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Old Oct 23, 2016, 1:24 pm
  #158  
bhrubin
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Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Southern California, USA
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Originally Posted by MacMyDay
Thank you, sir. I still need to do a basic write-up between North and Laucala, but in summary, I hope Laucala can get the butler integrated perfectly, just like at North Island, as it would considerably improve the service. Unlike KatW who has rebooked, I left Laucala and had no intention of rebooking it, whereas even though I was deliberating over North Island on leaving, I am in discussions with them about going back. Some of that is distance, some is due to having done the activities we were interested in at Laucala and some is the service.

North had some rather lousy staff outside of the villa, yet near-perfection from your villa butler, whereas Laucala was below the required standard throughout almost every area, from housekeeping to activities to concierge to dining. At least they were consistent. I could tell you 2 staff at North that clearly needed to be retrained, but at Laucala it was a case of where do you begin? Laucala has to be better and I cannot believe I'm the only one who thinks it, as the one and only other family we spoke to whilst there had most of the same gripes as us. I was definitely not alone amongst the staff in thinking this, as some of the expats were saying how difficult it was to work with the locals due to their Fijian time mentality. It's service with a massive smile, with all the best of intentions, but not delivering on the standards expected at $6,000/n.

On another note, I saw on Instagram that Anthony Healy, the executive chef, is leaving, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the food quality: https://www.instagram.com/p/BK9ps-ejkpv/
To each, their own. But I'm with you. Great minds...

I'm also troubled by the idea that you can get whatever food you want, whenever you want, from the chef...but not if the chef happens to be away? Unimpressive for me.

Service is my biggest challenge with places like this. If you're paying $5-6K per night, the service (and food), not just the villas, has to be exemplary for me. I can always find a beautiful villa for much less.
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