Boutique Spice Colombo

When I arrived at the hotel on the evening that I was due to check in (6th July), I was unable to gain access. A neighbour of theirs informed me that they were closed and then phoned the owners. I then spoke to the owner who informed me that they had sent me notifications via booking.com stating that the hotel would be closed during the time of my reservation and thus, that my reservation had been cancelled.

The only email that I have received from them was a confirmation email dated the 26th of October 2024. The day that I booked the hotel.

When I logged on to my booking.com account that night, it still said booking confirmed for the 6th -8th July (there were also no new messages in my inbox). See the attached screen shot. However, when I googled the hotel on the same night to try and find contact details to talk to the owner again, it said that it was closed, see the second screenshot...no-one told me though.

Their complete lack of communication resulted in me:

1) Paying a taxi driver more money for driving back towards the airport once I had nowhere to stay.
2) Resulted in me paying more for an alternative hotel due to a last minute booking.
3) Unnecessarily leaving my former location a day earlier.

This is completely unacceptable. If they indeed did attempt to correspond with me via Booking.com, can proof please be sent and can it also be explained why I did not receive an email? I am also disappointed with Booking.com themselves. I tried for a considerable amount of time that night to contact them and find a live chat. However, couldn't find where to access this, with the best advice from them being to...contact the hotel! Nice one. Thanks for that!

The location is out of the centre which is fine, but then the hotel should serve breakfast because otherwise there is nowhere to have this. Instead the hotel has a restaurant and bar, but because of the location, these are empty so there is no atmosphere. We visited on New Year's Eve and they closed the bar at 10pm, but the previous night there was a private party untill 11! 'The Escape' restaurant would be better as a breakfast and lunch stop, and then close in the evening to allow guests to sleep peacefully. One room is adjacent to the restaurant and you can hear everything happening in the kitchen and restaurant area.

It was too far from the center. There are no restaurants nearby. The in-house restaurant is nice but this is the only option.
The bed is too soft.

The location, very very isolated from everything else, too bad.
The room next to the kitchen, you can hear everything. So I really don't recommend it! You can find better for the same price!
We had asked for breakfast at 7:00, and at 7:00 nobody was there yet, except one of the staff to whom we had to tell to call the cooks.
The bathroom is poorly maintained, although the shower is very large.

Mosquitoes. The place isn't soundproof, the cafe is right next to the rooms. It's not peaceful for a holiday.

The Open drain in Front. The Bar could have been better with a equitable price for a Soda bottle which was 550 Sri Lankan rupees. The constant noise of the Pressure pump running next to my room-day and night.

The room was not properly sealed from the elements outside. The mesh on the doors were torn and the sliding door was not a good choice to seal the room from insects coming through. The bed was not very comfortable and the room lighting could use a much needed upgrade. The accomodation did not have a 24 hour reception.