La Digue Island Lodge

This was not our first stay on La Digue, but it was our first time at La Digue Island Lodge.

The location of the hotel is very good, although La Digue itself is a relatively small island. The hotel is situated next to a small beach which, in our opinion, is not particularly attractive. On the other hand, the swimming pool is quite nice. There are local shops and Take Away restaurants right next to the hotel, although the one immediately beside the hotel was not among the best, in our opinion.

The resort itself is beautifully green and has a real tropical feel. There are palm trees, flowers, colourful birds and beautifully maintained paths. It is obvious that the gardener puts a lot of work into keeping the grounds in such good condition. Walking around the resort was genuinely a pleasure.

The restaurant was nothing particularly special. We had dinner there once, choosing from the à la carte menu, and the food was tasty and reasonably well presented. There was also a buffet available, although we did not use it. The pool bar was pretty much what you would expect from a pool bar. The drinks were good, although prices in both the bar and restaurant are certainly not among the cheapest — but this is the Seychelles, so that is perhaps not a major surprise.

Overall, you could say that the hotel is "okay" — but unfortunately, there are some serious issues that made our stay disappointing and confirmed some of the negative reviews we had previously read from other guests.

From the moment we arrived until we left, we had the strange feeling that we were more of an inconvenience than welcome guests. It felt as though our money was welcome, but our presence was not.

During our entire week-long stay, not a single member of staff greeted us with even a simple "Hi" or "Good morning". Even when we greeted staff ourselves, we were often completely ignored. This happened repeatedly and really made us feel uncomfortable.

The reception was another disappointment. There seemed to be a great deal of chaos hidden behind the "magic doors". Our check-in involved three receptionists, who seemed to take turns starting the procedure, stopping, and then handing it over to someone else. Everything was conducted in the local language, while we stood there for around 20 minutes without really knowing what was happening.

Again, there was no proper welcome, no explanation and barely a word directed towards us.

We stayed in a Garden Apartment. We were not expecting luxury, as we already know the standards on the Seychelles, particularly on La Digue, but we did expect something a little better.

The problem was not really the equipment or furniture. The room simply was not properly clean, despite initially giving the impression that it was.

The floor was unpleasantly dirty, and some of the grout between the tiles was disgustingly black. There was a noticeable amount of sand under our feet, particularly in the bathroom. In our opinion, the rooms are in need of a serious renovation and, more importantly, much better attention to cleanliness.

I will not go into every detail regarding an incident with housekeeping, but the service was far below any standard we would normally expect.

After three days, our room had still not been cleaned. The housekeeping staff member did not forget to collect the tip left for her, but somehow forgot to clean the room. When we raised this with reception, we were told that there had been a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door.

A supervisor was sent to speak to us and, rather surprisingly, asked what the problem was and essentially suggested that nothing serious had happened.

Eventually, the "cleaning" consisted of changing the bedsheets and pillows. We had to take the rubbish out ourselves, the terrace was never cleaned, and the bathroom was left in a condition that certainly did not meet the standard we expected.

In our opinion, the hotel has a serious management and staff-service problem.

I do not necessarily blame the individual employees. What is much more concerning is the obvious lack of management, training and customer-service standards. The problem was visible in many different situations during our stay.

The one exception was the bartender from Nepal working at the pool bar. He was the only member of staff who consistently demonstrated the kind of customer focus and friendly, polite approach that we would expect from a hotel of this type.

There are definitely positive aspects to La Digue Island Lodge — particularly the beautiful gardens, tropical surroundings, location and pool. However, these positives were unfortunately outweighed for us by the poor cleanliness, housekeeping problems and, above all, the lack of basic hospitality and customer service.

Would we return? Probably not.

We were so disappointed at our choice for 4 nights on our extended honeymoon/25th anniversary trip. Worst place we stayed out of 9 over a month. The people make or break an experience on vacation and this was the wrong choice for us. We ended up eating and drinking at other properties the last 3 days. The rooms were dated and only beach front if you're okay with a public walkway, stone wall and row of bushes between you and the sand. 1 small water bottle a day for 2 people, $7US each cappuccinos, drinks are costly, room 16 had a urine smell, room 2 was tiny, dated and humid, wifi only works in your room or reception not in common areas, bike rental only associated with lodge until something goes wrong (the bike company also had us go to lodge to resolve so it's a real run around), the food was meh went offsite to eat lunch and dinner (I ate protein bars instead of inclyded breakfast at a $550+/night place?!) coffee was even bad, pool is dated but one of the nicer experiences when Pradeep at the pool bar. The lodge should look at expenditures and easily see the 1 happy person they have resulted in more profits for them. Smiles, attention, helpful attitude, willingness to listen, providing options when issues are all simple things when service is a priority. I don't think the staff is treated well, why would they be so glaringly unhappy and unhelpful? Conversations with other guests resulted in comparisons and we couldn't find anyone happy with the lodge. 5 star price, 2 star service, regret our choice. We had to change rooms the last day since we couldn't book 'beachfront' for all 4 nights. They insisted we leave room by 10am and couldn't get new room until 3pm. We walked past new room at 11am and the cleaner was finishing with room, we still couldn't get it until 3pm. OMG, they just don't care, in fact a very unpleasant call with Dora who never apologized to me. Sat night, all dressed up and ready to enjoy a lovely dinner off the menu, we go to restaurant and told no one there to cook for us. What! We'd have to eat off the buffet - yuk and expensive. We ended up eating and drinking at La Repaire and Lo Lans (about $500 worth) and totally wished we had booked there. More boutique size and actually fun with live music Sat night, great employees and food. The people were fun, way happier because they were being treated properly. We also did the BBQ place beside there and Mimi's twice in 1 day on our bike ride. You've got to try the coconut cheesecake!! The island is great, the beaches rock but picking the right place to stay can make or break your experience. We failed on this choice and it's easy to see from my 100+ reviews I'm usually pretty generous with my comments and ratings. Good genuine people experiences go a long way! This place is a worst experience for us after 33 countries.