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The IHG group recently opened the brand new Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nadi Bay, right behind Nadi International Airport. The property is still opening in phases and only a portion of their rooms have been officially opened for stays, while the rest are still in various phases of construction.

The property is gated and a security guard was present when I drove into the property to check in. Given that I was arriving early in the morning, the security guard was a little shocked that I was there checking in at 10am, which I find slightly unusual that no guests have attempted to check in around that time since a majority of the flights should be arriving through the morning.

I was informed that my room was not ready and the housekeeping was working on it, I could check back from time to time to see the progress. Given that it was still early I thought I may as well head out since my room may not be ready for another while. After exploring the town for a bit and having lunch at Grace Kitchen, I returned to the resort.

As I approach the reception, they came to me with the key saying that they had been searching for me for the last few hours because my room was ready. I was told that I was able to use the amenities while waiting for my room but I have already had plans to visit the township so I wasn’t planning to stay around the resort. They have daily activities around the resort, I wouldn’t say that it is extensive by any measurement but it is something to do and kill time if you are planning to just hang around the resort all day.

One of the receptionist team walked me to my room and handled my luggage as well. The room was kept nice and cool upon my arrival which is appreciated given the heat outside was fairly brutal. First impression of the room was that it was fairly spacious, but felt slightly empty at the same time. While they attempt to go with the “tropical” theme with their interior design which is mainly wood, they are also infusing a bit of modern design especially with their bathroom, but that’s kind of where things are starting to go wrong.

Firstly, while the room was only in operation for 3 months or so, it did not seem like a new property at all, some of it I blamed on the design choices such as the colour scheme on the power point cover which made it look like they have been used for a decade, secondly there were cracks and holes on the tiles in the bathroom especially the bathtub area which comes down to poor workmanship if they showed this kind of quality in such new build. While we are on the topic of bad things, the design of the shower separator was not well thought out, and the small gaps allowed water to leak outside the shower area into the bathroom and toilet. While the water was not significant, it still caused the general bathroom area to be wet, each time after showering additional effort are needed to tidy it up which is not ideal. As the wing I was on have 2-3 elevators, the one closest to my room looked more like a service elevator and it was acting in a rather concerning manner, even the staff was making negative comments on it, again with a new property this is very concerning. The elevator in the middle of the building doesn’t seem to be working, or staff only, I wasn’t sure given there were a few different signs saying different things.

The room I was provided was facing the other wing/building, but given that they were still under construction that was my view I couldn’t imagine many people who would want to be out on their balcony for an extended period when work is being carried out which might kick up some dirt and dust, the decorations inside the room was full of it which I wouldn’t be surprised if it was partially caused by the construction, again this is something housekeeping should be aware and keep an eye out for, some people are highly sensitive to dust and it wouldn’t leave a good impression. Once completed, you’ll likely be facing your neighbourino, and it’s also angled in such a way that you can see the balconies along your wing so you can basically see everyone’s business which is fairly bad in terms of privacy sake, they should have placed some privacy divider or something to give a bit of an additional privacy.

In terms of the resort amenities, they feature a fairly generously sized pool separated into a few sections, one of them has a bar connected to it. There were several issues with the pool, first being that they have no pool towels available for the guests and I was wandering about looking and when a staff member walked by, I asked them and they went into the bar searching and said they have nothing there so they will have to go look for it. Right after another staff member was carrying a couple of them from the other side of the pool so he shouted over to that staff to indicate that I needed a towel, well that staff member took his time to get to me while I was standing there for 2 minutes awkwardly waiting about. Another issue with the pool is the site is not fully planted so there’s large cubes by the pool where I assume trees are supposed to be, but it’s still bare so there’s no shade around the pool which is ok during sunset or sunrise but I wouldn’t want to be out there in the middle of the summer heat. Next to the pool is also another construction site so the view is fairly obstructed with walls and scaffholding as you can see from my photo, not a very relaxing or photogenic “luxurious” vibe. While I understand that the resort has to start operating to generate some income while the remaining parts of the resort slowly being constructed, these details matters and they should not be charging prices when the guests are not able to experience the fullness of the resort, being that it is disruption free like no ongoing construction. If you’re seeking a more traditional beach relaxation, well unfortunately it was mostly closed off for the construction and only a small patch is available for use with a couple of chairs laying by the sand, so not exactly great. There may be more if you venture further out but from what I saw right by the pool that is the area that’s open for the guest, there may be another section but I didn’t wander to the other side of the pool.

^{_{First 4 are the in room dining menu, the last picture is the menu from Olive Tree.}}

For dinner I opted to go to the restaurant a few minutes walk from the resort called Olive Tree, they are located on level 1 while there’s a grocery store below. While there was a few people dining in, I believe there may be a lot of take out orders hence I was informed that it would be an hour wait time. I didn’t feel like heading into town to find dinner so I went back to the resort to wait it out. On the way back I walked past the nightclub and a staff member invited me to take a look inside, it’s very nicely designed and there’s also a slightly more exclusive gin bar? on a separate door leading into a smaller room. It was around 7:30pm at that point and the DJ will be starting around 9pm so they were mostly just inviting people to have a look inside and possibly hoping that they would get some of the guests to go in there to spend some money. As I walked back to the resort after getting my dinner, I had a quick chat with a very chatty and lovely security guard.

As I have an early morning flight to catch, I did request that I will take a breakfast to go box given the buffet will not open early enough for me to enjoy prior to me leaving, so after checking out and heading to the airport, I suddenly remembered that they didn’t give me any breakfast box, which I shouldn’t have to remember to remind them given I do have a flight to catch and it’s early in the morning so it was a rush for me to get ready to go, the resort should have a process in place to ensure that the guests’ request are being met. For example, in a similar situation, I was staying in Angsana Lang Co not far from Da Nang, Vietnam, and it was a fairly long ride to the airport, so given my flight was also quite early I had to leave before the buffet breakfast was available so I requested a breakfast box, they handed it to the driver who was driving me to the airport and it was ready for me on the seat so I was able to eat it on the way to the airport. I didn’t have to remind them about the breakfast, it was all coordinated by the staff and I was left satisfied not hungry looking for food at the airport because they couldn’t do their job properly. These are the level of service one would expect when paying NZD$500-800 a night, on top of the other issues that was addressed above. In comparison I was staying 2 nights in Lang Co and paid less than what I did here for 1 night, and I had airport transfer as well which Crowne contracted a travel agency to do that for them costing FJD$40-50 one way, for a short 15-20 minutes car ride.

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