ellen77
18. heinäkuuta 2025
We would like to love this property. It is blessed with stunning cliff views, a terrific hard product, compelling insta-friendly architecture oozing with sharp lines that speak to dystopian human tastemakers dropping modern design onto the edge of a 3,000 acre nature preserve. Manzanillo is also a great small airport to travel into as long as you book non-stop. Many components of the property do work, or almost hit the mark. In addition to the rooms (panoramic Cliffside is best in the house), there is ample daily activity programming, much of which is included, three onsite restaurants that allow for some variance once you adjust to their opening schedules (SAL, a gorgeous venue on the beach, is closed Monday & Tuesday; Nachos, a yummy taco joint, closes daily at 7pm; no one tells you this in advance), and our group enjoyed specific activities that worked better than others including a private grill-focused cooking class, pro tennis lessons and a kids scavenger hunt all around the expansive grounds; all winners. The components are there to make this resort sing. But it’s simply not there yet. At the end of the day, the overall service levels and experience are bubbling meaningfully below the surface of both a Four Seasons and of a resort we would return to. The staff that we were exposed to on our trip were all junior level, many in training, including a lovely young man who on arrival welcomed me by asking me my name (!) and proceeded to make us listen to a 20 minute broken English summary of the property. This was before our welcome drink. In 85 degree humidity. Suffice it to say, quite the unforced error. The spa, pretty and spacious, somehow manages to be forgettable. The property felt spare, not lavish. Cost saving, not fawning. Luxury travelers today are simply spoiled. We want to be embraced and lavished upon. This resort does the opposite. While everyone was kind and sweet once asked, nothing was anticipatory. No one here was playing offense when it came to service. It was all reactive. Essentially the opposite of what the Four Seasons experience is supposed to be. It’s the early days yet. The property perhaps needs time, an infusion of capital and the sourcing of talented senior level staff to pull itself together and emerge into a more operationally successful resort. We wish it the best of luck.
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