Laya Safari

Reception staff were extreemely helpful and friendly

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.

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

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.

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 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.

Didnleave the hotel after 1 day because of hot water issue

I'll start by saying we would definitely stay here again! The property manager was a very friendly and interesting man and very helpful along with the other staff members and the rooms were incredibly spacious with a great view of the ocean! My only recommendations to the owners would be to really play up the view of the rooms and make sure the blinds are up and windows facing the ocean are freshly cleaned. Having chose this hotel over others mainly because of the amazing windows it was a little disappointing to find out that a lot of the blinds no longer worked and couldn't be opened all the way. We were there during slow season so it was very quiet and not all the facilities were open but I can imagine it's a lot of fun when it's more full. We enjoyed the quiet though. The hotel has lots going on as well, atv dune rides, swing bar, infinity pool, and very soon horses for beach and jungle rides! And the proximity to Yala is perfect. They even have a resident elephant that might wander through while you're there! I would definitely recommend this hotel!

We stayed here for four nights to visit Yala. The hotel is less than 10 minutes drive to the park. The service, and friendliness of the staff is superb. The view from the rooms, pool, and restaurant was beautiful. We could hear the waves crashing from our room. The wooden decks are definitely in need of replacement due to exposure to the salty ocean air, but the interior of our room was nice and comfortable. A lot of the rooms look like they were being upgraded during our stay as well.

Amazing views, great food, friendly staff. The only downside is the hotel is a little tired but I would still recommend.

Entire place is old and run down. Repairs are desperately needed. Restaurant staff were standoff-ish and certainly not inclined to move faster than a snail. Really very disappointed in this place.

Wildly overpriced with terrible food and relatively unclean premises.

The lenght of this review is directly related to my level of annoyance and irritation.

1. ROOMS
The room advertised online /surrounding views is literally one of the 22 rooms - the other 21 has blinds around the entire place or everyone would look directly into their neighbours rooms.
The shower also inexplicably has blinds - which has a nice gathering of black mould.
Everything else in the room is old and shabby - shabby 'white' mats next to the bed, stained mustard couches, frayed towels.
The bathroom window was so dirty you could barely see outside.
The porch is worn out and faded, as well as the furniture.
2 pillows on the bed, with an additional 2 in the closet, sans pillow covers.
The icetray was broken with hair in - still waiting for a replacement.
Also the aircon was leaking and only one bedside lamp was working.

2. STAFF
The young staff mean well, but has clearly not had any training - english is v v basic which can get rather frustrating.
Also v unproffesional with check-in as they kept chatting in Sinhalese (I assume) and giggling like teenagers.
On the first morning we returned to a dirty room at 1pm - when we called reception they informed us that we had our "Do not disturb" sign on the door - a tad impossible as we didn't even have one in the room.
Also not ideal to walk out of your room and then have to step over 4 pairs of shoes that the cleaners have kicked of in front of your door.
Room service is also a shambles- the wrong thing arr - see rest on TripAd

Perfect location for a Yala safari. Super clean rooms and soft mattress.

Amazing jungle life experience.
Excellent beautiful hotel.
Only issue was staff not picking up the phone and service was not good.

Needs upkeep and modernisation. Staff are excellent though.

Stunning location right on the beach, noone else around. The room was fab, second/third floors so great view from the balcony, sunset especially. Not many guests while we were there so dinner was table d'hote, several choices, all were tasty, well presented, fresh and plentiful. Staff friendly ans attentive. Best bit is wild elephant who seems to regularly roam around the grounds, eating the palm fronds and drinking the lily pond! Also saw boar, hares, iguana, plenty birds in grounds.

Wonderful location. Service excellent.

Nice hotel and friendly staff
值得推薦給華人的酒店，他們很重視華人的業務，不會有歧視行為；對我們的要求很有耐性的解決。

We arrived at 11pm and went on safari at 4:45am so didn’t really spend time here. It was ok for a bed for the night.