Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort

I booked a one-night stay here on February 8 to propose to my girlfriend (she said yes). My fiancé stayed at this resort around this time last year and she had a wonderful experience so I decided to book a room with the “Bed and Breakfast” package in a Sonoran King room. We had a delicious dinner at the steak house to celebrate and checked out the following morning. When we arrived home, I immediately realized that my chain necklace and stud earring was gone, but I remembered exactly where I had left it in the bathroom. This earring was my late mother’s and extremely sentimental to me. I wore it on my first date with my fiancé, I wore it when I proposed, I had plans on wearing it at our wedding. We live in Tucson and considered getting right back in the car, driving to Hacienda and simply going back into our room because we technically still had 30 minutes before check-out. But because of the extreme importance of this earring, and because of the fact that we thought Hacienda would take the situation seriously, we decided to call, explain the situation, and ask them to get it. I called at 10:23am and explained the significance of the earring, exactly where the necklace and earring were, and exactly what the earring looked like. I KNEW that the earring would be hard to find because it was very colorful, tucked in the corner of a small ledge by the secondary sink mirror on an already colorful tile. I was EXTREMELY detailed about what the earring looked like and where it was because I knew that it wouldn’t stand out on the colorful tile. When I finished relaying all of this to the woman on the phone, she simply said “Okay we will call you back.” (The manager, Ryan, later read me the correspondence between the front desk and housekeeping following my initial phone call. It did not include ANY details about what the earring looked like or where it was, just that there was an earring and a necklace left in the room.) We never received a call. This would happen a lot over the next few days. Knowing that the 4pm check-in time was approaching, I began to get nervous. I decided to call at 3:45 to see if there was an update. “We found the necklace but no earring.” I once again explained that the earring might be difficult to find at first because it was small, colorful and on a ledge of a colorful tile. I explained the significance of the earring and essentially begged her to go back and look again before the next guests checked in. Again, she said she would call back. Again, she never did. When I informed my fiancé of the update, she was inconsolable. The situation wasn’t that the earring MIGHT be lost in the room. It was the FACT that the earring and necklace were 100% in that bathroom, on that tile. The necklace was easy to see because it is silver, but the earring was definitely still in the bathroom. These items were not lost, they were accidently left in the room and I knew exactly where they were. My fiancé works near the resort and decided to drive by after her shift that evening, the same day we checked out. It was a little after 9pm and she knew that there wasn’t much she could do at that time, but she still felt it was important to go and express ONCE AGAIN that this earring was extremely sentimental, very small, very colorful, and very hard to find. Her hopes were that the man working the desk would convey the very important message to the cleaning staff in the morning. The man working that evening was less than helpful, told her that “if housekeeping didn’t find the earring, the earring wasn’t there”. YES IT WAS. This man didn’t seem to care that my fiancé had begun crying, offered no comfort or reassurance, and only wrote down the details of the earring and where it was left after she begged him to. My fiancé left with tears in her eyes, feeling unheard and unseen. Twenty minutes later, I receive a call from Hacienda. “Great news, Mr. Pearson. We found your necklace AND your earring!” We were elated. Because the call came at 9:40pm, just after my fiancé left the resort crying, we assumed that room wasn’t occupied and the staff finally took what we were saying seriously and went in to check the spot we said it was. That turned out not to be the case. When I returned to get my items, my relief turned to frustration once again. Instead of the colorful stud earring that I had described to multiple people, multiple times, I was handed a pair of gold hoop earrings. Those could be somebody else’s sentimental jewelry that Hacienda was happily willing to let me leave with. I thought, “Were they even listening to me when I described the earring? Were they listening to my fiancé when she tearfully described the earring?” It was obvious at this point that from the very beginning, nobody was taking this situation seriously, despite how seriously I was conveying the importance of this earring. It was also obvious that the man working on Sunday night did not listen to the details my fiancé gave, nor did he show the slightest amount of kindness during the emotional conversation. If he did pay attention to the information she gave, then why would they call 20 minutes later with gold hoops claiming “we found it!”? When I gave the hoop earrings back to the woman, she assured me that they would go into the room THAT DAY, look for it, and even take the drain apart. (She didn’t check if the room was occupied, and the next time I came back the manager told me the current guests had to check out before he could go in the room. Looking back, the front desk was just telling me what they thought I wanted to hear so I would go away.) Once again, I was promised a phone call by the end of the day, and once again, I was not called. The next day, after not receiving yet another call, I realized I certainly wasn’t going to be heard over the phone, so my fiancé and I drove to the resort. The manager, Ryan, explained that they could not enter the room until the current guests check out, but after 11:00 check out, “we will check again today, and even check the p-trap.”. At no point was there an honest acknowledgement of the situation, any remorse whatsoever or any kind of promise that this sort of thing wouldn’t happen again. Ryan did acknowledge that they are implementing a new “baggie” system because of the hoop earring mix up. Does this mean that prior to this situation, lost items weren’t put in bags and appropriately labeled? I would assume that at a high-end luxury resort, when housekeeping finds something in a room, the resort looks at who stayed in the room the night before and that guest is notified. Clearly, Hacienda del Sol treats items found in rooms like more of a lost-and-found situation, “I wonder who this could belong to…?” rather than bothering to lookup who stayed in that room to see who the items belong to. Ryan reminded us that there are safes in each room and said he’d call once the current guests leave, insisting on our way out the door that everybody “followed procedure”. Later that day, Ryan called to tell us that after the guests checked out, he went into the room and couldn’t find the earring. He explained that he and the front desk went into the room and not only checked the bathroom where I described leaving it, but the whole room. Despite the fact that I was told twice by two different people that the drains would be checked, Ryan made no mention of maintenance coming or the drains being checked. We were devastated but not surprised that the earring was gone, seeing as three days had passed since we initially asked for help. Had that first phone call been taken seriously, the earring would have been found. Had I received the return call I was promised, action could have been taken promptly when housekeeping didn’t see my earring. Had my SECOND phone call been taken seriously, the earring would have been found. Our room was less than a minute away from the front desk; all she had to do was go in and grab the earring and necklace. Instead, she sent an extremely abbreviated message to housekeeping, leaving out all the important details (sentimental value, description, location). WE did not lose that earring; it was accidentally left in the room. Hacienda Del Sol did nothing to retrieve the earring after multiple calls when there was still time to go in the room. We can only assume now that it was taken by other guests and that Hacienda Del Sol allowed that to happen by following their own procedure. We stayed at Hacienda Del Sol for one night and spent over $1,100. I could have easily spent half that amount on our stay but I didn’t. Instead, I relied on Hacienda Del Sol, trusting that everything they had to offer would be the best possible experience. However, there were several disappointing factors including unprofessional waitstaff, thin walls/noisy neighbors, and a squeaky ceiling fan. All this to say: none of these other details mattered to us until this earring situation happened. But it ALL matters now. Because if we’re not paying for a “resort experience” with good customer service or a good night’s sleep, then what exactly did we pay over a thousand dollars for? At a certain point, this just becomes an overpriced motel in the hills. After this experience, my fiancé and I felt like poorly treated customers, not guests. If this situation was truly handled according to their procedure, then the standards for good customer service at Hacienda Del Sol are unacceptably low. Regardless of whatever procedure Ryan insisted everybody followed, when a guest calls, somewhat frantically, with very specific details on what was left (not lost) and where it was left, why isn’t the procedure to just go get it? Isn’t that the kind of customer service one should EXPECT at a high-end resort like this? It was 10:30am, the room was still technically ours and housekeeping hadn’t been there yet. Is it really procedure to send a brief message to housekeeping, leaving out all the important details that would help to find it? Is it procedure to give somebody else’s lost items away? Is it procedure to promise call-backs and never call? We could not be more disappointed with our experience at this “resort”. The memory of our engagement will always be followed by the memory of this terrible, and totally preventable, experience. The heartbreak over the loss of this earring, which was one of the last pieces of jewelry I had of my mothers, will not soon be forgotten. There is no “above and beyond” at Hacienda Del Sol, there is just bare minimum effort with a hefty price tag. We will be happily spending our anniversaries at other resorts in town from now on. For the record, the earring was a small, teardrop shape, Mother of Pearl with three stripes in the middle (turquoise, coral, and jet). If any employee of Hacienda Del Sol reads this and finds it in the lost and found, please contact me. We were told we had 90 days to claim lost items, and I will absolutely be in contact during these 90 days to check.

We stayed in a mountain view king bed room and it was very nice, as were all those who provided room services, including the bell hop who drove us there and carried our luggage, the maintenance man who came promptly to help with our AC, and those who serviced our room. However, we were a long double stairway climb up to our room and did not know this until our arrival. This should be more up front when reserving, especially for seniors like us. The average rating is due to the fact that the restaurants are open to the public and very popular. We had made a dinner reservation one night but were still told that there were few tables open even after waiting some time for one. We were eventually squeezed in but did not feel treated well as guests of the hotel. The food (in the terrace cafe since the Grill was full) was very average. The servers were pleasant though. The next morning for breakfast, we were asked if we had a reservation - for breakfast in a hotel where we were guests! Again, it was very crowded since it is open to the public. Service was slow. In sum, the hotel was very pleasant, but the dining situation left us feeling less than happy with our time there.

Property was an old school. We stayed in one of the older rooms. Quaint and felt nostalgic. On arrival it had a musty odor. Some days housekeeping sprayed and improved it. The property was very peaceful and had a quiet sense to it. Many open spaces. Lots of cactus and fruit trees. Views of nearby mountains and desert landscape. We enjoyed the quiet retreat. Did not use spa services. We did enjoy eating dinner at the Grill Restaurant.

Amazing resort. Huge rooms tastefully decorated in the SW style with great views. Restaurants and service throughout the resort was friendly and efficient. Everyone says hello (it's the small things that make it a better stay!). Loved the hot tub and pool with views over the foothills. Close to some of the best golf and hiking in Sabina canyon. I will definitely stay here in the future. It doesn't have a resort feel, more like you are staying at an amazing local place with lots of history and charm.

The resort is lovely with various sculptures intertwined with great landscaping. The staff is top notch . Everyone is well trained and extremely helpful. The food at the restaurants is also very good. Have a Pink Lady cocktail . We loved our room which was very clean, well decorated and had a great view. The bathroom and tile work is exceptional.