We have been to RM 9 times and this was our second trip to Pearl. We were extremely disappointed with our 5 day visit. The only saving grace was meeting up with old friends and finding new ones. We checked in on Monday and the toilet seemed a little slow to flush. By Tuesday morning it was leaking and by mid-morning was backed up. We called for service, which was prompt but ineffective. It was still flushing very slowly and leaking, so we called again, and again they came out and "fixed" the problem. By Wednesday morning, we were afraid to use it and had to use other public facilities on the resort for our toilet needs. We called again only to receive the same ineffective fix. By this point, we only used the toilet carefully and for urination only and refrained from throwing toilet paper in the bowl. On Thursday morning we were forced to make the same trek to public restrooms to take care of morning needs. We called again on Thursday and they came while we were at lunch. By now they were taking the issue seriously, and when we returned from lunch to take a nap, we found the room unusable. They had completely removed the commode to replace it and the room smelled like raw sewage, in addition, the maid had not serviced the room so the plumbers could complete the toilet removal and re-installation. The room wasn't usable until 5:30 that evening, to allow the toilet plumbing adhesives to dry, and the maid to service the room. We were leaving on Friday, so we basically had limited, to no use, of the room's toilet for 3 ½ days of our 5 day visit. I was told by the desk clerk that he would explain the situation to the Guest Services Manager who would be able to compensate us in some manner for the tremendous inconvenience. At checkout, I noticed that they didn't have us take a survey as is the norm at RM. When I mentioned it, he acted surprised, but gave us the survey computer to fill out the survey. I then talked to the Guest Services Manager, Antonio Salas about our problem to which he offered us a free massage on our next visit. I said that wasn't enough and he said he had to talk to his boss before he could offer anything more. After talking to his boss, he said he could give us 1 free night but that was all he was willing to offer. My wife continued filling out the survey, pretty much what I have written here, and included the conversation between Antonio and myself in her survey narrative. I insisted that 2 nights was more in line with a fair compensation for having a room with a limited toilet. There seemed to have been a language barrier, and he became combative and agitated with me. He was acting like I was trying to get some free nights for nothing. As soon as my wife finished the survey, the staff read it, and Antonio promptly removed the one night offer saying that my wife said she didn't want it (which she never said). I think he was trying to offer up the free night so we wouldn't comment on our dissatisfaction on the survey. At this point he became belligerent and said we would get nothing. Which is exactly what we walked away with. I have never witnessed this type of behavior in all our trips to RM and/or Pearl. For being in charge of customer service, Guest Services Manager Antonio Salas seems to have the least amount of customer service, never mind customer appreciation.
In addition to our problems with the toilet, we also had problems with the La Perla restaurant. We had a group of 8 and the time it took to get our food was ridiculous. It wasn't the size of our group that caused the delays, because at one point I noticed that no one in the restaurant seemed to be getting food. After waiting for over 1 ½ hours with no food, 2 of the guys from the group went back to their rooms, ordered room service and brought it back for everyone at the table, which got a good laugh but was actually pathetic. The food was good but in very small portions, when it was all said and done, we spent almost 4 hours in the restaurant. We experienced similar problems in 2012 but thought it would have been fixed by now.
Would we go back to Pearl? I'm honestly not sure, the things we like about it over RM (the pool, the hot tub and nicer rooms) are wiped out by the blatant disregard for guest comfort and satisfaction. When you pay more, you expect more and we didn't get that. We are obviously still stewing over the treatment but if someone thinks we were unreasonable or greedy please say so before I re-post this narrative on Trip Advisor. I feel the need to warn people about the service they might receive at Pearl and Trip Advisor has a much larger readership than this great forum.