Originally Posted by
Groombridge
Evason Ma’In: A Six Senses resort/spa
Perhaps the worst experience I’ve ever had at a “luxury” hotel, despite an upgrade to the royal suite, the top room in the property.
I’d never stayed at a Six Senses property before, but after planning initially to stay at the Four Seasons Amman, with an overnight at the Movenpick in Petra to break up the long drive to/from Petra, I was seduced by the newness of the Evason Ma’In, and the reports I’ve heard about how unexciting and tired the Four Seasons Amman is. What a mistake—we would have been far better off in even the most standard of Four Seasons hotels, and the Movenpick in Petra would have enabled us to enjoy sunset and morning at Petra, as well as the candlelight tour provided on selected evenings.
So it’s clear to anyone who looks at Six Senses properties that they’re trying to create some sort of rustic idyll for their guests, but that shouldn’t mean that everything, and I mean everything, is falling apart and dirty, especially after having been open less than a year. Presumably due to the Virtuoso booking made by David O, our party of four was upgraded to the two best rooms: the 2-bedroom, 2-bath Royal Suite, and the Spa Suite, which had a gargantuan terrace looking out over the waterfall. But within seconds of entering the rooms, the problems began. Barely-functional air-conditioning made rest difficult. The soap dispenser in the shower had clumps of hair on it, raising concerns about using the re-filled pump. The bathroom sink’s hardware had come loose, and the bathtub had been poorly patched up after incurring some sort of damage. Visibly sloppy painting of the walls, with paint also spreading onto the window frames. No trash can, despite four calls to housekeeping requesting one. We requested a bucket of ice, but never received it.
The small swimming pool has only a dozen or so daybeds, so there’s probably some anger when the resort has larger numbers of guests, and the pool service was deeply inadequate, not having towels at several points of the day. Lots of flies. At one point, the steel handrail leading down into the pool was covered by wood to try to continue the rustic theme, but most of the wood has been broken off—and should either have been removed altogether or repaired, rather than being left to look so shabby.
The public areas have some interesting design elements, merging rusticity with a sense of Middle Eastern aesthetics. The dining areas are attractive. But the guestrooms themselves just look cheap and underfurnished, with nothing seeming to function as intended.
Upon checkout, they couldn’t get their credit card machine to work, and the bill they presented us had charges for six different dinners for four, when we’d only stayed for three nights! We tried to explain that it was simply impossible for us to have eaten 6 different dinners when we’d only been there 3 nights, and had to argue for about an hour about that with them. The on-site manager was incredibly unhelpful during our entire stay, constantly trying to coerce us into doing something different than we desired. For example, we prefer to have a spa treatment prior to a meal rather than right after one. So we requested our spa treatments at 6 pm, and availability was confirmed. But then the manager approached us and told us that it was a bad idea to have a spa treatment before a meal, and that we should have our spa treatment right after lunch instead. We told him that we really did not want to lay on a massage table right after a meal, and he continued to insist that it was a bad idea to have a massage before dinner. Every interaction with him felt like a battle in which, for no good reason, he attempted to dissuade us from doing what we wanted to do. Another example: on the last day of our trip, we wanted to relax without leaving the property. But he became insistent that we should leave the property to dine off-site that evening. We refused, and he was somewhat disgruntled about that.
The spa building is also underwhelming, and the pool there seemed unclean, with twigs and residue floating on the surface. Treatments, though, were excellent there from the Asian staff who came from Six Senses properties in SE Asia. Local staff who performed less extensive treatments, like the 30-minute foot recovery massage, were less proficient, however.
Altogether, a really unpleasant stay, full of battles with the management over what appeared to us to be very simple requests, and general discomfort with the state of disrepair and lack of cleanliness. I’ve learned my lesson, and will never stay at a Six Senses property again.
As I said, were I to visit Petra again, I’d definitely stay at the Movenpick. I’m sure the rooms aren’t much better than a standard 3-star hotel’s, but the lobby area is very, very beautiful and atmospheric, and the light on the Treasury in Petra is best in the early morning and the dusk, and it would be great to be able to come and go from Petra to the hotel, which is just 2 minutes from the entrance gate to Petra, rather than doing a long drive from Amman or Ma’In, spending the heat of the day trying to see as much of Petra as possible, and then driving 3-4 hours back. It made for an exhausting day—well worth it to see such a spectacular place as Petra, which I absolutely loved—but how nice it would have been to see it without the long drive home hanging over you all day, and to have been able to take advantage of the candlelight tour in the evening, in addition to seeing all that glorious colored stone changing appearance during morning and evening and noonday suns.