coup schmoo holiday

Sonaisali resort on the western side of the island.

Our adventure at Sonaisali resort:

With the recent tension in the Capital, is the coup happening? Is the military going to take over the government? Josie and I decided we needed a break; so we booked 2 nights 3 days at Sonaisali Resort.

Since getting home I have been asked by friends how our little holiday was and if I would go back too/recommend Sonaisali resort and the answer after much contemplation is NO! There was a series of little mix-ups and attitude that added up to a whole lot that was too much to over look. Here is a list of the “little mix ups”

1. We arrive early; check in is not until 2, no problem we go have lunch. Josie hears one staff member say to another “their room is ready but don’t let them in till 2”. That’s fine; maybe one should talk quietly so we don’t over hear you, at 2 they proceed to give us our room number and we have to lug our bags to the room. Other guests seem to get a porter to help with the luggage? We get to the room, and as we look around we realize something is not right. The sink has toothpaste in it, there is a wet used face cloth beside the sink, garbage in the bins, the room has not been cleaned at all! We trudge back to reception; did I mention it was really hot? And now we are in a full sweat! We are given another room; thank god it is a bit further away so we get to take a golf cart. All is great in this room; off to the beach we go!

2. Next we get ready for our dinner, our dinner reservation is lost, and we have a dinner that ends up taking 2 ½ hours to be served. That would be fine if it was just Josie and I, but the kids were starting to get restless and sleepy by now it is almost 10pm. So we ask for our desserts to be wrapped up and Josie takes the girls to bed and I wait, and wait, and wait.

3. The used plates from the dessert and the cockroach (see pictures) are put outside our door Saturday night (we don’t want to attracted more creatures) and they stayed there till Monday and I can assure you creatures came and visited the plates.

4. The bottom of the pool is so ruff that our feet looked like they had a major case of road rash.

5. 3 sets of towels in the room, when you offer the room as 2 adults and 2 kids, am I wrong that adds up to 4?

6. There are other little things; I think you get my point. We decide to talk to the manager to voice our concerns, how else do you improve your service but by listening to your guests. He actually said to Josie that because we were paying the special rate/local rate (they have been advertising in the local paper to the local community to come to their resort on a special 189.00 per night plus 40.00 a day for food, for the family, family being 2 adults, 2 kids) we should not be complaining! We told them we would pay the bill in full and we felt that comping us for a future night would be fair compensation they refused and took $100 dollars off our bill.

Note to all resorts!

All your guests and especially your local cliental are your ambassadors, when we have friends and family coming to visit us or when we finally move home and people ask us our advise about: where to stay, what to do, what are must sees, in Fiji we tell them. We are invaluable because we have lived in Fiji and we know!

So guess what Sonaisali you are not high on my list or possibly not even on my list of places to stay, I was willing to over look the little things but your "your local" attitude pushed me to the NO recommendation. Shame on you for your lack of respect to your local cliental; with the event of a possible a coup and travel advisories happening the tourist industry is precarious at best, don’t piss off the locals you need our business and especially our recommendations.

Check out recent article in the
fiji times

sonaisali