Marina Bentota

What a lovely location! I selected this hotel on a whim to relax after a busy tour. What a lovely place on a quiet cobblestone lane. The back faces the lagoon with a lovely view, water sports are available and the front faces the ocean and long sandy beach. Exquisite rooms, delightful staff, a charming hotel. A pleasant walk or tuk tuk to town. I enjoyed my stay. A little off the beaten path but so worth it. Oh and there is a small pool which I didn't use as the ocean was warm and so close.

We arrived on Christmas Eve after a 7hr taxi journey, we were greeted with a welcome drink and very friendly staff. Once escorted to our room which had an amazing view of the ocean, we discovered that the lock on our door was held on with gaffer tape and the barrel could be pushed out with your finger. The management said 'it maybe fixed before you leave it may not' So after a bit more gaffer tape and feeling totally secure in our room we also discovered the place was filthy dirty and hadn't seen a duster in months. The wardrobe door was being held closed with a wad of tissue. We had to asked for batteries to operate the air conditioning and the next morning we had no hot water to which we were told 'the sun hasn't heated up the solar panels yet'. After a threat of 'I want my money back' everything magically sorted themselves out within a few hours. Every time we went to the bar there seemed to be a lot of staff doing not a lot, and the hotel wasn't busy so fixing / cleaning / maintenance should of been dealt with. This we put down to poor management not poor staff as they were lovely and extremely helpful. This could be the best hotel on the beach as it's only got 14 rooms which makes it unique from the other rather large complexes. If they stepped up their game this hotel would be amazing, it has the views, location and staff to be a 5* Shame I had to shout at people of Christmas Day, but they did sort it even though it shouldn't of got to that point