Shangri-La Hambantota

8.6

Excellent

93 Guest reviews

8.6

Excellent

93 Verified Reviews

Read all reviews

Cleanliness9.2/10

Service8.6/10

Comfort9.0/10

Condition8.8/10

Neighborhood7.0/10

Amenities8.8/10

This property has potential, but is poorly coordinated and their communication is utterly disjointed between the departments and staff.

Amazing service, staff members very attentive, delicious food, beautiful resort

Only problem is transportation

Ok for families but dated

The hotel is good, but seems as old as if you traveled in time. And the staff is really slow.

Very friendly staff. Great service. Amazing place to chill

Back to the 90s

It seems that since it first open, no investment has gone into the hotel. Old facilities, very slow service with just a few good service guys trying their best. 70% of them go in circles. It can take an hour to get drinks and pizza. We played golf, tho the caddies try their best, the equipment for rental is incomplete and old. No shop… really poor vision of what this business could do.

Overall we loved all facilities in and around the hotel. Its absolutely amazing. We look for to stay in Shangrila Hambantota during our next vacation in Sri Lankan

We had to wait for an hour for our room to be ready even though we arrived on time and pre-booked months before. There was no compensation offered either for the inconvenience. The rooms are quite far from the elevators so there was a lot of walking involved just to get anywhere. Apart from that, the hotel was good.

Big and nice facility similar to 5-star hotels in Turkey. Food is quite nice. Area around the hotel is also big and nice. There is nowhere to go other than the hotel area and there is really nothing to do if the weather is not good - no leisure is organized for the hotel guests except for 12.00pm aerobics once a day. Prepare for a one-week waiting like to the spa, they only have 2 massage girls and 1 ayurveda specialist for a huge facility. Ocean is not good for swimming. Sunbathing beds/decks are few and occupied by some guests in the morning and abandoned till the come to enjoy the pool around noon time, so prepare to fight for those to get a space by the pool. Staff is friendly but many of them do not understand English very well or may be there is some other reason, but getting things done - should it be a cup of coffee or getting your laundry bag back to the room can take 5 times more times and efforts than you originally planned. Really this hotel is overestimated and except for a fancy facility and good food, it is the most boring place on Earth.

Excellent service with good staff.

Excellent staff who looked after our 18 month old daughter well. Clean and well maintained hotel with links to all main attractions and special services such as helicopter rides.

Like many things from China, appearances can be deceiving. Rooms and the hotel grounds may look 5 star but there are so many things such as quality of service, food, drink and the calibre of staff is distinctly low grade that degrade this place to 2 stars. You are treated as a customer, not a guest. When you enter the hotel grounds you are interrogated and your vehicle is searched by security dogs at the top of the access road to the hotel. There is no valet parking and several more facilities have been removed 'due to covid'. After a 3.5-4 hour drive from the airport you will sweat like pig in the entrance hall as the fans are switched off while you wait for a long time to be checked in. There is no air conditioning in this area. When we enquired as to why there is a delay in check in we were ushered away from the queue without explanation by a rude staff member who struggled to speak english! At check in the staff tried charging me for my hotel stay even though I had paid for it on Expedia 1.5 months earlier and they refused my request to settle bills on checkout. They instead insisted I pay a unexpected surcharge of Rs.30000 (nearly £120) at check in to cover potential extras like room service. Which is utter rubbish. The staff have a poor understanding of English, messed up and delayed our order. The prices are extortionate. Before check out a letter was sent to my room explaining the hotel IT system is unreliable and that they would prefer if I settle any bills the nig

Worst hotel in sri lanka

I’ve never did any review before, but this hotel made me do one. I booked for two nights for my honeymoon trip in shangri-la Hambantota because it looked amazing in the pictures. I sent them an email informing them that we want something special since we are honeymooners. First when we arrived, the lobby and rooms looked so old although the hotel is 3 years old. What we disliked the most is that everything is paid on the property(any activity) even we asked for golf car tour to see the hotel around since it is huge, they asked for money. The only “special” thing they did for us is throwing some flowers on our bed as “honeymoon decoration”. Their food is below average. The cherry on top was a lizard on the bed before sleep and we couldn’t sleep comfortably. At 8:00 am the cleaning person knocked on the door many times and entered while we were still asleep. I woke up at 8:30 called another hotel and checked out directly. They did nothing about it they were only waiting me to settle the 4$ remaining from the balance😂. Never visit this hotel it is the worst..

Awesome! Great food! Great people!

Lovely hotel but I had cash stolen from my room

I enjoyed my stay a lot in this hotel during the Covid-19 lockdown BUT I had $900 stolen from my purse during the stay. The hotel did carry out an investigation but hey couldn't find the culprit. I would recommend keeping your valuable extra safe when staying in this hotel. This is not what I expected in a 5* hotel but I was a lone female traveller staying in a very empty hotel (less than 10% occupancy) and didn't realise that I would possibly be more susceptible to these types of crimes. Overall the restaurants, rooms and pools are very nice. The downsides are that sea is not suitable for swimming in and the airport is about 4-5 hours drive away.

Shangri-La Twilight

For a resort of the caliber of Shangri-La the service was more like a business hotel where you have to carry your language into the hotel and where the attendant left you after a lift without coming to the room to explain everything. The food was no where near the status of other hotels in the same category. The concierge was not very inclined to help.

Wonderful staff and service- very accommodating. Beautiful beach and pools.

It was an amzing stay at Shangri-La Hambantota resort.

a great family stay, but very expensive

Travelled with my family, including parents and four year old daughter. Check-in service was excellent. I really appreciated their extra effort to find two rooms next to each other. My daughter loved the pool, water slides and separate kids buffet. The in resort prices are very, very high. I would only come again or recommend to family and friends if they are on a generously priced full-board package.

We had a lovely stay and enjoyed the free activities they offer during the day. We played golf and it was a nice course.

This by far is the best resort in Sri Lanka, we just spent 5 days with 2 small children and enjoyed every minute of it. From the food, to the activities, kids centre to the Spa everything was amazing. This our second time at the resort and once again Jeevon from check in staff was amazing and is now a member of our family. He helped us with everything and was always calling and checking on what we required. There really is not enough ways i can express our gratitude to every one there. They have an amazing property with so much todo that you could literally spent a week and never leave. Yalla national park is near and it is the best Safari we had ever been on. We are able to see all the animals in their natural environment. Don't miss out on a Golf cart tour of the property as you will be able to see many animals.

Absolutely fabulous!

Love, love, love the hotel. My room was gorgeous, spacious and a lovely balcony overlooking the pool and beach. I ordered room service lots, it was super. The breakfast buffet is fabulous too. The staff gave personalised service and were excellent. The hotel has thought of everything, even mosquito coils for the balcony. Spa Ceylon, a wonderful Sri Lankan brand, has jasmine and coconut fragrance just for this hotel. OMGosh. It’s gorgeous! Two people deserve mention. The F and B manager, whose name sadly I can’t recall. He made a point of speaking to me each day, he was so attentive. Sameera Weerathunga from housekeeping. I left my wedding and engagement rings in the safe, when I checked out. He worked so hard to get these to me, I was able to collect them at the Shangri-La booth at Colombo airport. What a superstar! I really hope I can return to this hotel in the future.

Beautiful property, excellent golf course, great location. Staffs need a lot of basic trainings and most of all confidence in what they do and empowerment (perhaps senior leadership need be more hands on). No senior team members to be seen anywhere at the property during our stay apart from the Chef - Ashok. Incredibly talented gentleman. F&B service very poor (except the club house), massive room for improvement for food offerings as well. Loads of plastic debris at the beach.

Beautiful resort and facilities. Staff were also really friendly and helpful.

The property is very large and very well kept, we enjoyed our 2 day stay and could have stayed another 2 days. As it is very near to many attractions, such as Yalla National park, although you will see many of the animals on the property grounds. We recommend that you take the 30 minute golf cart ride around the property. The food was always fresh and very tasty and the staff all went out of their ways to help. A special thanks to Jeevan who checked us in and gave me his number to call anytime as he was off the next day. He messaged me on his off day to inquire if we needed anything that really made us feel special thanks again Jeevan.

Currently running low with occupancy. Hence many Restaurants closed. Management does not reveal these To add transparency. In room service is a rip off. Liquor And bar early, adopters of 25m

Excellent , Excellent , Excellent. Absolutely excellent.

Great hotel but with ridiculously expensive food and drinks.

Great safaris, food, staff and facilities. Loved it.

Everything was perfect! From the location, facilities, food and service! We were greeted by the hostess Monika who was very accommodating and helpful in getting around the resort, and arranging our breakfast box for the safari. Not to mention everyone at the resort did a great job and made our stay pretty great :D

Expensive

We stayed for one night at the Shangri-La en route from Ella to Mirissa predominantly to play golf and spend sometime relaxing around the pool. The rooms and hotel are beautifully laid out and the amenities are of a high standard although this is what you would expect for the price you are paying. Good location if planning to visit the national parks and there appears to be a lot of activities within the grounds for children to enjoy. The golf course is lovely and not too challenging and surprisingly not that expensive even though we paid to hire clubs. The buffet is varied although we didn’t eat there, only for breakfast which was very good. Can recommend the egg hoppers, they were cooked fresh and to perfection. We opted for the Asian al a carte at the evening but it was overpriced and the quality very average, the beef rengdang was tough and dry. They kindly let us have an extended checkout till 2pm for no extra charge. So I would totally recommend this hotel if you don’t mind paying that bit extra for drinks and food e.g coke 800 LKR

Wonderful hotel, with extremely helpful staff and beautiful rooms. We came with our two young kids (3 and 6) and it was perfect for them : a shallow pool with two slides and a great kids club where they could and wanted to hang out most of the time. When we were there, the sea was rough and swimming was forbidden but the pools make up for it. The main buffet restaurant was good, but the quality and variety of the food could be improved especially considering the price (30$/adult).

Amazing

Overall a great stay

Amazing modern resort with great rooms, pools and grounds. It is huge but it does not feel crowded even in high season. The only con is the food offering, not enough restaurants and difficult to get a table on the “a la carte” ones in peak season. Food quality is not the best either but other than that, I was happy with my stay here and I would recommend this hotel!

Good ecperience. Varied nightly menus. Spa good. Adult pool good. Friendly atmosphere. Golf course good. Driving range bit disorganised. Thought golf costs would be inclusive for residents.

Very friendly staff, excellent food, great pool

Very friendly staff, excellent food, great pool area. Lifeguards and bar staff by the pool very friendly and helpful. Nice spacious rooms. Highly recommended.

Nice relaxing stay . It’s a long drive though from Colombo.

We stayed here recently and were very disappointed with our stay. The checkin was not handled well at all, on arrival, which was earlier than their scheduled time, we were informed by the Duty Manager at the time that the driver accommodation was full, so we had to pay for additional accommodation for this, as purportedly the in house guests had already taken them. We soon realised this was incorrect as the hotel only had a small handful of guests during our entire stay and all areas including pool and restaurants were almost empty. We discovered that the hotel was getting ready for a big wedding a couple of days later, so all the focus was on organising things for this event and not on looking after their guests who were already there. We found this appalling. For a hotel that has over 300 rooms there was only 2 restaurants and although the service was good the food was average. The staff were efficient, polite and helpful. We stayed in many good hotels both in Colombo and down South but We would not recommend this hotel.

Beautiful hotel for family fun

Very well maintained immaculate gardens. Fantastic waterpark water slides trapeze & more for kids. Excellent food through out the restaurants. The 2 fitness instructors were excellent & the free water aerobics & bike rides were great. Rooms were spacious & clean. Always plenty of comfortable cabanas around the pool to sit, made more comfortable by the pool attendants draping them in many towels. Well worth the drive

Good but not great

The overall experience was good. However the quality of the room was below my expectation. Limited things to do and see outside of the hotel and the dinning experience could be improved.

Great!

The hotel was everything we expected, loved the adults only pool, plenty of activities. Main downside was the beach was closed due to the choppy conditions which we've been told is normal for this time of year. The dining options were quite expensive relative to dining options in local area, but again this is to be expected at this type of hotel. We loved our stay here.

Best resort ever!

Highly recommend this resort! Best food and service. We had a super amazing stay.

Shangri La Hambantota, a relaxing resort

The pools are numerous and divided into 1 play pool and one adult pool. The beach has lifeguards on duty and they rate the surf each day. There are not enough pool-side umbrellas with chaste lounges. The spa has a jacuzzi and dry sauna that can be used for free for paying hotel guests. Good variety of food restaurants.

Lovely Hotel with Great Facilities

Checked in for 2 rooms. Front desk had communicated prior arrangements to offer an upgrade but LIED about the upgrade being rescinded. Very disappointed on the continued lies that were communicated time and again. Wonderful hotel that could be even better.

A great place to stay

The hotel is a lovely hotel but what really makes it great are the staff. Friendly and accommodating only starts to describe them. The food was varied and of good quality, especially the Indian offerings. There is also plenty to do for both the children and the adults. Evening entertainment was limited but this did not detract from what was a very relaxing and enjoyable holiday.

Shangri-La Hospitality is Amazing !!!!!!

A wonderful place to enjoy a family holiday. Landscape and sceneries are beautiful. Well maintained surroundings. Facilities are excellent. Wonderful opportunities for kids and well looked after them by coaches. Very friendly and helpful staff. Very good room service. Admire Sri Lankan Hospitality. We had a great time and appreciate entire hotel staffs' kind approach towards their customers. Special thank goes to Miss. Monika at reception desk who has the talent and ability to please customers very well.

NICE HOTEL WITH NOTHING TO DO

The hotel did not live up to the hype, albeit the staff exceeded excellence. The location of the hotel confines guests to the facility which does not offer much by way of evening entertainment. The space and facilities are there for anyone with an imagination to turn this hotel into an exciting destination but, unfortunately, imigaination and creativity seems to be sorely lacking. Very unfortunate for the hotel and guests. The service staff at all the restaurants were exceptionally good. They provided service with a smile and were efficient.

Great Hotel away from the crowds

After traveling around for a week it was a perfect spot to unwind and relax before the flight home

Impressive resort

The overall experience was great, even from the very beginning when we arrived at the hotel, the staff very welcoming and organized, the check in took us 5 min max. The resort is huge, there is a swimming pool for kids and families and a more quiet one for the people looking for peace and relaxation. What I really liked about this resort is that there is a clinic, the doctor is there a few hours a day, but the place is open 24/7 nevertheless. There are a few restaurants, you can chose, depends on what you feel like having, but when it`s low season, only 3 of them are opened. In the evening there was a buffet with food from around the world, trying to please everybody and it did, because the food was tasty. Most important: if there is something you want to eat but it s not there and the cook can make it for you, they will cook for you whatever, if they have the ingredients. Aces! :D

Beautiful hotel grounds and facilities.

Absolutely fantastic week at this hotel. The staff were super accommodating and friendly. One of our party became very sick during the first day and cannot say enough about how wonderful and caring every staff member was. They went the extra mile, above and beyond, to ensure that all bases were covered. Every staff person is focused on the fact that you are comfortable and having a good time: from the restaurant staff, to pool guys, every single one. We would definitely stay here again. The beach area is beautiful, even though with during our time it was high winds so no swimming; which we didn't mind as were pool people anyway. The room service was impeccable. Even the turndown service had the personal touch rearranging our girls stuffed animals in cute ways on their beds. Just excellent attention to detail and care.