Carina Sandin
Google
Upon arrival we got to know we are the only guests at this 10-bedroom resort, witch for us was a perfect benefit, the luxury privilege of having the entire resort for ourselves, with the staff’s full attention – PURE LUXURY! The flips side of the coin is that if you want to dine lunch and/or dinner – there is a 1-day advance notice required and there was no bar available either. But we found many good restaurants, so this was never a problem for us. We can recommend “Mamas Kitchen”, “Dream Family Restaurant”, “Chili Hot Café” and “Ceylon Excel”.
The on-site staff lead by Nipuna was very attentive, the place is cared for daily within garden, pool, sunbed areas etc. The breakfasts severed are good and healthy with included options available. We were offered Singhalese breakfast and had this option 3 times – delicious and well worth trying (I also got my morning eggs with this choice). KUDOS FOR THE ON-SITE STAFF!
The rooms are on the basic side, but clean and functional, there was never a problem without A/C and the rooms are reasonably cooled by the trade winds through the room, enforced by a ceiling fan. Warm water was also never an issue (but as mentioned only 1 room occupied). Room was only cleaned once during our 6-night stay, but with complete change of sheets and towels.
The beach is deserted, clean, very long and with wonderful sand. The surf mostly tends to be too high with strong currents (at least in this season) making it difficult to swim right outside of the hotel. If you walk about 800 meters towards the east (Mangrove Beach) perhaps 10-15 minutes walking along the shoreline. There is a partition of the beach that is much better protected, by larger structures of bedrocks – giving us a safe area to swim in the ocean. It’s well worth the effort and when walking there, one passes a handful of beach restaurants, serving drinks and food, on the way to the safe beach.
The pool is inviting and beautiful, about 10-12 by 4-5 meters and there are 2 large wooden decks, 1 close to the pool the other facing the beach – great for sunbathing or hiding/relaxing in the shadows of the trees. The garden provides sunshades.
WARNING – THE HOTEL IS NOT ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS – ONLY CASH PAYMENTS.
The National Bank of Sri Lanka is publishing the USD/LKR exchange rates daily. Most banks follow these rates and most currency exchange offices do as well, with perhaps a slightly improved margin. Most hotels we have experience from uses the average rate (nominal) representing a fair split of the rate between the guest and the hotel.
The owner of Serein Hotel (not present at the time) insists not only to use the sell rate (as if she was selling us USD, when we pay cash in LKR), she also adds an extra 5 LKR per USD. This greedy claim was for us an outrageous, almost 3.5% additional cost.
When working in the hospitality industry, normally that means, when being a host/manager/owner – you listen to your guest – not just yell at them – as if they are idiots! The owner was calling the hotel from Dubai, demanding to speak to us, being very unfriendly, she has no ability to listen, and she yells at the customer and is very rude.
We now faced a situation where we had to collect a huge amount of cash from ATM’s. Now we had to find a place selling us USD locally – not so easy but in the end it was doable.
DO NOT expect that a credit card payment is possible,
2) BRING CASH to avoid having to walk into central Tangalle to find ATM’s
3) BRING CASH IN USD to the exact amount and do ask for a receipt
ON DEPARTURE – the owner, that had arrived at the property the evening before, sleeked new situation for provocative arguments – we simply could not escape her anger, forced to leave by taxi with an overall sour feeling.
