Laya Safari♡

Guest review

10.0

Reception staff were extreemely helpful and friendly

A 2-star catfishing as a 4-star

4.0

Despite being told we had “the best room”, the blinds were broken, the walls were peeling, the shower was broken, the bathroom was mouldy, and the fridge was broken. For dinner, we ordered lamb and mash potato as we had seen an image online that looked great. When it arrived, there were chips on the plate and the lamb was full of bones and fat which made it inedible. The next day, we had to meet our safari driver at 5am. However, when we tried to go through to reception, all of the doors were locked and the lights turned off. This is different to the 24/7 reception advertised. We had to walk around the building in the pitch black. The welcome letter said to watch out for poisonous snakes and elephants. This was an extremely stressful moment, particularly as two young women in the middle of nowhere. We spoke to the general manager who was originally apologetic and agreed that renovations were necessary. However, when we requested a partial refund to reflect the quality of service, he started interrupting us and lying that someone was on reception at 5am. What is worse is they refused to get it up on CCTV. Upon our departure, the general manager decided to go outside and speak to our driver. He complained about us which again made us feel unsafe. It’s a shame because some staff were lovely, and the swimming pool and beach front are nice – but the only thing 4-star about this hotel are the prices. They have still refused our refund request and Hotels.com have been useless.

Guest review

2.0

Avoid. Derelict, ghost hotel, with crumbling infrastructure. Although staff are nice and helpful. Stayed March 2025.

Guest review

2.0

DO NOT STAY HERE. This is not a four star hotel. However they charge that way. Our room was filthy when we checked in. It did not looked like it had been cleaned in over a month. No hot water in main shower head. Electricity went out in middle of the night. Blinds broke and fell from wall leaving dust and dead bugs everywhere. The pictures told a story of a beautiful resort. It is no longer that. I have never written a bad review before. When we complained to the GM on departure (after telling staff of issues throughout stay) he was rude and told us we should have complained earlier. The Sri Lankan people are beautiful, this man was not. There is an advertised spa service that does not exist. The staff also did not honor the Expedia Gold Status deal we signed up for. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

Guest review

2.0

Worst hotel I have stayed in my life. The shower was barely working, the place was dirty and smelled bad. If it wasn’t for the fact that my boyfriend and I arrived super late, we would have never stayed even one night there! I don’t recommend at all

Great location for safari

6.0

Great location to Yala park for safaris and as soon as we arrived they booked this for us and arranged that we had a breakfast to take due to the early start. Nice pool. It is a really nice hotel but looks like it hasn’t been updated in many years, such as a snooker table with many tares on it. Room could have been cleaner. At checkout the staff member asked us to review for them when we were still there which I didn’t like so didn’t do.