CHÂTEAU ELYSIUM

1* resort at 5* prices

Chateau Elysium has the perfect location, unfortunately the property has been allowed to whither away to a point where it is not safe. Claiming this place is '5 Star' is a joke.

On arrival the manager, Peter, took 30 minutes to process my payment. I ended up with a basic written receipt.

Only cash payments accepted.

3rd 'bedroom' in Villa Blanc had a broken sofa bed. (Ground staff replaced with bed for second night)

Cleaners only came to Villa Blanc once, at the beginning, the entire 7 nights.

My friend fell through rotten wooden decking, Injuring his leg.

Tiles all around were loose, trip Hazzard.

Main Villa Garden very uneven and rocky, be careful where you step.

The staff were very helpful, whenever we asked for assistance they tried their best to help us. Unfortunately the manager was no where to seen, normally in the sea swimming when you needed him.

If this place got a competent manager and had a major refurbishment it could easily be the best place to stay along Beau Vallon

I fully recommend the Beau Vallon area, avoid Chateau Elysium at all costs

Extortionate Death Trap Elysium 1 ⭐️

So I recently stayed at chateau Elysium with around 25 people for a wedding, we took up the main villa and all the smaller villas, the place is sold as a 5 star resort. I have been lucky enough to go to several 4 or 5 star resorts this was no way near and never once have I felt as unwelcome or unimpressed as I have here, the so called manager( his name is Peter) was never there, ( mainly he was swimming or just not interested in anything you have to say and eating ice cream) when it came to checking in he was dismissive and put out that we were there and didn’t seem care that we were staying there at all. We had to pay cash on arrival and it took nearly an hour per villa to check in, only to get a poorly hand written note as a recite. Anytime you asked for anything from him, he shrugged you off, and said he would look into it only for nothing to happen.
As for the death trap well, when the decks around most of the villas are so rotten your not sure if your footing is safe, to the point walking to the edge of one deck I put my foot through the decking and severely hurt my knee which swelled up lots , I was very lucky not to do a lot more damage only just missing some very rusty nails and only spending the rest of my vacation limping around the place, the manger didn’t care or offer any help / response and acted like nothing happened, (this was the one thing his team did quickly was repair the broken deck) This wasn’t the only broken thing place several of the villas had broken windows, one having the main floor to ceiling window cracked the whole length, lots of tiles on the steps where cracked an lose under foot. The only deck that wasn’t wood was this strange plastic that in the afternoon sun got so hot you couldn’t walk on it with out burning your feet. And the steps on that deck were so insecure that we were lucky not to do any serious harm. The main garden had tree stumps that were cut to ground level which were really hard to see, and several people stubbed toes and one guy actually split open there toe on one. There was also broken glass in the garden that we had to pick up ourselves for the staff just didn’t bother. The sun loungers were rusty and broken in the garden that collapsed when sat on.

Now for the extortion, on the day of the wedding the manager Peter decided to lock all access to the location so that the wedding planners could not access and set up the wedding, he then went to the groom and demanded €2000 for electricity that would be used for the wedding, it got to a point that we had to go to the local police station with copy’s of all the deposits and emails that had been sent to organise this wedding, the police turned up and suggested he leave for the day and let it happen or be arrested for extortion!!
The only villa that got regular turn down survive was the main villa, the rest got done on the second day only to be forgotten for the rest of the time, when we asked the cleaners why, they said that peter had told the not to!! Several people tried to clean there own towels and bedding in the washing machines only for half of them not to work or be very sketchy in there condition, don’t even try to use the dishwasher the smell and condition of these was best to condemn the lot. Out of all the villas only one had air conditioners downstairs, and half the bed rooms had air conditioners that didn’t work and took several days for someone to come and look at.
I have stayed in better more welcoming hostels and bed n breakfasts than this place. 5 star never have I been to somewhere least deserving that rating!!

Dream Wedding ???!!!???

It was May 2018 and my daughter and her fiancé was arranging their wedding in the Seychelles for 2019
They found a beautiful venue “ Chateau Elysium” and we all agreed it looked perfect.

They advertise that they cater for weddings, but unfortunately, after making enquiries they don't have access to a wedding planner.
They said they were not used to handling a wedding of this size, they are used to 2-4 people and not 30 people.
My daughter contacted the “ owner ” Martina, to check if she could find her own wedding planner to plan their wedding and reception at Chateau Elysium and this was agreed.

They had wedding guests from Australia, America, Dubai, Nepal, New Zealand and United Kingdom arriving for the wedding with most of them were staying in Chateau Elysium for 7 to 14 days.

As you can imagine the organisation of the event was phenomenal, every part of the arrangements were shared, with Chateau Elysium being copied into all the correspondence, so nothing could be misunderstood.

Fast forward eleven months. April 2019 - one month to the wedding.

I had a message from my distraught daughter to say that the Manager “Peter” had refused to let her wedding planner onto the property to look at the wedding site and she could no longer have her wedding there.
Unless they used him as the organiser, as he wanted to be paid for it.

Their year long wedding arrangements were in tatters and the stress and trauma of these months of planning took their toll.
So much so, that my daughter was no longer looking forward to her wedding, and completely shut down.
The management from Chateau Elysium reluctantly agreed to let the wedding go ahead after causing untold stress.

Drama again on the morning of their wedding when Peter refused to let the Wedding Planners onsite to decorate the venue, unless the bride and groom to be, paid him more cash. €2,000.00
Beau Vallon police had to get involved to force the manager to open the gates to let them onto the site.

The wedding was beautiful, and everything they had hoped for, thanks to the wonderful wedding planners.

However, I will never forgive the management of Chateau Elysium for causing them so much anxiety on what should have been a glorious occasion.
Neither Martina or Peter have responded to any of our correspondence to speak about this dreadful treatment.

Although the Chateau Elysium is in an amazing location right on the beach front it is unfortunate that the buildings have fallen into such disrepair, we booked this venue for a large group all travelling together. We hired out every room in the main Chateau and 4 of the side villas (Villa Blanc and Villa Les Jolies Eaux) for over a week at a cost of almost $30,000 Euros.

- The decking in the external villas is rotten through in many places and in such bad condition, one of our friends put his foot through and injured himself.
- There is no air conditioning in any of the living rooms which leave the rooms almost unusable in the humidity.
- The bedroom air conditioning broke in multiple villas throughout our stay, most were fixed within a day or so but left us with some uncomfortable hot and humid nights whilst waiting for external repair contractors to attend as they was no one available onsite available to fix.
- The "Single bedrooms" in Villa Blanc and Villa Villa Les Jolies Eaux is nothing more than a broken fold out sofa in a tiny box room with no cupboard and no drawer space available.
- Villa 2 has a large broken window in the kitchen/dining area
- No tea or coffee is provided in the smaller villas, there's only 1 coffee machine available in the main house and this had a broken nozzle which continuously fell into our cups while trying to make coffee.
- Minimal wifi coverage around the venue (yes I know we were on holiday and shouldn't need it but still frustrating)
- Downstairs bathroom completely flooded and unusable, although this was fixed during our stay.
- No turndown service in any of the villas, we were left to wash/clean our own towels and with no clean sheets available. Also, be prepared to take out your own trash.
- The garden is so full of potholes one of our group twisted their ankle whilst walking through the garden.
- Rusty/broken sun loungers provided by the venue.
- Villa 1 has a lovely bathtub, but the taps don't work and there's no plug leaving it completely unusable.
- Villa 1 has bedbugs (see pics)
- Villa 2 has cockroaches
- In the main Chateau Elysium bedrooms, the ensuites are amazing however with no door (only a curtain if you're lucky) be prepared to know your partner really well!

Peter the manager...
Wow, where to start, to call him a lazy, greedy con-man seems too nice a description.
- Peter can often be found walking around the venue shirtless as he likes swimming during his work day, and enjoys watching tv in the main Chateau Elysium living space (yes the main living room for the Chateau you have hired to use)
- We tried to use the living room once during our week-long stay but were put off by Peter talking loudly on the phone from his office next door, we tried to close the door to minimise the disturbance but were promptly told the door must stay open for ventilation to his office.
- There was some building works going on during our stay (re-tiling the downstairs bathroom) and when our guest asked if they "could please not hammer and chip tiles at 7 am" Peter proceeded to ridicule her for the rest of the day.
- During our stay, Petr arranged some catering for our group when he gave us the bill we discovered he was charging $140 Euros for 5 litres of juice! Almost $30 euros for a litre of orange juice?!?!
- We had previously arranged with the venue via email through Martina (possibly the owner?!) to hold an event in the garden this had all been approved via email prior to arrival. However, on the day of the event, Petr instructed his security staff to lock the main gates and not let any event staff enter until an additional $2000 Euros was paid to him in cash! When we asked what this was for he could only remark "for garden electricity use" I can only say that we were astonished at his greed.

I travel a lot and I can honestly say this is a 2-star guest house at best.

However, it's not all bad...
Sandra is an amazing housekeeper who without her our holiday would have been completely ruined.

Farcical Rip Off.

We Booked Villa 2 for a 7 night stay. After looking at Pictures on the internet we couldn’t wait to visit the Paradise that was (meant to be) Chateau Elysium.

I emailed a few times asking how they would prefer payment, hoping to pay online so it was sorted and I didn’t have to worry about taking a small fortune in Euro’s. Eventually I got a reply stating cash only. Not a problem, only a slight inconvenience….so far,

I then repeatedly emailed asking for a confirmation of booking, as required when entering the country. This never arrived despite repeated emails, meaning we nearly didn’t get through passport control as we couldn’t prove the booking. A simple reply would’ve avoided this. Luckily Passport control let us through after me showing them all the emails sent to Chateau Elysium.

Upon arriving at the location we were eager to book in. Could the ‘Manager’ be found anywhere??? A couple of staff stated “He’s probably swimming” (Note this is a common theme). Luckily our friends had arrived before us so we had access to our Villa immediately. Upon walking onto the decked area it immediately felt like walking on hot marshmallow. The decking was old and rotten. (Numerous boards were hurriedly replaced when guests feet went through them injuring themselves). We were then immediately faced with a smashed pane of glass in the patio doors. Not a great image of the 5*, nearly £1750 euros we had paid for the accommodation. The pictures on the website ARE VERY DECEIVING.

Our room was spacious and with reasonably nice furniture. A bit dusty but we could live it with it. We had aircon in the room which broke during our stay, it was fixed in about 12 hours.

The villa was just about adequately stocked with cutlery and utensils etc. The botulism breeder, I mean dishwasher, stank and didn’t wash dishes. It got 10 minutes into a cycle and error was displayed. The washing machine was great for a dose of cholera too…however nobody got it because it never managed to actually work a cycle. The hand rail up the stairs was dangerous, nobody would use it for fear of it collapsing. No linen change, towel change or a cleaner for the whole of our stay, and no hoover, mop for us to do it ourselves!?!

Now, the main gripe….. The so called “Manager”… a man called Peter. I have met more useful Chocolate teapots. A very rude individual with people skills of a burst sausage, who had no rush for anything except collecting £££. Forever in the sea morning/noon/night. It took us 48 hours to track him down to pay/book in. Cash was given and receipt was asked for. Later was the reply. Later came, I asked for a receipt…Later was the reply in a very intimidating manner, (luckily I’m 6’5” and 16 stone so don’t get intimidated easily. I am aware he was the same to other parties in our group who actually felt very afraid.), I pointed out the issues with the villa, decking, washing machine etc…”I Know” was the reply. “Well that’s great Peter but what are you going to do about it”….”LATER”. Unfortunately we had now paid so were stuck, had we not, we would’ve gone elsewhere immediately.

The worst part was he nearly ruined our friends’ Wedding trying to pocket some extra cash. He locked the gates on the wedding planner and demanded an extra £2000 euros before he would open it. Even we weren’t allowed out of the gates! Spouted some nonsense about payment for extra electricity but suspiciously wouldn’t provide an invoice. A visit from 4 Detectives from the Seychelles Police and funnily enough the extra charge went away. I think that speaks for itself about the legitimacy of it. The question is, how many people have ended up paying extra for things and how much has he made omn the side????

The security staff were awesome.The house staff were brilliant. There is a lady who works there called Sandra. If you do decide to stay here (I wouldn’t if I were you) and WHEN not IF, you get a problem, go and see her. She should have Peters job.