Tanjung Rhu Resort, Langkawi — Attraction in Langkawi Island

Tanjung Rhu Resort, a 5 star hotel - if this review was from 2001.

The stark reality is that whilst this hotel is in a magnificent location, the resort itself would struggle to be an 3 star hotel in 2023.

The resort itself is a 30 minute drive from the airport. Upon arrival you are greeted by the lovely staff which insist on taking your bag whilst you sit down on the stained beige arm chairs. They took our passports away and returned 15 minutes later to advise the room wasn’t ready. To be fair, we had arrived somewhat early for our check-in, but we had a long flight - so we were looking for food. We were told we could dine at their main restaurant ‘Sands’. We went off to find it.

As we walk through reception, the entrance is extremely nice with palm trees which leads around onto a private beach with not a person to be seen on it. This is absolute perfection, I don’t think there is a person in this world that wouldn’t want a private beach to themselves. However we quickly realised that the whole resort was somewhat of a zombie apocalypse. We continued to walk around to the Sands restaurant and upon arrival, were told we’d need to wait until 12 before we could order. So we thought we’d kill some time at the adults only pool which again had no people in attendance - not even staff. At this point we just wanted a drink - even that seemed like it would be a struggle. We managed to lose about 40 minutes and went back to the restaurant where we seated. Finally we were able to order some drinks as we look through a perplexing overpriced menu of mixed Asian and Western food. We ordered Satay Chicken, Spring Rolls and Tom Yum Chicken. When the food arrived it was presented very nicely but that’s where it unfortunately ended. The chicken satay came on 6 sticks, but they were so skinny and anaemic looking. The spring rolls tasted like they had been fried in an oil that hadn’t been changed in months and the Tom Yum was extremely overpowered with fish sauce that we simply couldn’t eat it. As we tried to finish our food, we were trying to understand where a funky kind of smell was coming from. We then realised the stagnant water that was on the outside of restaurant was emitting an horrific smell. After this we quickly left the restaurant to see if our room was ready.

We walked back around to reception on the broken floor boards that had hazard signs everywhere, we realised that half of the accommodation is completely boarded up closed and it looked like something out of a war zone. We reached reception a little apprehensive about what we had signed up for…

As we approached the room we noticed room service plates on the floor opposite our room (these were still there 5 days later). We entered our room and on initial inspection it seemed a nice spacious room with a bath tub which was a welcomed relief. But we quickly realised a raft of issues with the room;

Badly painted walls, holes and general lack of maintenance throughout. Bathroom door didn’t close on the toilet / shower. Toilet seat hanging off. Water pressure not strong enough to flush the toilet, let alone wash you in the shower. Lamp shade broken. Hair dryer and ironing board were from the 1960’s and surprised they still work. Dirty floors. Pen ink on the bed sheets

To be fair, with all this in mind - we had a reasonable night sleep, the bed was somewhat comfortable but the air conditioning was a little overpowering on and as soon as you switched it off it became a sauna.

The last thing to mention is the breakfast buffet, which again seemed fine as you enter as there are many choices to pick from, but ultimately it’s the same inedible food regurgitated on a daily basis.

In summary, the resort needs so much maintenance to bring it back to its former-self. It’s really unfortunate that the food options are so incredibly bad here as the closest place for food from the hotel is a 15 minute taxi journey away.

You’re kind of stuck in a living nightmare - which should have been a...

I had the holiday from hell. I had to move rooms FOUR times during my stay. To the rooms: Blood stains on the curtain by the bed in the first room Ground floor rooms very dark Airconditioning not working in the second room. Maintenance man came and said he fixed it. It was not fixed. I had to call the manager. He said the room was not renovated like the others and therefore the air-conditioning did not work so he moved me to another room. I told him you should not be putting guests into that room if the aircon does not work and he agreed. The next day when I visited my friend, I saw guests coming out of that same room. In the third room the television was not working. The maintenance man came and had to exchange the faulty television box. He then said he would be back in 30min after he reset some device. He did not return so after two hours I called once again and asked them to fix it. It was eventually fixed. The lightbulbs in the entrance hall did not work so I had to use my mobile phone light to not bump into anything. In that room the safe had not been unlocked. Once again, I had to call the reception to get it sorted. The lamps had such thick layers of dirt on them that it was clear it had not been cleaned in months. The bathtub in the third room did not have a tap. I could not believe my eyes as I was thinking I was going crazy at this stage. At this stage I was told as a solution I should just use the shower head to fill the bath. I was changed to the fourth room where I entered just to find there was no internet phone in the socket so once again, I had to call reception for one to be brought. The air-conditioning unit was leaking water and was so weak that it took hours to cool the room own. There was drilling and knocking from the building work going on.

The breakfast room and restaurant:

The room is outside with very weak fans, which mean that you are sweating while eating breakfast and no option of airconditioned room available. The floor had big stones poking out, which makes it easy for people to trip up while walking back to the table from the buffet. The buffet only slowly refreshed and had to ask staff to refill stations. There were ants crawling over the Danish pastry and breads. The service at the restaurant was absolutely shocking. I went to eat there with my friends on the first night and there were only four other tables occupied and about seven members of staff working. That is more than one waiter per table and yet it took up to 10 minutes just to bring a can of sprite. The food was expensive and not nice and the cocktails were not drinkable. One of the staff heard me saying it was not nice and a while later just came back to me with the exact same drink again, which I had not ordered and then seemed angry that I did not want it.

The facilities:

Half the hotel complex has not been constructed yet so you can see what looks like a ruin on one half of the hotel. There is also an ugly ruin between the rooms and the breakfast bar which has not been hidden properly with boards.

Customer Service:

-The customer service was shocking. Most staff are slow and incompetent. When there are complaints then they react defensive and do not see it as their responsibility to sort it out. The sunset bar did not have anyone there when we wanted to have a drink at 8pm, so I had to go looking for someone to serve us. He then left again so we had to wait for his return until we could order another drink. When arriving at the hotel reception the door to the taxi is only held open if there happens to be someone standing there. It seems like no one actually cares about the experience of the customers.

Lastly, it took three weeks to receive a response to my complaint with the excuse that they were waiting for me to confirm that I had received the initial E-mail saying they would get...

🚫 “Want stress, racism, and sewage-colored water? Stay here.”

Review: We booked in advance a suite at RM1,020/night for a birthday celebration

After check-in, we were only then told the suite had no elevator, but the bellboy would handle our luggage. We specifically informed the front desk to ask the bellboy to handle our luggage gently. Despite this, our luggage handle was broken. The bellboy quickly wheeled the bag into the room and did not mention the damage. If he had properly apologized and been honest, we would have let it slide , but he didn’t, and it set the tone for the rest of the stay

• At 4:55pm, the water turned brown and rusty. Every time we asked, the front desk kept saying “wait 15 minutes.” This dragged on until almost 11pm. The pipes made horrible noises, the water left stains everywhere, and we couldn’t even bathe or wash out hands • Around 8pm, one of us went to the front desk for a solution and they told us to “wait.” Close to 10pm, we went down again, frustrated and mentally drained. They finally gave us keys to another room, expecting us to move all our belongings. By then, we were too exhausted to relocate, so we only used the room to shower.

Later in the morning, we tried to enjoy the rest of the stay after the nightmare of last night. But at breakfast, we, a Malaysian couple, were completely ignored. There were only three occupied tables. At first, we tried to brush off the indifferent treatment. When we tried to get the attention of a female staff to clear our table, she was too busy chatting with her friend, and we had to raise our hand multiple times.

Again, we tried to ignore the bad service, wanting to enjoy the stay. But later, the exact situation happened: the three occupied tables were aligned together. When she came to the first two tables (seated by foreigners and Chinese guests), she greeted politely: “Hello, good morning, how are you sir, do you enjoy your stay?” But when she came to our table, she rudely asked “finish?”, with no hello, no smile, nothing, and just walked away coldly after picking up our plate.

We were deeply frustrated, and at the front desk the staff only wrote the complaint on paper and said, “saya akan borak dengan manager.” When confronted about the water issue, the front desk blamed the government’s. Their crisis management was HORRIBLE. They could have immediately offered the guest a jug of clean water so we could at least wash our faces instead of making us wait helplessly.

We also made an official email complaint about the water issues and broken luggage. The hotel only replied a day after checkout. Regarding the luggage damage, they were initially partially in denial, citing internal CCTV. Later, they admitted the staff had broken the handle and yet no compensation was offered • They boasted about giving a “late checkout at 3pm”, but our package already included a guaranteed 2pm checkout, so it was only 1 extra hour • As for “compensation”? Only after persistent pushing did they give 1 spa session and RM100 food credit. They also claimed “immediate compensation,” but their own CCTV and staff notes would show we had to keep chasing them. Their final reply? An invite to “come again at a special rate”. Truly insulting, because even a roadside warung gives better service. Why would anyone spend money at a hotel full of racism, broken promises, and terrible service? 😂

The hotel is old, with no elevators (enjoy dragging your luggage up the stairs).

The only good staff were Evelyn from the spa, who sincerely listened, comforted my wife and apologized (even though none of it was her fault), and the female gardener, who was polite, genuine, and fun to talk to. Their sincerity was more heartfelt than any front desk interaction or the hotel’s apology email. Everyone else? Poorly trained, unprofessional, and cold

We’re just thankful we only...