The Ravenala Attitude

Heya, so we stayed at the Ravenala and came home 5 days ago. Lets go through each part of our experience of staying there and some tips that may help you in Mauritius. The Hotel: We were thrilled when we first arrived and saw this huge open plan and vast looking reception area. We were warmly greeted and given a local drink arriving at 2.30pm and were taken to the dinning area while our room was made up. It looked nice enough, open plan and partly outside. There were people walking around with large poles with flags which, we were told, were to shoo off the birds ( will address this later). We got to our room and it was lovely. Very clean with a safe, hair dryer and fridge ( which was empty) No iron but you can ask for one The view was breathtaking, def worth paying a little extra. We were All Inclusive and stayed in Rm 3311 in the Adult Only building in an Executive Suite which had sun beds assigned to our room. The fridge is empty because you go across to the shop and fill it with drink and snacks. No wine allowed just beer and soft drinks, 3 cans of each per day. You can also get coffee and tea etc. Dinning Room: The food was ok but our issue was that the food was cooked, left in the kitchen and then brought out and placed on hot plates to heat and keep hot/warm. So cooked, allowed to cool down, warmed up and maintain on a hot plate. This means some people get the meat/food warm, some warm but cool in the middle or if you dig from the bottom, hot. There were cases of upset tummies, my husband being one of those due to fish not being cooked through and left on a hot plate. The birds! They are everywhere and swarm any plates that are left with food on them. They do try to “ Shoo” them away with the large flag poles but it doesn’t really work. We got up early for a trip one morning and went to breakfast at 6.30 but nothing except pastries were ready as it opened at 7am. The birds were on everything and although most foods ( being heated on the hot plates) were covered, some weren’t and so the birds were landing and pecking at that food with no one chasing them off. NEVER take a top plate! Gluten free consisted of porridge, pancakes, pasta with meat and bread that crumbles and feels like sand. It’s pretty poor. Packed lunch for trips: DREADFUL! Dry bread, dry filling and i was given the one food i told them i was allergic to 🤦‍♀️ For a 4 ⭐ hotel it was poor quality. Swimming Pool: Three pools all large. The bottom of the pool and water were well maintained by the pool guys each day. Someone just needs to scrub round the edge of each pool as they were dirty. One pool was baby ( knee high) one shallow and then deep other side of the rope the last was normal swim depth. Plenty of sun beds and were spaced out lovely so not on top of each other. Towels provoded. The whole area is gorgeous with a mass of palm trees and other plants all clean and well maintained. Poolside waiter service was a long wait depending on which waiters were on. Sometimes we’d forget we’d ordered after waiting over 30mins bit then another waiter would just keep coming with the drinks before we asked so hit and miss. Beach: if you stay in the Adult Only rooms or an Executive Suite you will have Bean Bag sun beds assigned to your room with your room number on them. Waiter service too. Kayaks, Peddle Boats, Peddle Boards and Sail Boats are included in your All Inclusive Package. Entertainment: The first week was fab because we hadn’t seen any of it before but by week two we were so bored and saw one dance group 4 times in total. It was the same format each night: act, compare who wouldn’t stop talking doing group dances such as Cha Cha Slide, DJ, finish. There is a club from 11pm but no one went in there and it was dire. Drinks ( Alcohol ) All Inclusive are good quality Trips: DO NOT book through the hotel or holiday reps because a trip that they charge £130 per person is available by the boat guys on the beach for between £40-£60 per person. Its the same for cabs. The hotel use a certain company and when we wanted one to meet friends at Blue Bay for our boat trip the hotel quoted 5,000 MUR EACH WAY. Thats 10,000 MUR (£160) ish in total. We found our own cab that charged 3,500 MUR in TOTAL! Speak to the cab that does the airport transfer Car Hire: There’s a company called HOPE Hire who we SHOULD have used as they charged about £44 per day for a small car. They are registered/ Licensed and do have full insurance cover BUT we went for a bigger and more famous company as the holiday rep put as off the smaller company. Lesson learnt. The Gym: Flipping Fab! We went almost every day. Overall: Look, there’s a lot wrong re the hotel but we did have an amazing time and found some beautiful places of loveliness. We drove to Flic en Flac where the beach is gorgeous and stayed to watch the sunset and then went across the road from the beach ( sport bar next to the Italian ) to have dinner. Food was great. We drove to Monte Boisy where the beach again was beautiful and then drove further down the road to the street food vans and ate lunch. All the hotel staff were lovely and did everything they could to give us a fab holiday. We chose to ignore the negatives while we were there but think it only fair to share our experiences so you can make an informed decision. I wouldn’t recommend the Ravenala Attitude because i don’t think the food is of a good standard.

Excellent location and atmosphere. Service was great. Special thanks to Mr. Pawan and Mr. Raju from F&B, Mattieu from Reception and Mr. Mooken from concierge for their excellent service, they made our stay memorable!

Excellent stay. Special thanks to Pawan, Raju, Matthieu and Mr Mooken. Very good service.

In our opinion, a hotel capable of receiving international guests should deliver an international standard. However, while the hotel looks nice in the photos, in reality, it shows clear signs of wear and tear. We were given our room in a terribly dirty condition: - the floor throughout the entire suite was stained, sticky, and dusty - the taps were worn out and covered in limescale stains - the mirrors were stained with more than just limescale - there were water marks left by previous guests on the toilet and shower doors - the bathtub was worn out/scratched, there was grime on the side near the floor, the surrounding tiles were dull and disgustingly dirty, and on top of that, there was a black sticky residue next to the drain - there was a black buildup around the air conditioner blades - a red stain was waiting for us on the bed linen Seeing these issues, we requested to have the room re-cleaned. After this was done, we were faced with the fact that the bathroom remained unchanged and the bed linen had simply been turned over. It's fair to say we were treated like fools and they tried to rip us off. Reporting this at reception, I was able to speak in person with the housekeeping manager, who acknowledged the mistakes after I showed the before-and-after photos and assured us he would personally supervise the third cleaning. However, the third attempt was NOT successful either… Furthermore, the staff was beneath criticism. There were sometimes 4-5 servers working in the bar, but only 1 or 2 of them actually attended to guests. Consequently, significant delays built up. At one point, after waiting 20 minutes, we had to speak up to the staff just to place an order. They had absolutely no idea who had arrived in what order; the queue was only maintained thanks to the mutual respect of the guests. In the restaurant, the number of guests dining at any one time never seemed so large that the staff couldn't handle it. Despite this, there were hardly any set tables—dirty cutlery, glasses, and plates from previous guests were everywhere. The food barely changed from one day to the next. We were lucky enough to find eggshells in the scrambled eggs, and the ingredients in the fruit salad were stale. The bottom of the swimming pool was cracked and broken.

All the staff are very friendly and helpful - from reception to the boat house. The servers at O are super friendly and helpful and Seam from food and bev was very professional and attentive. Thank you