Remember I had an earlier post on the same hotel? Well this was a second visit after a year, I think.
Our department had a teambuilding session at the Resort for four days in January 2013. Since we had wanted to combine it with a departmental family get-together session where the kids can be taken to Legoland, we thought that the Resort was a good choice based on it's proximity to Legoland and the facilities in the Resort itself.
The facilities offered at the Resort was not lacking. However, generally, the maintenance and level of service by categories of staff were severely undesirable. The rooms (the Cinta Ayu apartments) were mostly "ageing" and in much need of a makeover. Our room even had a tell-tale sign of repair and patchwork done on the ceiling where there seemed to be once, a leakage. Floors and furniture are worn out while sheets and linens were almost greying or stained. It's a shame as the Resort had so much potential if only attention were paid to maintenance. As for the latter, the staff particularly housekeeping and restaurant (except for the Chinese restaurant - the food was good there, by the way) were sub-standard in terms of owning their areas of responsibilities. Case in point, at the egg station, I had asked for a cheese omelette. The reply was, "egg here, cheese there." Perplexed and after getting the same response twice, another guest explained that while he can do the eggs, I had to get the cheese myself and bring it to him at the buffet line. I was lucky he didn't ask me to bring the eggs to him too!
The good news is the golf range was quite well kept and so are the swimming pools. The security personnel at the front entrance were also friendly, helpful, informative and quite attentive and performed their tasks beyond our expectations. On the other hand, maintenance-wise again one can almost detect musky smells in places such as the children's play area (with worn out toys), the movie theater (imagine if it were in excellent condition - people would perhaps give better reviews for it!) and again, the rooms! It gives us the impression that staff responsible have a lackadaisal approach in keeping things in good order.
Worse still, I had a bad experience where I had suspected the housekeeping staff trying out all the cosmetic products I had brought with me in the bathroom. Two days in a row the incident was monitored and on the third day, I could safely confirm it with some proof and brought the case up to the duty manager. I was attended to professionally and the duty manager did not put up an immediate defense but instead sought more clarification with a promise to escalate the matter to his Management and conduct an investigation. Of course, upon investigation, the staff denied having used any of the items. I was left going home with rashes and more than RM600 odd poorer as i had to replace all my cosmetics.
Overall, if you're looking for a place to just crash and not care for other things mentioned, then by all means do stay here, but you'll not be paying a way cheaper rate as you would in a boarding house. This is supposed to be a higher end Resort! Otherwise, you're better off staying at the Thistle or some lower starred hotels that are newer with more attentive staff who really care about their job and guests' welfare and bear the additional 30 minute trip from city center to Legoland. Nett nett, our suggestion, wait till they decide to fully refurbish, sort out security issues, and ramp up service levels before you try them out. The rooms don't look anything like the site pictures anymore (at least the Cinta Ayu Rooms. Am not sure about the "new" Anugraha rooms though).
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