We booked the The Don CeSar expecting a luxury experience based on the website and pricing, but unfortunately it felt far more like a cash extraction machine than a true luxury hotel.
The positives: the location is excellent, directly on the beach and convenient to nearby restaurants and attractions. The staff were consistently polite and professional throughout the stay (although not actually helpful, just pleasant). The hotel is generally clean overall
Having said that, the overall experience simply did not justify the premium pricing (We paid $1,442.84 for one night in an oceanview room with a king bed, valet parking, and dinner for 2 with one round of drinks. This includes the room fee, resort fee, sales tax, occupancy tax, and occupancy and sales tax on the resort fee).
Here are the challenges we faced:
1) NOISE:
The noise level was extremely high throughout the property, and made it difficult to relax (I wore noise reduction ear plugs so I didn't hear all the noise in the hallway during the night, but my partner didn't sleep a wink because it was so noisy). Even just sitting on the teeny-tiny balcony was a disappointment given the high noise level from the pool (every time the pool gate closed yielded a loud crashing/clanging noise) and the roar from the air handling units on the roof next door, of which we had a birds-eye view.
2) SPACE:
LOBBY: When you arrive, you realize you have to walk down a set of stairs and cram your way into an extremely small reception space that is simply too small to accommodate the crush of guests at the front desk. People were on top of each other cueing at the front desk. The luggage area on the other side of the hallway was overflowing with baggage. Not a great first impression, but we were willing to overlook it in anticipation of a nice stay (and it was a holiday weekend, so I would imagine traffic was greater than normal).
SMOKING: The hotel is supposed to be a non-smoking hotel, but our room (#242) had clearly been smoked in, and it just made us want to puke every time we walked in. When we reported it to the front desk, they said sorry, would you like us to spray the room? What they should have said is, let us make it up for you somehow -- a room change, a discount, something, anything. The smell was not a minor inconvenience; it was absolutely disgusting.
ROOM: The room, its bathroom, and balcony all were also much smaller than expected (see pictures). Let's talk about the bathroom: It's a one person bathroom; there is no way two people are brushing their teeth together! It's so small, you have to close the door to use the shower (because the shower is behind it) and when you close the door to use the toilet, you will find you have an excellent view of yourself peeing because there is a full size mirror on the back of the door.
STORAGE: There were just a few drawers of storage in the closet (see picture) -- which was fine since we were just staying for one night, but I feel bad for anyone staying longer, because there is very little space to store your clothes.
3) FOOD
The food was surprisingly inconsistent for a hotel at this price point, both in quality and value. We ate at Society Table and my chicken, though flavorful, came in a bowl with enough gravy that made it impossible to cut with a butter knife without it sliding out, so I asked for a plate and steak knife. Fine. The real issue was with the noise level (cacophanous!), the appetizer ($20 for 5 medium shrimp that were just thrown into a little bowl), and my partner's meal, which were a few skewered bites of very dried out chicken on rubbery rice. My partner is the stoic type and for him to complain means it's really bad. It's the only restaurant we've eaten at recently where we didn't finish our meals (or my glass of wine) because we just wanted to leave.
4) SERVICES
We paid to valet our car ($38, included in the total above), but the valet could not pick up the car on our way out because it's a stick shift, and so he pointed out to my partner where it was in the parking lot. Okay. But when my partner went to get it, there was no way for him get out of the parking lot, so he got locked in for about 10 minutes before the valet realized he needed to let him out.
Oh, and after all that, I also had to remind them to email my receipt...I did not receive it until I asked, which was more than 48 hours after checking out. Why not just email it when we checked out, like other hotels do? No one else was checking out or needed services when we clocked out at 6:30 a.m. the next morning so we could get away from the smoke smell.
SUMMARY
Luxury-priced hotels are supposed to deliver comfort, calm, and attention to detail. In this case, the experience felt overcrowded, overpriced, and underwhelming. We left feeling that we had paid for the brand and location rather than an actual nice experience.
TL;DR: Shame on us for falling for the expertly written marketing copy on the website (it's really quite evocative) and actually believing it. But the copy turns out to be aspirational, not actual. In other words, the experienced promised did not materialize in reality, and we strongly feel that this hotel is not a good value for money. In fact, we feel duped.
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