La Digue Island Lodge

Arrived today & weather a bit challenging but staff unfazed by everyone's frustrations. Dealt with everything professionally. We hadn't booked any food for this evening as we were planning on going further up the road for food but....the rain had other ideas! Last minute booking at the Al a carte & served so eloquently by Josephina. Delicious food & perfect service 😋 👌

This was, without exaggeration, one of the most disappointing hotel experiences we have had in the Seychelles. La Digue is famous for its serenity, tranquility and the feeling of escaping everyday life to recharge your batteries. Unfortunately, this hotel completely failed to provide the most basic conditions required for that.

What is particularly frustrating is that most of the problems were not caused by the staff themselves. The staff were generally friendly and tried to help when problems were reported. The real issue appears to be management, maintenance standards and the apparent unwillingness to invest in the property and guest experience.

A) Extremely loud music — no possibility to rest

After a long journey, the first thing we wanted was simply to get to our room and take a nap.

Instead, we were confronted with immensely loud music coming from the property immediately next to the hotel. The noise was so excessive that there was absolutely no possibility of sleeping or resting.

This is particularly unacceptable on an island such as La Digue, where guests specifically come for peace, quiet and relaxation. We did not travel all the way to the Seychelles to lie in a hotel room listening to extremely loud music from the neighbouring property.

We therefore requested a room change. To their credit, the hotel did fulfil this request — but unfortunately, this only led to an entirely different and even more bizarre problem.

Lizards repeatedly entering the room — and the absurd response

The replacement room was immediately apparent as being very old and clearly in need of renovation. More seriously, there were visible gaps around four of the windows, providing an obvious entry point for insects and animals.

It did not take long before we discovered a house gecko inside the room — and then several of them.

We contacted housekeeping. The housekeeper came and chased the lizards out and assured us that the windows had been closed/fixed.

After a long and exhausting day, we finally managed to sleep.

Or so we thought.

At 05:30 in the morning, we were woken up by the characteristic noise of another house gecko that had managed to enter our room.

Housekeeping and security came again and removed the lizard. Later that day, the hotel added pieces of wood around some of the windows in an attempt to block the gaps.

I specifically requested that all four windows be properly sealed, because the issue was clearly not a single lizard — it was an obvious structural/maintenance problem.

Yet the hotel only added wooden pieces to three of the four windows.

When we returned in the evening, we discovered that the fourth window — the one that appeared to have been “closed” but had not received the additional wooden piece — was still not properly sealed.

And, predictably, shortly after taking a shower, another house gecko entered through that very window.

At this point, our patience was exhausted.

I called reception and demanded to change rooms immediately to a more modern room with properly sealed windows. The response I received was essentially:

“We are a tropical island. This is normal.”

No. It is not.

We have also stayed on Mahé and Praslin, which are equally tropical islands, and we did not experience anything remotely comparable.

We completely understand that a tropical destination has insects, geckos and wildlife. That is not the issue. The issue is having structural gaps in the windows of a guest bedroom that allow animals to repeatedly enter the room while guests are trying to sleep — and then presenting this as something guests should simply accept.

Eventually, after further discussion and after making it clear that we simply could not continue sleeping in a room where animals were repeatedly entering, another room was prepared for us.

We moved very late in the evening, yet again disrupting our evening and our sleep.

I even had to ask the hotel for approximately 5 cm of tape so that I could personally seal the gaps around the windows to prevent more lizards from entering.

That is frankly unbelievable.

We ultimately managed to sleep for the remaining two nights only because we had personally taped/sealed the gaps ourselves.

A guest should not have to perform basic maintenance on a hotel room in order to make it possible to sleep.

C) Breakfast — extremely poor and completely underwhelming

The breakfast was another major disappointment.

The variety was close to zero, and the overall selection was nowhere near what one would reasonably expect from a hotel in the Seychelles.

Even more concerning, birds and other animals were sitting around/on top of the areas where breakfast food was being presented.

The reaction among the guests was noticeable. Almost everyone looked disappointed, and there was very little enthusiasm around the breakfast.

Fortunately, there was an egg station, so it seemed that most guests simply ended up ordering an omelette because there was little else appealing.

Again, the staff themselves were friendly. The problem is clearly much deeper: the hotel appears to be operated with insufficient investment in maintenance, renovation and food & beverage standards.

The fundamental problem

What makes this experience particularly frustrating is that none of these problems are really about the Seychelles, tropical weather or island life.

We understand perfectly well that La Digue is a tropical island. We came precisely because we wanted to enjoy the nature and tranquillity.

But there is a huge difference between:

“You are staying on a tropical island, so you may occasionally see a gecko.”

and

“Your room has poorly maintained windows with gaps large enough for multiple geckos to enter repeatedly during the night, and the hotel tells you this is normal.”

The latter is simply poor maintenance and poor management.

Likewise, having loud music next door is not the hotel’s fault if it comes from another establishment — but the hotel should have been much more proactive in managing the situation and ensuring that guests who come to La Digue for peace and relaxation have an appropriate room.

Final verdict

The staff were generally friendly and polite, and I want to acknowledge that they did respond when we complained. But unfortunately, good intentions from individual employees cannot compensate for fundamental shortcomings in the property and its management.

The hotel needs serious investment in: • Renovation of old rooms • Proper sealing and maintenance of windows • Basic preventative maintenance • Noise management • Breakfast quality, variety and food protection • And, most importantly, management’s attitude towards legitimate guest complaints

Telling a guest who has been repeatedly woken up by lizards entering their bedroom that “this is normal because we are a tropical island” is not an acceptable response.

We came to La Digue to relax, disconnect and recharge our batteries.

Instead, we spent our stay dealing with loud music, room changes, lizards entering our bedroom, being woken at 05:30, repeated maintenance failures, sealing windows ourselves with tape, and an extremely disappointing breakfast.

That is the exact opposite of the experience we expected from a stay in the Seychelles.

Beautiful destination. Friendly staff. But an extremely disappointing hotel experience and, in our opinion, a clear management and maintenance failure.