The good side
1) Check-in was smooth and efficient the receptionist and staff were extremely polite and kind.
2) Most of the staff were very polite and seemed to have received basic training in etiquette and manners which many other places lack so good job in that regard but of course few needed improvement but I guess you can't have it all.
3) The breakfast buffet was excellent and had a variety of dishes and definitely had enough options for vegetarians, their Sri-Lankan food was supered and dishes were seasoned and planned and liked the combinations offered.
4) We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing chess by the pool near the bar, definitely a fun activity to do if you play chess as this was a large board!
5) The hotel is right in front of the beach which was clean and didn't have a lot of people into so huge plus point!
6) The bed while large kept sinking like quicksand,
7) there are two pools in the hotel, we used the pool in the far corner away from the restaurant and it was much larger and a lot less crowded.
The Ugly part
1) Room service was not prompt and hardly answered calls, we had to dial reception most of the time, in the end, we just ended up walking towards the cart of a person who is cleaning the room to fulfill our requirement,
2) During breakfast my husband had to wait for 20 minutes for a finger bowl while foreigners around us who came much later got it, I ended up getting up mid-meal and walked up to a waiter to remind them that we exist aswell.
3)We were shocked during our check-out when asked if we took toiletries and if so each bottle will be charged a sum of 250/-, I have the same bottles from my honeymoon in Jetwing blue and I definitely was not asked this ludicrous question! I've traveled extensively from an extremely young age because of my father's job in the hotel trade both locally and internationally and stayed at many hotels and taken toiletries with me as souvenirs since it's a hobby, these are inbuilt to the cost of the room, a room we paid for, it's something I've used and certainly can take as we have already paid for it,it was extremely, utterly embarrassing to be asked this question like a common thief! it's mentioned in amenities that toiletries are free in booking.com hotel description.
The only thing a guest can't remove from the room are things that can be used again like bathrobes, linen, towels, and pillows, etc, but toiletries are definitely something we can If this is your policy kindly educate your guest during the room orientation to save us all the embarrassment and disappointment I was embarrassed, and utterly flabbergasted by this and definitely left a sour taste in our mouth!
Having not made a fuzz when we were basically locked in our room before breakfast, or when the sliding door which was anyway stuck from the get-go had to be repaired something the hotel should have caught during the room inspection prior to our check-in so thank you for repaying our understanding level and politeness by that single preposterous question.
if you do want to reduce your carbon footprint, Kindly make sure the shampoo and such are simply on wall dispensers so then there is no issue with guest taking and you don't need to spend on packaging and save the planet!
words can't even begin to sum up how we feel, please do not ever do this to any other guest and ruin their entire stay.