El Monte Sagrado — Hotel in Taos

The check in process was fairly painless, I was escorted to the private casita and given a quick tour by the front desk representative. I had asked for guidence on the best way to bring my bags to the casita and wasnt given much help nor was offered a baggage roll cart. I know this may seem petty but the option was to either pay someone else to carry my bags or carry them by hand and the option for a roll cart was not obvious as only the valet seemed to have access to them. |Casita was clean and cozy but dark and got a bit suffocating - no screens on the windows , so as I had my pet I did not ever feel comfortable opening up the window for fresh air with no screen. The beds were set so high I had a hard time comfortably getting up into it at 37 and my 66 yr old mother had an impossible time. I had to assist her every time she wanted to merely sit on the bed. Im 5’7 and the edge of the bad came up above my waist, my mom is 5’1.||After getting situated in the room we decided to get dressed up and go the to the restaurant on site for dinner. It is decorated beautifully and we were looking forward to the Chefs menu. Our waiter unfortunetly greeted us with an attitude of which he was bothered by our presence as we did not want to sit at the bar. He could not even be bothered to answer our questions about the wine menu nor offer any suggestions outside of “its up to you.” |However, as for the food it was fantastic! We were absolutely impressed by the beef tenderloin, it was delicious and greatly enjoyed. It was unfortunate to be met with such tension by our waiter. It was clear he was not trained to be serving in an establishment offering such a high standard of food. |After dinner we took a walk around the grounds before heading back to our room. |I specifally picked El Monte Sagrado because of the fabulously described living spa - which includes a stunning room filled with tropical plants, a salt water pool and a hot tub. My mother enjoys swimming and tropical getaways and us being from the mountains were so excited to find a tropical getaway so close to home. |Again, unfortunetly this was not the case. |We walked into the pool area to find that the hot tub was out of order and the room itself was quite cold. We attributed it to it just being a problem for that day and I could address it with the staff the next day. |We continued on to our casita. |It was around 9 - 10 pm at night at this point and probably around 20-30 degrees. |I went to open our door and the light turned red indicating that the key wasnt working - I tried both keys and was met with the same red light. |I left my mother outside and walked to the front desk to get the keys redone for the room. Couldnt find anyone at the front desk, had to find our waiter from dinner to find someone to rekey the cards. I get back to our casita and the keys still dont work. |I walk back to the front office - and Im met with slow disregard for the situation which was frustrating as we were locked out of our room with my mother sitting outside to prevent having to walk all the way back to the lobby. |After waiting outside for over 30 minutes, another slow disregarding employee came to “charge the door”. So for another 20 minutes we had to wait with the door wide open as maintenance changed out the battery on the front door. Our back door was completely disfunctional as well but that was never addressed for the entirety of our stay. |We were offered 1 free drink each as a resolve - to use the next day at the bar after 4pm. |We were exhausted by this time and were ready to enjoy some down time in the casita.|The next morning I went to ask about the hot tub. I was informed that the hot tub would not be functional during our stay and it would not be addressed until after Christmas. |This was a huge disappointment as again - this was the whole reason I picked this location outside of that it was pet friendly. |I asked if there was something we could work out in the spa as a consolation to the hot tub not working. She then offered to move us to a “spa room” - I agreed and went to go look at the room. It was a single bed room with a tub in the middle of the room. I went back to inform her that I currently have a 2 bed and Im staying with my mom. After packing up all of our stuff to move and waiting for concierge to come get our stuff (who never came) and I myself had to run all around ALL to find out the room she was offering wasnt even going to work for us and we just moved back into the same casita - again with no resolve to the original issue. However, we were offered a “deal” for a day pass to the wet and dry sauna. I found out later that it was indeed NOT a deal but just the price that the spa offers for access regardless. 15 dollars each for 2-two person saunas.|After all of that - we decided to go check out the pool to hopefully at least enjoy a swim in the salt water among the tropical ambiance. The pool was so cold. Not only was the water cold but the entire room was cold. We were shivering and miserable within minutes and had to go back to the room to warm up in the shower. In the shower which would not drain - so whatever was sitting in the drain would float up into the tub while showering. It was gross to say the least.|We wanted to stay and get food on site for the day and the only way to do that is to order room service and pay the extra 26% plus a service charge.|I paid close to $100 dollars for breakfast burritos and orange juice. ||Before arriving at El Monte I received a text - stating that should we need anything at all to just text. I was excited as the prescident being set was that we were going to receive top notch service by a friendly staff. By the end of our stay it was clear that their claim to great service is just words - it is not action. Every single issue that came up was met with “what do you want” not “this is how Im going to help”. |It was clear that staff was very accustomed to receiving complaints and instead of resolving for future are now just responding with frustration expecting the constant reoccurance of complaints. |The site is stunning and a few members of the staff are clearly trying to make it better. One bartender I believe her name was Alexis, was absolutely wonderful. She provided fabulous service without having to be asked and without having to fix something that was already wrong. ||We left El monte Sagrado MORE tired and MORE exhausted than when we arrived. We ended up continuing our trip in Santa Fe - staying at the Best Western and had a far more relaxing experience. All systems were in order, we got breakfast, it was clean and I wasnt asked to fix any of their problems. FOR a fraction of the price. ||There was also an additional charge of $120.00 to my card for room service I didnt receive at 1am the last night of our stay as well. It did end up falling off but was another statement of disregard for our stay and my personal card. ||To say Im disappointed - is an...

Update - came back with my wife 7 years since my last review, so re-doing this from scratch. Bumping three stars to four because of great service.

Overall summary: service was fantastic, food and beverage great, beautiful grounds, good location, lovely spa, room quiet, private, and comfortable - but some things need some attention, TLC, and maintenance.

Details:

Pretty much everyone we dealt with was awesome (except for the guy slouching in a chair in the center of the office when we first walked in - he just grunted and pointed at one of the folks at the desk without a word to us and went back to small talk with his co workers.. weird?) Minor, but strange welcome. The fellow who actually checked us in - awesome. He helped us several other times during our stay. Bartenders - all awesome, drinks and service top notch. Restaurant host and server (Emma) - fantastic and food was great. Spa therapist (Jupiter) - great and thorough. Valet guys - all super cool, quick, and awesome (although the changeover and inconsistency in re: self parking was confusing, but not their fault). Shuttle driver - super cool and great guy.

Staff and service: 9.9/10.

The room was lovely on first glance. Large, spacious, rustic, interesting art. Bed comfortable, bathroom well appointed with a nice shower. Nice and private with a lovely courtyard out back.

Location: Walking distance from Taos Plaza really, flat sidewalks the whole way. We made the walk 4-5 times. 10-15 minutes max. Easy. The shuttle is there too, though, and great. Whole place is green and lush with koi ponds, and is entirely secluded from the area. Quiet at night - even when they were having a wedding. Great.

Location: 10/10.

The issues, in hopes of improvement:

In the room there was a bit of an ant / insect problem. Out on the patio, large ants were everywhere all over some wooden structure, so explains why they were getting in. I probably picked up and flushed a dozen. At one point a mouse got in the room, but I did have the back door open for a bit right before. Just shooed him out. It is the high desert after all, but some people may not have handled this well.

The shower had a fair amount of mold/mildew. C’mon guys, this is an easy fix. Spritz some diluted bleach after each stay.

Unique to our room: The slabs entering our casita were really uneven and honestly a tripping hazard at night. This was only apparently an issue with ours, the others all looked flat. This should be addressed.

Biggest issue: Probably the place in need of most TLC is the indoor pool. Smells musty, lots of rust and mildew on structures. Thing is, pretty easy fix. Closing it for a couple of days and hitting the area with some paint / bleach on the regular would do wonders. The lounge chairs were, sorry, gross. They absolutely need to go. Sure, put a towel down - but yecchh. See photo.

Facilities / rooms: 6.5/10.

Overall, would go back if they made it a point to do some crucial maintenance, particularly some routine pest control and update the pool.

Staff, keep doing what you’re doing. Much more responsive than last time.

Hopefully, on...

I booked this hotel for a weekend with my family after visiting 12 months ago for a business meeting. The grounds are absolutely beautiful.

Upon arrival, valet did not help my kids and I with our bags but did help the more affluent guests who pulled in behind my family and I. Then upon check in, we were given a room without a tub, something that was supposed to be included in our reservation, so that had to be fixed and delayed our check in ability to begin our stay. And, we had to carry our bags to a second room. We thoroughly enjoyed the pool and grounds. The grass, ponds, and trails are stunning.

On our first night, we discovered the second room had no air conditioning. We called the front desk and they said maintenance would be by. Kids stayed up late because we knew someone would be stopping in our room. After an hour of waiting we called the front desk and they said they thought maintenance had already come and I said no. Minutes later maintenance came by and apologized saying this room had a known problem and the AC didnt work. He could bring fans. I called the front desk to complain about being given such a room and they said they would have a manager call me. Waited for a call and heard nothing so I called back and was told no manager was on duty and wouldn't be on duty the next day either!!! They would try to reach a manager by 10am to resolve issue. Meanwhile I finally have 2 fans in room brought in by housekeeping with cords all over with a toddler in my room, babies who stayed up late as we were waiting to get all this resolved, and what was supposed to be a calm relaxing evening was not relaxing AT all.

After 10am the following day after hearing nothing, I went to the front desk to inquire about hearing from a manager. To my surprise a manager was there and not to my surprise she heard nothing about my issues the night before. I asked that my issues be resolved. At that time, our room was scorching hot even with two fans, and we learned that one of the beds in the room caved in the middle so my husband and I were extremely uncomfortable all night and woke up with backaches and headaches. Not our idea of a nice getaway. I asked that we be moved and that we be compensated. We were were told we would be upgraded to a theme 2 bedroom suite and given breakfast vouchers for the following day and I would receive a text from the manager all when things were settled and valet moved our bags to the new room. We played around the resort, including the pool and the kids got tired so we hoped for a room. Finally around 2 we stopped by the front desk and they said our room was ready though we never received the promised text. The room is very nice and should be considering it is double the price. We got "Japan."

Not all is negative. It is a beautiful setting and that's why we came. The facility is showing its age, however. Love all the green.

Valet could use help at peak hours. It tends to get really backed up. At check out they were overwhelmed.

Shuttle service...