Maza Soda Resort

Our stay ended in a long, frustrating mess over a booking, and the way the hotel handled it felt unfair and poorly managed. We were told our prepaid reservation hadn’t come through because they only received bookings from agoda.com and booking.com, and that we’d have to sort it out with trip.com ourselves. It was around 6:30 PM, there was nowhere else available, so we paid directly for a room that was a downgrade. Later they found the booking had gone through after all. They reimbursed us partly in cash and partly by letting us use a scooter, which was acceptable to us, and told us to stop contacting trip.com. We met another couple with the same issue, but their reservation still hadn’t been found, and staff told us not to mention our reimbursement to them. The night before checkout, we asked to add one night and paid cash in the morning as agreed. Then, on our final evening, staff told us to pack and leave immediately because of an overbooking and a booking they hadn’t registered properly. They offered a “spare room,” but didn’t explain clearly what that meant. We couldn’t see why our cash-paid extra night counted for less than an online reservation. The newly arrived guests were on their honeymoon, and we agreed to find a solution with the hotel. Staff offered to refund our last night and find us somewhere else. After we packed, they asked us to wait five minutes. We waited an hour, with no front desk staff around, while the new guests’ luggage sat unattended after they’d gone to dinner. Eventually we were told to go to another, nicer hotel. We got there and checked in, then the front office asked us to pay because staff from Maza Soda had told them to collect the money from us. Feeling betrayed, we went back to Maza Soda. They said it was another misunderstanding and that they’d pay wirelessly, then came back with us to sort it out. We only checked in after 10:30 PM, although this whole situation had started before 7 PM. We never got the promised refund for the last night. Instead, they said the upgrade they’d given us was more than enough compensation. The staff were generally friendly, breakfast was good, and the location was alright if you rent a scooter or bike, since it’s fairly central. The island itself was well worth visiting, and we had a great time. Still, the communication and organization felt unprofessional, and we felt they repeatedly lied to us and tried to scheme against us. For example, they said they’d asked the honeymoon couple to take the “spare room” and that the couple had refused. We later learned they were only staying one night because of another overbooking, wanted a place to sleep before moving on, and weren’t staying for two weeks as we’d been told. They likely wouldn’t have minded another, nicer hotel if the issue had been handled early and efficiently. Our room also didn’t seem properly cleaned before we checked in spontaneously to the downgraded room. The bathroom was quite dirty, and the bed wasn’t made like the other guests’ beds. We asked for room service once, but the bathroom still wasn’t cleaned. While waiting in the lobby for the manager on our last evening, we watched staff clean the room for the honeymoon couple. It was a very quick job, and we saw at most one hygienic spray being used. Maybe we were just unlucky, but other places we saw on the island seemed better value for money. In our case, the rooms weren’t very clean either.