Hotels of Mauritius

A little bit of history
What is the quality level of hotels in Mauritius?
What is the occupancy / availability of hotel rooms in Mauritius?
How much in advance should one book a hotel?
How to benefit from cheaper hotel rates?
Where to book a hotel?


The quality of the hotels in Mauritius greatly contributed to the image of refinement being projected today on the whole destination.


A little bit of history

The first generation of Mauritius hotels were built in the late 70's and 80's, before the "standardisation of the product," when each destination was unique and could not be compared with another.\A0Hotels\A0were built on the best beaches and sites of Mauritius and from the start, were generous in terms of infrastructure and space. The quality of service, which has always been a key contributor to the success; was not an issue thanks to the natural kindness of the Mauritian population.
Then came the booming 90's when tens of\A0hotels\A0were built, squeezing each other along beautiful stretches of white coral beaches.\A0Hotels\A0generally started at 3-Star levels and upgraded with time, not hesitating in hiring highly qualified management teams, housekeepers, chefs, cooks and concierges.\A0

The authorities that promote and regulate the hotel and tourism sector have published in 2012 their first list of hotels by rating. Although it remains the object of controversy within the protagonists, it is a long-overdue helpful guideline to all future tourists.

What is the quality level of hotels in Mauritius?
According to residents' feedbacks, from polls or from hotel reviews online, the hotels of Mauritius remain the highlights and focus of our visitors; mainly for there sites and the service.

Owing to the relatively high airfares to reach Mauritius (caused by its geographical isolation,) hotels naturally tend to upgrade in order to balance the weight of accommodation within the package basket. The result is that Mauritius counts less 3 star hotel resorts than 4-star and five-star rated hotels.

What is the occupancy / availability of hotel rooms in Mauritius?
With the actual world economic downturn, the occupancy rate of hotels in Mauritius is no longer an issue for those who wish to book, except and in some cases, for stays around the Christmas and New Year period. The other fairly booked periods are during the school leaves of February, Easter and November.

How much in advance should one book a hotel?
As at date, (July 2009,) this question is difficult to answer since the "market" has been continuously disappointing, a situation that is apparently "unexpected" by the professionals if judged by their pricing and general marketing strategies.

One thing should remain unchanged: the period between the 20th of December and the first days of January will remain high. For this high season, some hotels are encouraging early bookings by offering discounts to early birds. Since it is the airfares that determine the greater chunk of the costs of one's holidays in Mauritius, and it is not expected to see rates go down as we come closer to date. We would therefore recommend booking early to enjoy lower rates.

Outside the peak season, the usual last-minute yield management principle seems to gather momentum in Mauritius, especially on airfares. We would logically expect this mechanism to become normal practice in 2011.

For pure accommodation, we would say that for most periods and those\A0excluding October to February, there is no point booking in advance, although there is no advantage in waiting for the "last minute" either since very few hotels are using yield management tools so far.
On the other hand, for the period stated above, we recommend booking in advance in order to secure accommodation for the end-of-year period in case the market keeps its promises, and to take advantage of the "Early Booking" discounts currently offered.

Having said that, the greatest denominator of the costs of your holidays remains the airfare. So many flights to and from Mauritius have been cancelled that the seats remain relatively scarce and expensive to very expensive.\A0

How to benefit from cheaper hotel rates?
Like for every seasonal destination the period chosen for one's stay is by far the greatest cost / rate determining factor as hotel rates and airfares vary considerably according to historical rates of occupancy. Rate fluctuations are between 180 % and 250 % between the slow period (June / July) and the very peak period of Christmas & New Year.

Other ways to save are:
Early Booking Offers - Last minute deals do not work for Mauritius; early bookings do! It is always an advantage to book holidays early in order to enjoy the cheapest airfares.\A0\A0
Furthermore, many hotels offer discounts to the early birds for stays during low and medium periods.\A0

Long Stay Offers - Most hotels encourage longer stays by offering free of charge nights or reduced rates for longer stays over low and medium periods.

Honeymoon Offers - Are common to all hotels and are generally valid all year round except for peak periods. They offer discounts on accommodation of 15 to 25 % on a double-room rate. Watch out when reading these offers they are often announced in a tricky way like "50 % percent discount offered to the Bride" which comes to 25 % offered to the couple. Many hotels also offer wedding jubilee discounts.

Targeted offers - Look for special offers applying to your profile; they are numerous and varied. Some examples are: Discounts offered to Senior Citizens, free accommodation for children or mono-parental special rates.

Last-minute special offers - Few are those who really play the game of last-minute deals but current market conditions are slowly taking them there.

Where to book a hotel?
Although some democratisation is slowly gaining grounds, the hotels of Mauritius adopt a very conservative approach to sales, remitting their future in the hands of the major Tour operators who manage to keep good control on seat allocations on aeroplanes despite the "opening of the Mauritian skies," long-awaited by the smaller operators. A semi-opening which finally only benefited to a few airlines owned by the major tour-operators that also play around with the flight schedules to keep the amount of seats limited and the rates higher than they should be. A strategy which, according to the occupancy rate since 2009, does not seem to serve the destination at all.

Owing to their historical relationships, the major tour operators often remain the channels to use for pure price advantages but as a general rule, the tour operators' packages would suit only those looking for 7 relaxing nights in a hotel by the beach, very few propose "off-the-beaten-tracks" holidays in Mauritius.

For those looking for special attention, those ready to pay for more spacious and comfortable rooms, those willing to carry out some excursions or at least see the authentic Mauritius from inside, it is advisable to look for specialised tour operators online. The quality of the services offered by independent operators is well worth the eventual slight differences in costs.