Anna A.
Google
I would like to share the worst customer service and hospitality experience in my traveling history! Have never been treated in such a mean manner before. Please be careful!
On 25.04.2021, we were entering through the hotel door of Ka Bru Beach excited for our upcoming stay, when, without saying “hello, how are you, welcome”, the hotel manager/owner Daniela made an offended remark “You came with a child?!”.
Initially we booked Ka Bru River Villa for 4 days (two families with 2 two-year-old children) and asked for cribs/additional beds. Since our flights were cancelled by the airline, we decided to come 3 days earlier. I sent an email explaining the situation and asked whether there was availability to stay additional 3 days. The response was that the villa was unavailable, however the beach hotel had availability. I received an invitation to book a room at Ka Bru beach hotel and gladly accepted. It was expected that they had made a connection between my name and my existing reservation where it was clearly stated in emails that I have a two-year-old.
Having arrived at the hotel, Daniella told us about no kid policy and asked us to stay quiet in our room “because no one can see you are with a child”. She told my husband that our child cannot use the pool, cannot run, nor cry. You can imagine how much that killed our mood and made us feel unwelcome! Our son, too, felt that he was unwanted there and stayed sad, constantly trying to run out of the hotel. The following day, when the guests were gone and the pool was empty, I asked Daniela politely if we could swim. She told me she was busy checking another quest out and the answer was no. I did express how we felt and her answer was “Do you want to check out now?”
We packed our bags and went to Barracuda Beach Hotel where we were treated on ANOTHER level. Bahia is famous for its friendly people and the contrast in customer service of the hotel was remarkable. We also met the Director Juliana and one of the Swedish investors, who invited us for lunch WITH our child. This was one of the best vacations. Barracuda deserves 10 out of 10. Will surely be back!
Unfortunately, Ka Bru let us down. Instead of being diplomatic and taking responsibility for ka bru’s lack of alignment and communication between the hotel representatives, Daniela CHOSE to make our experience sad. So the review is motivated by that sad experience...
In addition, they scheduled water repairs at the hotel for 3 hours while the guests were there. The water in the toilet was hardly working in our room. Also, there is NO beach (in the traditional sense - access to the ocean). It is a river. Finally, there was no warning about the need to rent a 4x4 when booking. The road is BAD and when it rains, it’s impossible to drive a regular car. We were warned about this a day before, when we already had rented a car. The transfer one way from Itacaré was offered at a 385 reais rate (quite expensive for a 1 hour drive).
I must also say that Ka Bru River Villa, which accepted kids, was by no way safe and had an abrupt ending to the deck with no wire/fence. A child can either get injured pretty bad or worse.
I have one thing to be thankful for is a refund of the nights we didn’t use!
