Not a 5* experience by any stretch of the imagination...
My mum and I booked a holiday for Xmas 2019 (two weeks). Here's the very long list of problems we had with this resort:
- Failed to check us in properly and we ended up waiting for ages, forgotten. Drinks and cold towels were eventually handed out and check-in completed.
- Despite arriving well after check-in time, the room was not ready. When finally taken to the room, it was an adjoining room meant for a large family not two separate parties. We were told no one would occupy the room. A noisy family turned up shortly after.
- Room cleaner highly annoying and inappropriate. Constantly hounding us to put her name down on a feedback form meant for any member/s of staff we found to be outstanding and she was hinting for a tip the whole holiday. We were by our door with key card in hand ready to open it one day, and she runs over, pushes in front of us, and opens the door, letting herself into the room before us. She more than outstayed her welcome, again playing the “am I doing a good job (give me a tip)” card and shoving the forms at us yet again. We’d had a long day after an early wake-up for safari and just wanted a shower and a rest. I must stress, we always tip where due but she was unlike anyone we'd ever come across - in a bad way.
- Sheets and towels changed every single day despite not requesting. Not environmentally friendly.
- Plastic toiletry bottles and plastic water bottles provided in room - in excess. Not environmentally friendly.
- Beach beautiful but sadly its grassy headland was covered with litter. The sheer volume of the stuff meant it didn't just wash up over night. It had built up over some time and not been removed. I collected bags full of plastic bottles, bags, polystyrene and even a glass bottle labelled ‘poison’. The hotel provide litter picking bags for guests that want to help (not all want to do this on their 'luxury' holiday) but not once did I see a member of staff cleaning the beach.
- Alongside the environmental issues, one of the biggest disappointments at this resort was the food. Buffet had a good selection most of the time but every dish was cold. The whole holiday we were subjected to cold food. The same at the a la carte, Sera, and the food here wasn't nice. Not tasty and very fatty meat. Waited - and waited some more - for drinks on various occasions in the lobby bar and buffet restaurant.
- Asked to put down a sizeable deposit of around a few hundred pounds against food and drink upon arrival. As we were on half board, we asked to pay for things as we had them. This became a huge problem and often meant long waits after dinner. Extra items were often added to our bill that we hadn't had. Glad we decided to pay on the spot as had we been handed all of our bills whilst rushing off to the airport at the end of our trip, we may not have spotted all of these extra items!
- Emergency 'vacate your rooms' alarm came over the loudspeaker in rooms in the middle of the night. Woke up - panicked - and got ourselves to the reception area only to find no staff there, just tired and confused guests. When we eventually spoke to someone and asked what was wrong, they couldn't tell us anything. Just "we think it's ok, but we are still checking. You can go back to the room."
- Disabled access and facilities very poor. Wheelchairs all rusty, broken and get jammed when you try to use them. Hardly any ramps and there are uneven stepping stones on grass as opposed to continuous pathways. Manager, Moshi Perera, spoke to us " Yeah, the hotel isn’t really good for disabled people is it” with an awkward laugh in tow. Not really what you want to hear - from the hotel manager - when you’re disabled, as my mum is.
- We usually opt for a small, boutique hotel but chose the Shangri-La as it was well-placed for our planned wildlife excursions and we thought they may have some decent Xmas entertainment, as the biggest resort in Sri Lanka. Nothing of the sort. No live music, dancing or activities - nothing. Just a drab acoustic duo. Families and couples alike were going to bed - bored - after dinner every night because there was nothing to do. We like to embrace local culture, so even some traditional Sri Lankan music would've been great - just some life really and some sense of celebration!
One last problem:
We didn’t want to leave Sri Lanka without purchasing some of their renowned hand-crafted, hand-painted masks. We asked the Director of Food and Beverage, Prageeth Kumar, where some particular masks in the restaurant were from as we loved these particular designs and colours. He told us they came from a place in Colombo and that the hotel were due a delivery in the next few days.
Prageeth went on to say he could order us a few and have them brought with the rest of the masks that were already coming to supply the hotel. We mentioned we were due to go to Galle and could get them there, and he advised us not to as they’d be more expensive and we’d find it difficult to get similar designs, so we graciously and thankfully accepted his offer. We went to Galle and found some fantastic masks similar to those at the hotel at a pretty good price. However, we refrained from buying any as Prageeth was due to get us some.
When the masks arrived that he ordered for us, they were completely different sizes, colours and designs to what we had discussed - we didn’t expect replicas as each mask is handmade but these were completely different in style, and also quality and quantity. However, we agreed to buy them as they were nice nonetheless and we thought he’d done us a kind favour. He said he could swap them for the ones in the restaurant that we liked but they had wear and tear and one had huge cracks in it, so we stuck with the new ones.
Prageeth then proceeded to try and charge us for a round-trip car from Colombo saying that the car that was originally coming was for guests and they weren’t coming to the hotel anymore. He said he sent a car to Colombo regardless, to get us the masks. He never discussed this with us. Why would we want him to send a car all the way to Colombo and back (5 hours each way) when we could’ve got the masks in Galle or another location that was closer? We were originally told the car was coming anyway, with masks for the hotel, and Prageeth made the suggestion to get us some. We didn’t ask!
He then tried to tell us that he’d ‘have to pay for the car out of his own money’ if we didn’t pay him and became argumentative. The manager had caught wind of what Prageeth was doing for us, so maybe he told him to add commission, or maybe he thought we’d asked for this service rather than been offered it - I don’t know. After saying we’d buy all of the masks but not pay for the transfer, Prageeth bagged up all of the masks and said we couldn’t have any of them. We didn’t see him again for the rest of our holiday after that…
A couple of positive points:
- If you have children, the facilities are good - there’s a kids pool with slides and a kids club, plus a trapeze. The adults pool was also nice and the grounds are lovely and well-manicured - the gardeners do an amazing job.
- There were two ladies (front of house) who were always a delight when entering the buffet restaurant - they were helpful and sweet, and one particular gentleman named Ajantha Jayawardana (Service Manager, Food and Beverage), is an absolute credit to Shangri-La. He was honest, kind, couldn’t do enough to help and was just generally a likeable person. There was one gentleman at reception who was also very attentive and sorted a few issues out for us but unfortunately we’ve misplaced his card/name.
Overall, most of the staff had hearts in the right place and tried to help my mum as best they could, and the resort aesthetic is nice. We also enjoyed watching the birds and big monitor lizards. However, this resort has far too many shortfalls and does not provide a 5* experience. It is very poorly managed and is 3* at best in terms of food and service. We met a honeymoon couple who have stayed at various Shangri-La hotels and they said this was by far the worst and nowhere near the standard of the others. It was their first night and they told us they were planning to leave the next day…
We adore Sri Lanka, just not the Shangri-La.
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