Grotto Spa At Tigh-Na-Mara — Local services in Parksville

Me and my cousin and the rest of the family booked our massages 1 month in advance and we stayed at the resort. THe resort was a good experience and the massages were amazing and the pool was decent , nothing close to fairmont or scandinave spa The spa also had very poor quality unhealthy nuts filled with chocolates. The treatments were good, though the cash administrators messed up The spa schedulers called me back and told me i could not have my couple's massage with my fiance because our massage lengths were different. So i ended up having my massage with my cousin. After this when we went to pay , they had coded all our receipts wrong and did not have individual receipts for our health and wellness claims. In fact they clubbed together my fiance and my cousin as together for couples massage and also they had the names spelt wrong. The receipts we need for our health and wellness claims had wrong spellings of our names. We waited for 40 minutes in their cash area for them to figure it all out while their staff who seemed to be new struggled. None of the others were helping her and just stood in the corner chatting instead of taking over. .... By that point, we didn't want more delay as we were not feeling relaxed anymore and they were taking up our precious vacation and resort time!! so we said we are leaving, please sort these things out that we have asked and have the new receipts sent to our rooms. Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. Then we never heard anything from them - so we went to the Resort reception as we did not want to deal with the Grotto spa sdministration. We told them how we had suffered but they ended up sending us back to the Spa. At the spa they made us wait for another hour because they still had all the spellings wrong and the receipts wrongly coded and their manager on the phone could not serve us and fix our receipts. Plus they charged us auto gratuity - and they charged us GST on that auto gratuity and massage total. So we asked them to refund that to us as we were haveing a very terrible experienc.We said we are laving and to email us the correct receipt. Cut to today, the spa has still not fixed our receipts for our wellness claims and have them coded wrongly. One of our parties was an international traveler as well who is very disappointed. They made us wait around - 3 people for over 80 minutes at their cash counter and have still not fixed anything. They have managed to reverse the gratuity to 3 out of the 4 people but not the GST tax that they charged us on that auto grautity - they never offered anything with courtesy - we had to spell it out for them that we are having a terrible experience and to take the auto gratuity out The spa counter. if this had been the fairmont, they would have reversed all our fees - overall our experience at the TIGH NA MARA has been terrible as a result and we still havent got these errors fixed. Their cash desk was very poorly managed and the managers have been rude to us when emailing us about our receipts that their staff could not fix and they overlooked the amount of time we had to wait around for them instead of spending our vacation with our family. making lcients wait around for 80 minutes is very unprofessional - you could have told us that you will have it all done and we shouldnt worry and should go enjoy..instead i am still here waiting for issues to be fixed and being told that iam no longer welcome ----The spa counter or cash desk was very poorly managed and the managers have been rude to us when emailing us about our receipts that their staff could not fix. they are charging people tax on auto gratuities as well!!! and not refunding tax just refunding the ticket price of gratuity when people have waited around.!!! they are not refunding our charges of the spa even after being so rude and wasting our precious time that we work hard to earn. We do not recommend this resort or the spa...

Tl;Dr: USED to be a great spa with decent amenities and pricey but good treatments. Since their changes in 2024, not worth going by a longshot.

This is such a disappointing review to write. The Grotto spa used to be a great place to go for a relaxing afternoon alone or with a group, get a luxury treatment and enjoy the nice (but pretty standard) spa amenities. I made it an annual group trip to Tigh Na Mara, partly for the spa, and would come back throughout the year as different things brought me to the island. But that all changed in 2024 when I last visited the Grotto. I was informed when I booked that I'd not only be paying for my massage and facial but for what amounted to a $95 entry fee. For this amount, I expected that their renovations and added amenities would be a lot more extensive than I'd expected; they were not. They added some cedar saunas and some outside fire pits and seating areas, neither of which I was interested in using on my own (that spa trip was solo) or on a very hot summer day. The fact that I couldn't just go for a massage and facial and sit in the lounge to relax in between is absurd. I'd have been happy to agree not to have access to the often crowded pool and hot tub, as well as the new amenities, to avoid the $95 fee but that was not an option. I was surprised by this policy as it seems extremely non-inclusive to spa patrons who can't use the pool and other facilities.

To be clear, and compared to other luxury spas, the prices for services were always on the high end for what was offered. And the facilities and amenities there were nice but nothing spectacular. Compared to other spas with similar pricing, I would expect more complimentary options for drinks and snacks, cozy areas to sit, etc. I have had equally nice massages, facials and other body treatments at spas with nicer facilities for a lower price tag. I think the problem is that the Grotto doesn't have a lot of competition as some of the other spas in the area just don't have the space to offer such amenities. It's a shame because I believe it allows them to price gouge for basic services.

If the model were to return to how it was previously, or even just give an option to forego the pool and other facilities in order to get a massage, I might consider returning but otherwise I'll stick to the other spas in the area and would encourage others to...

Booked in for the grotto experience. In the beginning and in the end the front staff were so kind and guided us along what the experience would look like. We were shown around and explained the best way to experience the mineral pool. Now there is a small whirlpool hottub but you do need to set the timer to use it. Cant be a pain. The saunas are interesting enough. The cold shower is just a stand up shower head but nothing spectacular. We did do bottled rose and the charcuterie which was simple but our waiter (he's greek) was why the experience even got Two stars. He was so kind and so open with us about recommendations and simply the most humble human being! Wishing him so much success! The issues arose cause there is a dryer for your clothes in the locker rooms. You are advised to use the dryers to dry your clothes and told it when you first enter the locker rooms. At no time where we mentioned that there may be an issue with the small dryer system for the bathing suits. One of our bathing suits was completely torn in the back! It was simply not okay because it wasn't mentioned to us that there may be this chance that it may rip or to be careful as we were told to put the bathing suit in the dryer push down twice and we would get dry clothes. We then took our bathing suit to front desk to show them what the dryer had done to make them aware and the front staff was willing to help until they brought in a manager who was less than helpful who kept saying that they don't compensate for that even though we didn't ask for a compensation We asked for them to understand what had occurred with the bathing suit so that this does not occur to anyone else. She then again repeatedly said we don't have a compensation for this and asked if we were ready go pay. Justnleft us flabbergasted. We had some Rose left over that was bottled to the front that we then had to ask to get her bag because she was just going to give us the bottle. Come on your supposed to be a top spa. It unfortunately messed up the experience that was otherwise somewhat going good. It's sad because one person's personality messed up the experience that could have been memorable. And to pay well over $150 each for an experience you would want at least the staff to understand where you're coming from when you don't want to leave somewhere with tattered clothes or...