Talamba Blue — Hotel in Beau Vallon

The owner/manager, Dave, was never there except when he required payment for checkout and he was not interested in helping us with car rental services when we needed it and simply told us that "all local cars have already been rented" when we asked for his help when one of the employees phoned him and let us talk to him on the phone. We ended up taking a taxi to the airport where we rented a car from the airport so that we could get around. You would think that Dave would've assisted us in renting a car from the airport, but no such assistance or service exists, contrary to what is advertised on the website. ||||2. Upon arrival in the evening, Dave's son, Luv, was there to welcome us and Luv assured us that we could ask his father (Dave) for everything that we needed to be arranged as and when we needed it, for example car rental services and anything else that we might require. Well, nothing like that is offered at this place which pretends to be a hotel and which definitely does not deserve its 4 star rating! It's really a 3 star bed & breakfast with no proper restaurant or proper bar on site. If we needed anything, the clearly overworked and underpaid (a fact which we concluded by observing them), but extremely friendly and helpful employees went out of their way to assist us, albeit in broken English. Dave seems to leave everything in the hands of his employees and does not seem to want to take responsibility for anything or be on site most of the time to assist guests with anything. An example of this is when I required assistance to use the microwave. I had no idea how to operate the microwave and I desperately needed to use it to heat up my heat packs to soothe my body aches and pains due to my chronic pain, but the friendly employees who tried to help me to operate the microwave had no idea how to operate it either. Luckily my spouse figured it out and my spouse taught me afterwards how to use the microwave - NO THANKS TO DAVE! All of this left me feeling very frustrated and disappointed and ruined aspects of my holiday and also caused me emotional, mental and physical distress. ||||3. The breakfast offered which was included in our booking was terrible, apart from the boiled egg white, but really, how difficult can it be to boil eggs every morning, so that's not a compliment from my side about the boiled egg white! I specifically emailed the property beforehand regarding my special dietary requirements, but I was told by Dave via email that if I wanted any substitutes to what was on offer, such as a different juice or a different fruit which my stomach could tolerate, that we would have to pay extra for that! This is incredibly poor service and frankly ridiculous! Any proper guesthouse/B&B owner/manager elsewhere would go out of their way to try and accommodate me and offer a substitute juice and substitute fruit free of charge since I have gastrointestinal illnesses, but Dave could not be bothered with my dietary needs unless we paid extra. ||||4. The property's website did not state that the fitness room and the spa on site would be out of order and not available during our intended stay. If we knew this beforehand, we would NOT have booked a stay at this property! The property's website also falsely advertises that it has a jacuzzi, but in reality it's a cold pool with jet streams. A real jacuzzi is heated and is equipped with heated water pumps! If we had known about this false presentation of a "jacuzzi", we would DEFINITELY have never considered this property to stay at, as we were looking forward to relaxing in a heated jacuzzi which was essential to soothe my chronic pain and my body aches and we were terribly disappointed upon arrival to discover that no such proper jacuzzi exists. This also ruined my stay at the property. ||||5. The property falsely advertises on cocoblueholidays.com the folllowing facilities on site, which did not exist or was not available during our 7 night stay there:||a) Lunch and Dinners are served “a la Carte - no such service existed||b) Mini Fitness centre - we were told that this was out of order and not available during our stay and the website should have stated this.||c) Paid activities:||Deep-sea fishing & boat rides, car rental, Taxi service, sightseeing tours. Beauty parlour and Body Massage. There was no one around to arrange any of these activities for us since the employees on site did not speak proper English and Dave was not available nor interested in arranging or suggesting any of these activities for us during our stay. Terrible service and lack of interest in the guests' comfort during their stay from a so-called manager/owner! The Beauty parlour and Body Massage were not available and the website should have stated this. ||||6. The lighting inside our suite was very poor and I could not see anything properly except inside the bathroom. We were also promised to be provided with UK adaptors for the electric sockets but the UK adaptor given to us did not work in the bedroom and I could therefore not plug in my hairdryer and use it as a result. My spouse had to buy a UK adaptor and plug it in for me so that I could use my hairdryer. The bed mattress was too firm and caused back pain for my spouse and severely aggravated my existing back problems and caused me terrible physical pain and discomfort. There was also no comfortable seating in front of the dressing/vanity table with the mirror. The sofas in the living area were worn out and did not provide for comfortable seating. ||||7. We stored all our excess bottled water & drinks which could not fit inside the mini fridge and our non-perishable food in the kitchenette, which was very hot at all times and which had no curtains on the windows inside the kitchenette to provide some shade and protection from the sunlight, with the result that our bottled water & drinks got very warm during the day. The windows inside the kitchenette were also incredibly dirty and the ceiling was leaking paint and the property seemed to be in a bit of a state of disrepair. ||||8. The most annoying aspect of our stay there was that the website failed to mention that we were staying on a flight path, so the terrible noise of the planes taking off and landing, especially late at night at 11pm was incredibly irritating and disturbed our peace and our tranquility. I literally got woken up at 11pm by the noise of a plane either landing or taking off while trying to sleep and this caused me great emotional, mental and physical distress. ||||9. The property is not disability friendly at all and if you are disabled, elderly, frail or have multiple medical conditions, STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROPERTY!||||10. Lastly, the night shift employee, Atish (spelling?) was over familiar and told me how stressed out he was by his job and I was too polite to decline his request to speak on Facetime with his South African friend on his cellphone who demanded that I bring back cheese (which he would pay for) in my luggage back to South Africa for him. This is illegal, as South Africa does not allow any cheese to be brought into the country, but both Atish and his friend did not care about this fact and also expected me to make space in my luggage for clothes and other items which he wanted me to bring back to South Africa for him. I did not have the extra space and I was too polite to point this out and I just avoided Atish as much as possible after this incident. ||||11. There is no safe parking provided on this property. It's also not as close to other places as the website advertises, due to the terrible traffic conditions and the speed limits imposed on drivers on the roads. So NO, Port Louis is DEFINITELY not 25 minutes away, but rather an hour and a half drive's away! It literally took us an hour and a half to drive from Talamba Blue to Le Morne beach to go for a swim there, as the weather was better on the West side of the island and provided better swimming conditions. I was very disappointed to realize that the weather conditions in Blue Bay are windy and cold and better marketing should be done to warn tourists that the South is very windy and that it's better to stay on the West coast. ||||12. The only redeeming qualities of this property was the incredibly friendly and helpful employees and the lovely swimming pool which is only warm when the weather is nice. It was too cold to swim in the pool on certain days, unfortunately, but I cannot fault the property for that. When I was able to swim in the pool, it was a lovely experience and I had a great time swimming in the pool! Lastly, it's very close to Bov'Alon mall, which is an excellent shopping mall and which was a saving grace as we could buy all our necessities there...

1.We were robbed by the manager of the complex, no wonder he already has a reputation. This person raised his voice at me multiple times, and wanted me to pay the full amount of the accomodation 2x. Of course, he is going to reply here and say that it is not true, and this is exactly his typical behaviour. He's all about money, and wants to make you pay for every single thing, however he does not provide the things that you booked and paid for as a guest. He also verbally offended me multiple times( already when the payment was done) and offended my country being red(dangerous) on a list. I am from central Europe, we are not on any list red. 2.We had no electricity in most days, sometimes for the whole evening and of course everything was blamed on the cyclone, which literally lasted 1-2 days out of 10. Had to use candles. 3.We did not get any kind of refund from the accomodation, even though we had proof for the things we paid for but we were not provided. 4.We were overcharged with coffee, even though it was not on the drinks list at all, and it was told us by the staff that it was free to get. Of course it was only revealed on the very last day that we must pay extra. 5.We were not allowed to use the common kitchen, only with special permission. When I requested a change of the electric ministove in our apartment, around the 3rd day, I was told that by the next day it was gonna be replaced, and of course the same one that could not even boil up water for pasta was brought back. 6.We were not allowed to be in the common area by the pool after 11.00, the manager told me that once when we were there till 1am, it was because he allowed us to. In the next day we were playing cards there and the electricity was shut on us manually and we were told to get inside the apartment. 7.The manager has his own exchange rate, be prepared to pay 100-200EUR EXTRA AT LEAST! No more character here: other problems with furniture, cleanliness, leakage. DO NOT BOOK...

We stayed here for only one night, and chose this place primarily for it's proximity to the airport given we had a flight next morning. The property, rooms and the service leave so much to be desired given the relatively quite high prices they charge. We arrived late at around 7 pm, and there was a single person who handled the check-in who did not understand English very well - however he was super proactive and managed to get everything done. The main pain points are listed below (keeping in mind they charged us MUR 3580 for one night):

No complimentary bottle of water at all, leave alone free refilling of water or such. We had not carried any water with us expecting it to be provided at the hotel as standard - and we ended up having to pay MUR 100 for a 1.5 litre bottle.

No toiletries at all in the washroom apart from towels and a handwash.

Getting hot water in the bathroom took a solid 20 mins effort and two trips to the reception.

There was a big cockroach in our room, which the staff did help throw out.

The breakfast was minimal - bread, pancakes, cereals, bananas, eggs and juice/tea/coffee. For this price, you tend to expect more. However, the ladies at the kitchen were wonderful and nice, which was great.

No telephone or intercom in the room. You would have to walk up to the reception for every little thing you need.

All in all, a lot is left to be desired for the price that is charged and what is...