OK I will give you some first impressions which may be unfair since we still have another 5 days of our stay left.

Firstly the Meridien is located approximately 3km from the GM although not exactly in a straight line. It is located next to the Maritim which you can see across Turtle Bay and is directly adjacent to a construction site which will be the new IC Mauritius in due course.

IMHO this property is not ready to be open. Only one restaurant is available in the evening and the Spa is not yet open. We were told that "arrangements" could be made to have Spa treatment but to be honest at c.€150 per massage they would have to be pretty outstanding arrangements to be tempting. Only one Pool is available and construction work is still ongoing which is perhaps why one "wing" of the property appears to be unoccupied.

The cost of things here is really quite eye-wateringly expensive. I am not a cheapskate by any means and cheerfully spent well over £1200 just in incidentals in 5 days at the Hilton but I can honestly say my Jaw has never dropped more than reading the wine list here. The mark up appears to be in the order of 700% over MRU local prices let alone prices back in the UK (around 1000% mark up). Everything is charged in Euros which offers potential for further bill padding when "exchange rates" are considered and the bill is rendered into Mauritian Rupees. I paid €72 + 5% service charge this evening for a mediocre bottle of Chablis. Wines tend to be expensive here in MRU but even South African varieties which tend to be better priced here are extortionately expensive. Again I happily spent £120+ a bottle at Melanzane at the Hilton Maurtius for bottles of Montrachet which appeared to be fair (not exceptional value) so this is not a cost issue rather it is a value issue. 2 cocktails each in the main bar (4 in total) came to €46 and they were from the cheaper end of the menu.

The property itself when it is fully open will be good, right now it lacks a certain amount of atmosphere. Eating in the sole restaurant is like sitting in the midst of a vast empty dining room. The food was however rather nice. As for the room it is difficult to tell what type of room I have. I booked the cheapest available and have a reasonably large bedroom with large bathroom and a small sitting area in front of the bed plus an absolutely vast terrace containing a sofa (yes sofa) 2 sunloungers, 2 outdoor chairs a table and 2 chairs and 2 additional soft recliner chairs. This room may be a luxury suite (it certainly doesn't match the description of a junior suite) but the internal area is nothing especially stunning even though the furniture is pleasant and tasteful. The website speaks of "personal butlers" however none have been in evidence to Mrs LoM and I thus far and we found the Butlers at the MRU Hilton to be superb (unpacking and later repacking our belongings).

Nothing seems to work as well as it should. We had no hot water for several hours after check in and this evening after dinner we found no hot water again. The phone/TV system is very high tech (Cisco VoIP phone, AVOD networked TV) but execution is poor and much content is missing. The staff are trying exceptionally hard and I have thus far managed to avoid losing my temper however I lost it a little this evening to find no turndown service had been given, dirty towels remained on the floor but we had been left some complimentary desserts and our terrace door was left wide open so our room also had some complimentary wildlife.

To be frank I would avoid the Meridien like the plague but in all honestly until I was absolutely certain that the teething problems here are resolved I would recommend the Hilton above the GM. I do not expect this resort to be anything like fully functional by the time we leave which is a shame because I think it will be lovely when it is truly up and running successfuly. I am bitterly regretting my decision to split my stay between the Hilton and the Meridien/GM (since I did originally have a complete redemption stay booked at the Hilton). I chose to move on after a week because I learned last time I came to MRU that spending too much time in one place gets a little stale. In this case I would welcome a little boredom in return for some predictability.

I will update further after my stay when I may be able to pull things into more context. My thought process has been thrown somewhat in the last couple of days however. I have prioritised Starwood over Hilton for the better part of 3 years now and until yesterday had never had a bad experience in over 70 stays, my confidence has taken a severe dent now.