Tivoli Ecoresort Praia do Forte Bahia — Hotel in Região Geográfica Imediata de Salvador

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I hated it here. Really. The price is totally inconsistent with what is offered. Maybe this is the reality of our country, to offer astronomic prices for subterraneous service. Paying over the equivalent of 1000 USD for night did not seem to be worthy. I will go through every point here to discuss why I hated it so much.

We chose to stay in one of the pool villas. It seemed like a good idea, until we arrived there. The hotel said: it's a 5 minute walk from the villa to the hotel. It was a 20 minute walk. They have those golf carts. Anytime you need it you need to call the reception and ask for one. In not too busy hours they take from 8-10 minutes to arrive. In busy hours we reached an outrageous 30 minute wait from our villa to the hotel. I tried to contact Guest Services, of course. They always said that this is not the standard of the hotel and that the extended wait for transportation would not happen again. But, guess what? Of course it happened again. And this is only the first thing that I would advise against staying here. Maybe staying at the hotel can be better (more on the hotel premises later), but the Pool Villas are just the worst idea I could have.

What about the rooms? Well, there were three. The master bedroom had a King Size bed, a large wardrobe, but the bathroom, for God's sake. Despite presenting as a good idea, a shower that was pleasant, in a wood floor that projects itself into the nature, our bathroom just flooded! There were two doors, one for the bathroom and other directly to the showers. For the latter, I had to use towels to prevent water from reaching the bedroom, since the glass door simply was not able to block water into where it should be, the bathroom! Not only that, there was a small glass sheet separating the shower from the toilet and the rest of the bathroom. Taking a shower was an automatic tragedy.

The upper part of the villa had some downs. The pool needed better maintenance. The drain was loose, the tiles were failling, there was dirt between each tile, the staircase to the pool was loose. It was a pleasant place, but the pictures we've seen at the website showed something completely different. As good things I have to mention that despite not offering a free mini bar with water and other non-alcoholic beverages, the hotel accepts that you buy your own stuff and store it in a large fridge. There are delivery options that leave your items at the reception of the property and the carts take them to the villa. The space is also pleasant, and we had some good times drinking our wine with all the equipment the house provides.

Moving on, let's talk about the hotel. I will start with what I liked. First of all: structure to infants. There are 3 spaces where you had a fridge full of fruit and also items to help you feed your baby. The hotel provides to infants up to 3 years-old meals for lunch and dinner that are prepared daily and are delivered including at the villa upon request. This is a major relief for parents, and the quality of the food and the service overall was great. There are also other services important for kids. There are baby carts that can be used, if the guest desires there are babysitter services, the bathrooms are all equiped for changing diapers. Overall, the service for kids is outstanding. Cleanliness and readiness for COVID-19 was also good. The room cleaning was impeccable and there were many effective measures to prevent...

The resort amenities are great. We chose Tivoli because of being child friendly and have stayed at Tivoli in São Paulo in the past with a great experience. Food was great, the baby experience menu was wonderful and very convenient for our toddler. Drinks at the bar or restaurant were extremely overpriced, but it comes with vacation and resorts in Northeast Brazil, I guess. The one complaint, which is the most important aspect of a vacation, is safety. My mother had her money and driver’s license stolen from her room. When we checked in, it was given back by the resort and the night we got to the Pool Villa (where we stayed) the money and driver’s license were left in the closet. My mom wanted to check how much cash she had and checked her wallet, in front of family members so we know it was not lost. It wasn’t a crazy amount of cash, about 3% of what we ended up spending at the resort (in case they think I was trying to get money from them, which I don’t need). The biggest issue was the safety, how can we ever trust this place again? And her ID, the one way for her to get back home. The resort staff didn’t seem to care, they “looked into it” and their staff worked there for years and nothing had come up. ALL of them worked there for years, that’s is what we were told via a text message. They offered to order my mother a cab to go to the police station and report what happened, so she could return home by plane. She was unable to do it online. They didn’t offer to reimburse us for any of the transportation that she’d need to take to get there, while her ID was stolen from her room inside their resort. No apologies were offered to us. All we kept hearing is that this never happened there and they all worked there for years... At check out, Luã (the personal relations person) who was always checking on us pretended he didn’t see me and just kept walking. No apologies, again. Now we were checking out, paid our bill and they cared even less about us. I’ll not be returning there, or recommending it. While on vacation there’s a need to feel safe and I will never feel safe there again. For the price we paid this should have NEVER happened, worse of it all is that no apologies or attempt to solve what happened was done. The situation was poorly handed, and receiving a text message via WhatsApp with final feedback proved it. The relation’s person should have spoken to us in person, and not via a text message. We expected more from a Tivoli group resort, since we stayed at Tivoli in São Paulo multiple times. Comparing service between São Paulo and Praia do Forte...

After spending a week at this family-oriented hotel, I am ready to share my impressions. First, the positives: the hotel is indeed designed with families in mind. There's excellent organized children's entertainment, specialized rooms for kids' meals, a separate menu with a wide selection for children up to 3 years old, and even a mini water park – all of which make a vacation with little ones comfortable and carefree. I also want to highlight the presence of tennis courts, which is a great plus for those looking for active recreation.

However, despite being advertised as a five-star facility, the service left much to be desired. The staff seemed inexperienced and slow. Upon check-in, we had to wait for attention for about 10-20 minutes, even though there were no other guests checking in. The staff's limited proficiency in English made communication and problem-solving challenging. Additionally, the staff appeared displeased when accommodating special requests, such as setting up a table at the far end of the restaurant for dinner, away from live music, as our small child was sleeping in the stroller.

The hotel is sprawling, and the distance from the main "social" areas affects the pricing of the rooms. Initially, we were accommodated in a room far from the beach, but we moved closer for an additional $50 per night. There were also options for $100 and $150. The rooms themselves don’t differ much from one another. I believe that charging extra solely based on room location does not justify the cost. Furthermore, it would have been more convenient to use golf carts for transportation around the property, especially for the more remote rooms. However, this service was never offered to us, despite the availability of golf carts at the hotel. It’s unclear why these carts are even available if they are not used for guest transportation.

I must also mention other drawbacks: internet issues, food poisoning, and a beach that was not very clean. Although the beach has potential, thanks to beautiful lagoons that appear at low tide, the lack of maintenance was disappointing.

In conclusion, despite a number of positive aspects, especially for those vacationing with children, the hotel needs improvements in terms of service and beach maintenance. My rating is 7 out of 10, reflecting a good start but insufficient attention to processes...