Ronald L.
Yelp
La Casa del Zorro appears to have been - and could definitely be - a wonderful vacation resort. We had planned this trip, and made our reservations over three months before we arrived. It was over Christmas. We came with our entire family, and we booked their biggest casita. Frankly, because of the circumstances, we would have (and did) have a good time simply because we were together and in a holiday spirit.
So why such a mediocre rating? Things just didn't work out as advertised. When we booked the room we told them that we had eight adults, a 6-month-old baby, and five dogs. The office manager, Jake, said it was fine to bring the dogs since the casita is private.
Later, we received an email from La Casa del Zorro inviting us to make reservations for a special Christmas Eve dinner. On October 5 we jumped on it and made the Christmas Eve dinner reservation for 6:00 for all of us (no dogs, of course).
We all piled into a rented 15-passenger van and headed for Anza Borrego. We didn't know when we would get there, so we didn't make reservations for dinner. When we arrived, we checked in and went to our casita. It was very nice! Four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a private back yard with a pool and jacuzzi. This was going to be fun.
We headed over to the hotel restaurant and told the hostess we had eight adults and a baby. The hostess said that without a reservation we would need to wait to be seated - we should have called first. Not sure why she said that, because the restaurant was not all that crowded and we were seated within five minutes. Strange attitude. Our food was very good, and our server did his job well. No complaints there. However, that strange attitude was our first taste of something being wrong.
This area (Anza Borrego) is very lightly populated. I imagine that is precisely the way the local residents want it to be and to remain. Keep that in mind. But they need to make a living, so here we are- tourists - to provide that sustenance.
Back to the casita and we noted there is very poor cell service there. No big deal - there is Wi-Fi included, right? There is a very strong Wi-Fi signal, yes, but you cannot get an IP address from this casita. We all tried repeatedly and often, and asked several times at the front desk about this. Never during our four-night stay did we have Wi-Fi from our casita. They are fully aware of the problem, and say they are "working on it."
We brought some bagels and cream cheese with us for morning breakfast. The casita has a microwave oven, a sink, a small mini-bar style refrigerator (no freezer), two coffee makers, and coffee cups, but no silverware, plates, bowls, or other utensils.
Did I mention that there is no housekeeping service here? There isn't. You can ask for things at the front desk and they will be delivered (more coffee, more towels), but you need to walk over there because the phone doesn't work.
One of the bedrooms apparently had some issues with the recent rains, and the carpet was wet and smelled. This should have been fixed before we, the guests, arrived. That was fixed, as was the pool and jacuzzi heater which was also not working properly. The internet was never fixed.
Apparently Jake, the manager with whom we had spoken, was either fired or had quit. In his absence, the facility did not recognize our contract and when we got our invoice an additional $500 fee was tacked on for the dogs as a "pet fee." Little did we know, but our Christmas Eve dinner reservation was never logged in. The facility blamed Jake. (Why should that be our problem?) Without an apology, the dining hostess said she couldn't seat us since some of the guests had booked a month and a half ago. We had booked two and a half months ago! That angered me at the time, but as it turned out it was probably a blessing in disguise. We went to another restaurant and had a terrific dinner at a much better price. In fact, we had planned on having several meals at La Casa del Zorro, but that first encounter with the surly hostess was our only meal there, and we're glad not to have given them any more business. Unless things change (as I said, this place appears to have been - and could be - a wonderful resort) we won't be coming back here again. You are left with the feeling that they don't really care. Maybe they were understaffed at Christmas, I don't know. Maybe Jake left them with a mess. I really can't recommend them.