My husband and I stayed here for a little weekend getaway. The resort is nicely decorated. Very nice large conference facilities. Nice little piano bar. However, they are charging too much for the level of stay and level of service they are providing. There was rarely anyone at the front desk. Prior to our stay we called for two weeks trying to set up reservations at the French Restaurant. We left messages. No one ever returned our calls. I emailed the spa about arranging treatments. No one ever answered my email. I emailed the resort director about the fact that no one was communicating back with us and I finally got a phone call. I was told that I was in fact emailed back, however, I searched my email and even searched through the junk mail and there was nothing from them. However, when I emailed Jaime Fore, Manager....he replied to my email and I got it with no problem. Turns out that the French restaurant was not going to be open, even though when we made the reservation we were told it would be. That was disappointing.
When we arrived and went to our room it was on the 18th floor and was a corner room with a nice view. However, it did not have a bathtub...only a shower. We called the front desk to inquire about getting a room with a tub and were told we didn't request that when we made the reservation. I've never heard that before from any other resort. That was very strange. Anyhow, they did say they could move us (since we were only one of probably 10 guests accomodating rooms that weekend). Funny enough, they moved us to the room right next door. I wonder why they didn't put us in that one to begin with. It was the same, it just had a tub AND a separate shower. Very strange.
It was early afternoon and a gorgeous sunny day so we decided to take the long walk over to the miniature golf course only to find out that the club house was closed and we had to walk all the way back to the resort to get clubs and balls at the front desk.
There are 2 large flat screen tv's in the suite. One in the living room area and one in the bedroom. However, reception was very poor on both. Fuzzy. It wasn't worth doing anything about as we weren't really there to watch television.
We ended up having a very nice weekend as we decided to eat in town for every meal since options at the resort were scarce and very over priced. We found a wonderful little italian place called Villa Italia in Conroe. Lovely meal and wine for an exceptional price! We ate breakfast at Egg Cetera (since breakfast at the hotel was $18 per person). It was a great place to eat breakfast! We ate lunch at Vernon's Kuntry Katfish right down the road and it was great!!!! Loved it! Then we visited the wolf sanctuary and loved it also! I would not stay at La Torretta again unless prices were drastically lower as there is hardly any staff to keep the place clean or be of service when needed. The nicest and most attentive staff were the valet guys. Kudos to them! However, when we went to check out there was no one at the front desk again. We waited for awhile and then started yelling "helloooo????" Waited some more....went and got a valet guy to check on where front staff was. Then a girl came finally and said she was in the bathroom.
I know things must get crazy busy in the summer, but if you want to have people stay here in the off season you still have to maintain the property, keep it clean, dust the cobwebs off, clean the glass inside and out on the balconies, etc. I cleaned off some sort of brown spots above the tub on the wall. They looked like coffee had splattered on the wall. It wiped off very easily with a wet rag. That's all it takes....just some attention to detail to keep the place cleaned. Went to buy bottled water from the gift shop and the cooler had someone's old carrot/broccolli tray, an apple, and a bunch of empty water bottles. It was apparant that the person working in there is using that cooler as their personal cooler. Very unprofessional. There was also trash on the floor. There needs to be a higher level of service which only comes from having a quality management team. Smiles and warm, genuine attitudes go a long way to make people feel wanted. That was very lacking in most staff we encountered other than the bell hop and the valet guys.
The spa on the other hand was very nice. We did have to walk all the way out there (which again, just like the mini golf course, is not that close) to make an appointment. But my husband and I both enjoyed our treatments.
If management improves, service improves, cleanliness improves, and pricing is more appropriate then I can see the rating improving.....but until then, I can have a cleaner, more service oriented, and hot breakfast included type of stay at a SpringHill Suites or Drury Inn for a much more reasonable price.
