Eagle Safari Cottage

Unfortunately, at the end of our trip the staff harassed us and the other travellers that we arranged a lift with - about using their taxi service, when we told them we didn’t need the lift.
They blocked the entrance of their drive way and harassed our driver as well.
They made us feel pretty unsafe which was a shame because the stay was going really well.
The bathroom wasn’t fully clean.
They also had an altercation whilst we were there with a mum and her children.

I find it important to warn other travelers.
I short: the place should not be bookable on booking.com! The place is not safe for travellers.

The owner does a very fishy business and tries to intimidate his staff, us as tourists and other operators. Our picking up driver told us it were a "dangerous place".

Other travelers made very bad experiences at the same time as us.

- Our booking was marked as no-show on the day of our arrival without us knowing. Same for at least another couple. Causing extra cancelation fees.
- on day of our departure the staff and owner tried to force us the take drivers to ella which they said they had booked for us and would now need to get paid by us (12.000rp per car). We however just informed ourselves about the conditions the day before and said we would write in WhatsApp if we wanted the offer. Same for another couple. When the driver we organized ourselves showed up they tried to scare him off
- the place is not on googlemaps anymore, they claim this was due to "unfair reviews" there.
- the staff is forbidden by the owner to communicate via booking. They directly ask for your WhatsApp number.
- when informed by me that 2 very prominent pictures in booking do not belong to the place, causing false hopes in travelers, the staff wrote in WhatsApp that unfortunately they could not change this. After the owner had showed up, That message got deleted in WhatsApp. Screenshot is attached below.
- on our second day a lady arrived with her two kids at 7:30 p.m. in the dark. She had booked for 4 nights (at 5$ per night). A staff member said there was no room and left. When we wanted to help we found no one at the reception building ( all dark, no response to knocking). When i opened a window i saw the receptionist hiding behind it. I asked her to come out.
It came out, that as the lady did not intend on booking a safari with them ( the only way for this place to earn money) they had wished to cancel the booking.

The price was very low to book, which I believe was to draw you in, but as soon as a booking is made they are pushing for you to buy a safari package. This is the first thing that they do when you arrive also, it all felt very pushy and not very welcoming and they were not friendly or helpful. We did not have a guide for the safari to explain things about the animals, the driver would just stop and point at an animal and say its name, but that was all.

We had a room that was not pictured on the listing, which was very basic, an all cement room with no windows (just a window door so not secure to leave open) or fan but did have AC. It smelt sweaty, and we could not get the smell out and the bed also smelt.

There was a lot of construction happening outside the room for new rooms so the ground was very muddy and so were our shoes, especially with the rain. You could not leave the room without getting dirty. Also the mats for wiping your feet inside the room were not clean and covered in mud. The towels were very thin and old.

The breakfast was very simple and not filling, and you have this after safari at about 11am. Some plain bread is offered on the safari.

For Sri Lankan standards this place is not great, though some of the other rooms looked nicer than what we got (ours was not pictured in the listing). It is also very far out of town and far from the junction - not correct location on the listing. The listing took us to another hotel and we had to get a tuk tuk for 10 minutes to arrive at the right place.

Then when we left they cancelled our booking even though we stayed, we had to contact booking.com to be allowed to leave an honest review. We think they did this as we stayed in one of the less nice rooms that are not listed. This was cheeky and dishonest, so they don’t get bad reviews.

A location was a bit far but that didn’t bother us.

The shower and toilet and sink are outside which is normally nice but if it rains it’s pretty uncomfortable. In addition there are ALOT of bugs everywhere outside in the restrooms and because it’s connected to the room they can easily get inside.