Grand Solmar Resort Timeshare Release

We just returned from a family reunion at Grand Solmar celebrating my birthday. I would have rated it a 4 star experience had it not been for the way staff and management dealt with a billing mistake they made. Too bad, as the way the treated us left a bad taste as we departed.

The Good

The Grand Solmar is the last resort before Lands End on the Baja Peninsula. The views are lovely, the resort clean, and I think most if not all rooms have either a full or partial ocean view. Our son was able to get a one bedroom upgrade for $150 more than the $553/night he had prepaid for a Grand Studio. Service was generally excellent, and the food good. Though we wanted to mostly sample local restaurants given this was our first trip to Cabo, we enjoyed breakfast at La Roca, dinner at La Brisas (which has a much nicer dinner menu than at lunch), and a fun Mexican Fiesta at their sister Playa Grande resort. Having a full kitchen was nice, as we took advantage of dinner leftovers to scramble with breakfast eggs several times. Eggs are only $3/dozen at the on-site market.

We got Concierge assistance making some of our restaurant reservations, although one restaurant did not have the reservation that the Concierge twice confirmed to our son-in-law. Some would enjoy walking to the Marina or town, but after it took us 25 minutes the first day to Puerto Paraiso for a tour (and a challenge to go uphill back to the resort), we decided to take taxis/Uber the rest of the week. Taxis were easy to get. There is very limited Uber service. If available when you need it, Ubers cost much less than taxis – a $14 one-way taxi to La Europea (next to Walmart) cost less than $4 via Uber.

The Bad

We and our son had rooms at the Grand Solmar, while our daughter had a room at the affiliated Solmar next door (though she and her husband were also registered to our room at the Grand Solmar so there would be no issues with them visiting us at the Grand Solmar during the day).

When we checked into our room, there was a very strong bug-spray like odor which gave me a bad headache. Someone came to check out our room and determined that Housekeeping had “used too much scented cleanser.” That seemed logical. Housekeeping was then asked to dilute the cleanser by re-mopping with plain water, but they denied that the cleanser was the issue. They claimed it smelled because of high humidity, and therefore brought a de-humidifier for us to use in the room. Our daughter also had the same odor issue at the Solmar and actually asked Housekeeping not to do daily clean-up so as to avoid the smell. In any event, we only had that smell in our room once more during our week-long stay, though we did notice it elsewhere around the resort when they were cleaning.

Our son received a bottle of champagne from the resort spa as part of a massage package he purchased. But the Concierge insisted he would have to pay a $35 corkage fee to use it at any of their restaurants on site. This seemed odd since he effectively bought it from the resort (he thinks the food and champagne were supplied by La Brisas, next door to the spa). Fortunately, the La Brisas staff/manager where he dined saw it differently and kindly waived the fee.

There is, naturally, pressure to sign up for a timeshare presentation. And even though we said we weren’t interested, two timeshare reps filled out forms with our name and room number so that they would get credit “should we decide to attend.” The second time they actually called us at 7:45 am, waking us up, to remind us to attend an 8:00 am presentation that we had no intention of attending (we had even told the rep that we were sleeping-in on vacation, so he had put 9:30 am on our copy of the form).

The resort’s worst offense, however, was when we checked out. They erroneously billed us for an airport arrival shuttle that they claimed we booked through them and used, even though it was used a full four days after we checked in. We told them we booked our own airport transportation and showed them our receipt from a different prepaid shuttle service, but they were still insistent that we pay, even though we knew we didn’t book or take it. And why would we take that shuttle, 4 full days after our arrival for a one-week stay? The front desk staffer then asked us to go talk with the Concierge, as the Concierge is the one that makes the shuttle reservations. The Concierge similarly insisted that we took the shuttle and would not remove the charge. After going back and forth, we finally determined that another guest — our son, who had independently booked and paid for his own room — had taken such a shuttle, but the resort mistakenly charged it to our room rather than his. This was perhaps understandable, as my son has the same first and last name as me (though he had a different middle name on his reservation/account registration with a different address in a different part of the country, a different email that they had corresponded with re. the shuttle, and clearly a different arrival date).

In a situation like this, one would think the resort would simply remove the erroneous charge from our bill and re-bill to our son’s room account. However, they refused to remove the charge. They told us we must pay and then try to collect from our son ourselves. We suggested they simply charge his credit card on file, but they said they couldn’t bill his card as he had already checked out.

Out of principle, we didn’t think we should go chasing reimbursements for erroneous charges from other guests due to billing mistakes by the resort, whether or not such guests are related to us. So our issue got escalated to Hugo, the manager on duty, who also insisted that we should pay and then try to get the $42 reimbursement from our son (who had spent over $2,500 on his account at the resort for his room and extras in his three days there). With us having spent 30 minutes dealing with this issue and our return airport shuttle already waiting for ten minutes, they finally relented and removed the charge from our bill so we could settle our account. They said they would contact our son for approval to charge his card, an approach they should have immediately taken when it was clear they billed the wrong account.

One would think once the resort understood they made a mistake, they would either readily accept responsibility for correcting it by contacting our son to authorize an additional charge, or by just absorbing the nominal cost given how much he spent for just three days there. While this was a small amount, we were reluctant to pay because of the principle of the matter. We do not believe a high-end resort should be forcing guests to to collect from other guests to correct the resort’s own mistake. We subsequently found out that when our son checked out earlier that morning, the front desk staffer said she noticed that he hadn’t taken the airport shuttle, and he told her he *did* take that shuttle. That should have been a hint that there was something wrong with their billing.

This check-out experience dramatically changed our previously positive impression of the resort. While mistakes happen, it’s how management responds to mistakes that makes all the difference. I can only hope that folks who have purchased timeshares there have a better experience than we did.

I’ve visited this resort group several times in the last 10 years and I have to say I was very disappointed with my recent visit. Apparently, as this resort gains popularity the quality of service declines. I should have known when the front desk associate emphasized that they were giving us a room with a “great view” that that was a blatant lie. Instead, we were given a room with a wall on the patio. We had to hoist each other in order to see over the wall. Also, the noise coming from the restaurant and pool by our room was extremely loud!

Another issue we had is that waited at the Sports Bar for 40 minutes our first day and no one came to take our order. We ended up having to order room service. We had a similar experience when we were at the main pool. We watched waiters go back and forth to serve guests at the infinity pool but no one came to wait on us the entire 2 hours we were at the main pool. We had to track down a waiter to ask to order but even then he did not help us. He just told us that there were no waiters available to help us at the main pool. We went to other pools but the restaurants/swim up bars were either full or closed. We had to again order room service.
Another disappointing incident occurred after the concierge called to reserve a table for us at a beach party event. When we arrived the waiter told us there was not a table available for us. We had to walk around and ask a family if we could sit with them. (I was going to leave out of frustration but the individuals we invited on our trip was looking forward to the event.)

Another day we went back to the Sports Bar and gave them a chance to make things right. After approaching a server to order lunch he told us they were too busy in the kitchen to help us at the moment. At this point we had had enough and asked for a manager. I have never been on vacation anywhere and been treated so poorly day after day! Prior to this trip I raved about Grand Solmar and sent many friends, family and acquaintances there. However, I will not be doing this going forward. There really needs to be coaching and re-training of employees from server to management. The service we received was horrible and our best memories were made when we left the resort for dining and entertainment. The ambiance of the resort may be great but the service ( or lack thereof) will leave a lasting impression. I must say that the team of Bell Boys are wonderful and have always done an amazing job of taking care of us!