Amazing Resort With A Great Location, But Service Was Lacking

We spent four nights and five days at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat a Four Seasons hotel (that's quite a mouthful) at the beginning of November. We had amazing weather with temperatures around 22 degrees Celsius, or 72 degrees Fahrenheit, and lots of sun. This property is beautiful, and the location is fantastic with amazing views, and we were able to catch both the sunrise and the sunset.

We found it quite easy to drive to all the major places close by, and the longest car ride we had was to Cannes which took about an hour. Both Nice and Monaco are about 30 minutes away, and Eze is a short detour on the way to or from Monaco. Eze offers some amazing views and is great if you enjoy taking photographs.

The only letdown we experienced was the service, which is a major disappointment when staying in a hotel with the history and reputation this hotel has. They failed in a number of different ways, and I don't feel they even tried to make up for it. If you're looking for great rooms with a fantastic pool in the French Riviera, this might be a good option, but if you're expecting world class service maybe you should consider other options.

Check in was handled in the big open lobby, and we were served ice tea and given wet towels as we waited for Charlotte to bring our papers over. I like this approach as it's much more relaxed and a very pleasant after having travelled for hours.

As we booked through a Four Seasons Preferred Partner, we had some benefits which were clearly explained. We arrived a little early, and was told that the room would be ready in about 20 minutes, which was still before official check-in time, so we decided to take a walk down to pool while we waited.

After a short walk down to the pool and back up, we were shown to our room, number 5, by Charlotte who had checked us in. The room was on the main floor, just off the lobby behind a door. We found this location to be very good, as it afforded easy access to most everything.

Bedroom with a large bed

We had booked a Superior Pinewood Room, and were given a very generous upgrade to a Four Seasons Sea-View Suite with a large terrace. The suite consisted of one bedroom, one living room, a walk-in closet and a decently sized bathroom. The extra bed for our daughter was placed in the corner of the living room, which was a good place as it was out of the way and not in a too bright spot.

Living room with extra bed

The bathroom was located off the walk-in closet and had it's own direct access to the terrace. It was a very beautiful bathroom with the usual setup of a walk-in marble shower, a bathtub, a toilet behind glass doors and double vanities.

Bathroom

View from bathroom

If there would be one negative about the bathroom, it would be that it didn't have air conditioning. We did what we could by having the awning down and keeping the door open, but I imagine it must get very warm in there during the summer months. I doubt it would be approved by bhrubin.

Bedroom with view

Living room as seen from the bedroom

The highlight of the room was the terrace! As I mentioned earlier it was a very good size. I have to mention the fact, however, that the steps leading down to the restaurant's terrace and the gardens goes right by it, and if you have a need for absolute privacy, that would be an issue. As we stayed during the low season, it didn't really bother us at all.

The terrace

One of the highlights of our stay was the food. We had breakfast every morning, twice on our terrace, and twice in the restaurant. The breakfast in the restaurant consisted of a buffet with salmon, cold cuts, cheeses, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, lots of fruit and berries, and a selection of cereals and breads. We were also offered to order any sort of eggs, as well as pancakes, crepes, and waffles. The buffet was very good, and always well stocked.

La Véranda, the only dining option during our stay

The two days we had breakfast on our terrace, we ordered various items including eggs Benedict, waffles, crepes with chocolate sauce, berries, and freshly cut fruit. This was served beautifully on our terrance in the morning sun, and was a great way to start our day. The first room service breakfast, however, was very late. More about that in the service section.

A beautiful and very tasy breakfast

We also had lunch, which was excellent. I had the Burrata with grilled vegetables, and the Spaghetti with Cuttlefish Ink, both of which were prepared to perfection. The pasta was silky smooth and had lots of flavor. My wife had a steak which was juicy and tender, even if it was a little over medium which was the temperature she requested. Our daughter had a burger which she couldn't stop raving about, as well as mango juice which was the same they serve at Dinner by Heston and is "the best juice ever."

The pool really is one of the highlights of this hotel. It's perfectly situated and very well maintained. Fruit and cookies are complimentary, and drinks are available to order. During the summer they also serve food here, and I imagine it's a popular spot considering the view.

To get down to the pool, you have two options. You can take the steps through a small park, or you can take the glass funicular. What ever option you chose, it's incredibly beautiful and something I'd recommend even if you have no interest in actually being by the pool.

Go left, or go right. You can't go wrong!

I don't feel like walking today

The pool itself is a heated salt water pool, which meant that even if it's not that warm outside it is still pleasant. The only not so pleasant part is getting out if it. I'm not sure how much salt they have in it, but it's quite a lot. I took a quick dip in the ocean, and the water there was noticably less salt.

A good looking pool on a great day

So, now we're getting to the negative part of my review, and this is going to be quite long so I apologize in advance. The short summary is that quite a few things happened that shouldn't have, and when they did they were not handled in a satisfactory way. I'll divide this section into a number of different sub-sections, their own short stories if you will.

Before we get to all the negative things about the service I do want to mention that we never encountered any bad attitude or were treated with anything but respect. The staff was courteous and helpful, and the base level of the service was good. However, no one ever approached us to follow up on any of the issues we had, which I found very odd and unusual.

The Small Things

There were a number of small issues that on their own probably wouldn't have affected our stay, but together with the other issues become a factor. For example, turndown was often late even if we gave them plenty of heads up when we wanted it. This is not unique to this hotel, and it's not a big issue either, but I wanted to mention it.

Something that started out as a very small issue, but became annoying by check-out was the fact that we had asked if we could have a credit on our food & beverage instead of the spa, as part of our benefits for booking through FSPP. This was granted, but at check-in they had no knowledge of this. I was told they would look into this, but they never got back to me. Instead I had to ask again later, and was given confirmation that indeed, they would grant our request. When checking out, I noticed that no credit had been applied so I asked that they correct it. At this point I was once again told that the credit was for the spa. Luckily, the person who had checked us in was close by and corrected the person who check us out, and the credit was applied. As an isolated incident, I wouldn't have given this much consideration, but I wonder why this wasn't noted on our profile and handled better.

The Pool of Blood

After we had lunch on our first day at the hotel, we decided that it was still warm enough to take a swim in the pool. It sure is a beautiful place, and everyone working there are doing their best to make you comfortable. After we had been in the water a few minutes, our daughter complains about having hurt her foot on something. As the awesome father I am, I tell her it's probably nothing, but after a short while, she has to get out of the pool to get a better look, which is when we realize she cut her foot. She is bleeding quite bad, and there's a trail of blood where ever she goes.

Yay, the bleeding stopped!

It turns out that one of the lamps about 2 feet below the water has come loose, which in turn has exposed some very sharp edges and screws. We let the life guard know, who then tried to patch our daughter up the best he could, but we obviously had to return to our room for the night.

The lamp in question, now floating, four days later

No compensation was offered in regards to this, and no one, except the lifeguard who helped our daughter, ever asked how she was or if we needed anything. We had to ask for new band aids from the concierge each day to keep her foot patched up. Luckily, our daughter is a strong person, so it affected the rest of our stay very little, but we had to consider our activities as it did hurt when she walked. I must say, being told by my daughter to be careful around the lamps in the pool so that I don't hurt myself, is not the lasting memory I was hoping for from this trip.

Water In All the Wrong Places

As we returned to our room with our badly limping daughter in tow, we take a shower and go out to the living room for a while before we are going back to the bathroom to finish getting ready. As I get there, I notice water dripping from one of the lamps in the ceiling.

The light that wouldn't stop dripping

I call the front desk to let them know, and after a short while the front desk manager knocks on our door and inspects the bathroom. He realizes something must have gone wrong in the room above ours, and sends for maintainance. He gives me his card and tells me he is the person I should talk to if I have any further questions in regards to this. Maintainance works on our bathroom for two hours, during which time we obviously can't use the bathroom, and with our daughter's foot bleeding pretty bad still, we can't really go anywhere else either.

Looks pretty different now, doesn't it?

As this was on Halloween, we were planning on just having a nice quite evening in our room and to watch A Nightmare Before Christmas, but we realized this was not going to happen. As we had been up since 4 in the morning, we were tired, and this together with the cut foot really didn't help things.

After about an hour had passed, I decided to go to the front desk and ask the manager what was going on, and if they had any updates. The maintainance guy came and went a few times, and didn't really speak any English, so I couldn't ask him. I ask for the manager and is told he has left for the day. Now, maybe my expectations are all wrong, but this surprised me. I expected him to at least follow up before he left, and let me know who I should talk to instead. I saw him the next day at breakfast, but he didn't acknowledge us at all and if I hadn't seeked him out myself I wouldn't had heard anything more about this at all.

In the end, all I know is that there was an issue in the bathroom above ours. The extent of their apologies was a note and a few pieces of candy at turndown. Very underwhelming.

Help, I'm Falling, and I Can't Get Up

During our second night, we realized that the bed our daughter had been given was not in full working order, as the foot end of it collapsed suddenly when she was sleeping in it. This was a bit of a scare, but luckily, she didn't fall out of the bed and we could all go back to sleep after a while. I asked them to look at the bed, which was replaced.

The Hungry Games

The same morning after the bed collapse, we decided to get up early and catch the sunrise and go for a walk as we weren't really sleeping all that well. I had ordered a room service breakfast the night before, which was requested at 8:30, so we felt this would give us plenty of time as the sunrise was a few minutes after 7.

The walk got a bit longer than we had intended, but we managed to be back in our rooms at 8:20, hungry and ready for breakfast. The breakfast, however, arrived 45 minutes late, after two calls to room service to check what was going on. The first call was placed around 8:50, at which point we were told it would be at our room in less than five minutes. 25 minutes later, it finally arrived, with items missing. This was partially sorted out, but we never got everything that we ordered. The compensation for this was that we wouldn't have to pay for breakfast, which was already included as one of the benefits of booking through a preferred partner.

I will leave you with a few more photos, and to reiterate what I said in the opening paragraphs: This is a wonderful hotel, and the location is something I'm very happy to have exprienced. I just wish the service was on par with the hotel itself, then this trip would have been truly amazing. As it stands now, I recommend this hotel, but if something goes wrong when staying here I really hope you have better luck than we had.

The main entrance

Lobby and concierge desk

Flower arrangement

The pool gardens

Terrace by the pool