, who is simply unique and irreplaceable - they turned the 3-star hotel into a 5-star experience with their kind and generous nature. Without them, it wouldn't have been the same!

Went for a family dinner. Had a marvellous time. The atmosphere was marvellous, with the beach nearby. The service was awesome. Would surely go back again.

We hoped for a "small-scale luxury" experience that was not a big mega resort. Mariposa did not quite hit the mark. It's too bad, because if there was a better sense of giving the guests a great experience, it could have.

La Mariposa is a small hotel on a very lovely and swimmable beach, with a great view of la Morne in the distance. The wooden decked beach / pool / breakfast area under a large shady tree is very pleasant and is the highlight and focal point of the whole hotel. The pool is very small (think more plunge-pool than swimming pool) but attractive. The hotel is within walking distance of some good restaurants in Black River.

The rooms are gathered around a small and well-kept lush garden. The rooms are basically comfortable, however not particularly luxurious, but too many things are in need of maintenance and TLC, and the overall feel with scuffed white painted walls is a bit "institutional." A fresh coat of paint in the rooms and in the badly scuffed and marked corridors would help the overall atmosphere. Our room had a broken shampoo dispenser, Per se not a big deal at all, but their reaction to this was simply to not provide any shampoo at all until we asked at the desk (the dispenser also had no shampoo cartridge in it, suggesting they were aware of the problem). This is one of a few examples we found where the staff attitude towards ensuring the guests have a good experience was lacking.

At the bar and breakfast, we felt that the staff training was more around procedure than around guest satisfaction. Ordering drinks at the bar meant actually walking up to the bar to order. No table service despite there usually being a crowd of staff around the bar doing paperwork and the tables right in front of them. When ordering a drink we were always asked immediately for our room number and even asked to sign the ticket before the drinks were provided. Once, I was asked THREE TIMES for my room number in the process of being served one beer and on other occasions I was asked twice. The staff are obviously trained, above and all else, to get that room number! Customer experience is secondary.

Another example: at breakfast there is no possibility of a cappuccino or latte etc, because they do not operate the coffee machine until the bar opens, and then you have to pay. At breakfast the only coffee is filter coffee, which is made right next to the espresso machine. The coffee was always cold because the household-type drip maker was insufficient, and the staff are walking around with the caraffe topping up cups (and therefore it is not staying hot). Again, no awareness or care by the staff that they are serving bad and cold coffee and electing not make the coffee machine available for breakfast.

The breakfast food was strictly mediocre. There is an omelette station but otherwise the cooked and cold items that are set out feel tired and unloved.

One day we were leaving the hotel early for an excursion and we wanted to grab a croissant to go. It was 6:50 am and the breakfast was still being set out. The staff told us we could not take a croissant because breakfast was not open until 7:00!

So overall, look, the staff were friendly and welcoming, but their training seems totally around procedure and not orientated around guest experience.

We paid about USD 175 / night. This compared to USD 260 at the posh LUX resort on the north coast. Yes, for lower cost, you should expect fewer amenities, but the quality of what you do get should be equally high.

My recommendation to Mariposa: train your staff to look out for guest happiness rather than just procedure. And buy some paint and make sure the facilities you have are well maintained and functional. Do that and you'll have people paying USD 175 a night leaving saying "what a nice place" and not questioning whether it was good value for money.

Abseits von den grossen Hotels, ruhig, direkt am Strand mit fantastischem Ambiente unter dem Baum