Matamanoa Island Resort — Hotel in Western

I don't enjoy writing negative reviews. This one is well deserved.

We booked Matamanoa in April via Booking.com for a week-long, beachfront stay in June. I paid $850 FJD to take the Purple Turtle (the boat company located at their resort) from South Sea Island to Matamanoa. We had until May 5th to cancel our room reservation without a penalty (for me). There were no problems until May 24th, when they decided to cancel our reservation without contacting us while we were in remote part of Fiji.

A week later, when we were on the Yasawa Flyer ship to Matamanoa we got a call to inform us that our reservation was given to someone else and we'd no longer be able to stay on the island as expected. We spent one night in a garden room at Matamanoa because we had nowhere else to go and their management team have humanity. But it was not a quality room. The manager of Purple Turtle, Trevor, who arranged our next day departure, informed me (again, I paid $850 FJD in full) that he was informed by the reservation team that they should not pick us up at all and leave us stranded. He's a nice guy. He didn't do that... and we already paid!

Days prior to their whimsical cancelation of our reservation, I even coordinated a Monuriki trip with Matamanoa (see attached photo). They had my direct email, which I checked everyday during our trip. Because of a fraud blocker on my credit card account, there was a hiccup processing my payment, which they tried to process weeks after our booking -- that is very late, given our May 5th cancelation deadline.

Instead of contacting me to take payment, we were treated to too many unfortunate surprises with Matamanoa. Even the crew on the Yasawa Flyer were asking "what's wrong with Matamanoa..."

Curiously, every other resort (we stayed at 5 Fijian resorts during 3 weeks of travel) said to us "Welcome home, Family" upon arrival. This experience at Matamanoa was (from start to finish) the opposite of every other resort. Apparently, people are not truly welcome here and you're just another head with "$" printed on it.

Matamanoa is also the only island resort where we did not get a farewell upon departure.

We felt a harsh energy at this resort. NOT ONE PERSON LOOKED HAPPY -- neither the guests nor the staff. Matamanoa takes the cake as the the most stressed out resort we've ever seen after years of mostly wonderful travels. And Fiji is supposed to be a happy paradise!

Thankfully, after all the weirdness and complications, they cast us away to Castaway Island Resort, which we LOVED. This was a blessing in disguise.

We paid an extra $520 FJD to the Purple Turtle to leave Matamanoa ASAP.

After making the call to Castaway using Matamanoa's phone, much was said in Fijian to Castaway's reservation receptionist right in front of us. We successfully booked their most expensive beachfront room directly via their website after the call. Minutes later, they called us back on Matamanoa's line stating that they'll have to cancel our reservation because they promised the room to someone else. We believe something was said by the man working the front desk to revoke our reservation. I had to take another call with Castaway to ask them to keep our already fully paid reservation. What an ordeal!

WARNING TO FUTURE GUESTS: Matamanoa's reservation team is not to be trusted. They do not communicate properly (no email, calls or texts) if there's an issue. Pay extra attention to your reservation if you decide to stay here or you may experience unfortunate surprises, too.

My reply to resort's reply: Your response has no compassion. You put us through a lot of stress on our vacation, and I absolutely spoke with Trevor directly, who said explicitly that he was told to "not pick [us] up." You are trying to take no accountability for your mistake.

Your resort never attempted to contact us to resolve the payment issue. You had a one liner interaction with Booking a week prior to our arrival. You had many days contact us and to take payment, which you utterly...

Just left Matamanoa after a 5 night stay. The resort opened back up on April 1st after a 2 year shut down. Some of the issues we experienced I am sure will be fixed by the time some of you might arrive. We had the pleasure of staying in 2 different rooms over the time there. Just search on Manatamoa petrels and it will give you the reason we were in 2 different rooms. We started in the ocean view pool villas. There are 10 of these I believe and they are at the opposite end of the island from the main buildings. We were the first in this room since reopening and it showed. First impressions were that it was a well presented room. Very spacious and appointed. However, as with most island resorts, insects were an issue. Now I am guessing as more people stay and lay down more and more insect repellent this will be less and less of an issue. Main insect were ants. However after a day of spraying they were almost non-existent. The second issue and this will most likely be for those booking from Dec-May is the migratory birds on the island. They mate and raise their young during this time. They also teach them to “cry”. When I say cry it sounds like a screaming baby. I am not kidding. From 11p-5a it is a nonstop harmony of cries. It is well known online if you search on it. During the first 3 days there several couples moved from these rooms and closer to the main building. We moved to a garden pool bure and found it to be much nicer than the most expensive rooms on the island. Be careful about pictures of the ocean pool villas and the beach seen there. The beach is easy to get to, however it is unusable. Rocks and trash everywhere. Walking the 100 yds of beach was not pleasant at all. These rooms are maybe a 200yd walk from the main buildings and at night most of it unlit. This might be fixed soon but just sharing. AC was strong in the rooms but there was no WiFi. The new room we moved to was amazing. Easy access to the beach and ocean. White sand and warm water. The plunge pool was great to dip into after walking the beach. The outside bed was much nicer than the previous room. We wished we booked that instead. The resort was gracious enough to credit us the difference between the two rooms. We just asked to move rooms and not a refund of any kind. This was placed on our resort account to use towards meals/excursions. The bathroom was spacious. Well decorated. Plus this room is just yards from the restaurant. On to the food. Top notch. Everything was made fresh and well presented. There were limited vegetarian selections but I think that will improve. We aren’t vegetarians but heard other guests comment on it. We had breakfast and dinner included in our package (half board). Breakfast and lunch were the same every day with dinner changing nightly. For those going a la carte, prices were $40-50FJD for lunch entrees. Sides/desserts were $20FJD. Dinner the main course was in the $50-55FJD range. Soft drinks were $9FJD and alcohol was more. There was no “snack bar” so plan accordingly. Dinner was served till 10p for those staying up late. Resort activities were extra. Any diving, snorkeling, or village trips are extra. Most were in the $100-200FJD range. There was a wide variety to do so you wont lack for action. We did the Castaway island tour, Cloud 9, and snorkeling safari trips and had a great time on all of them. Getting to the resort was easy via water taxi. There is no dock at the resort so plan on getting wet arriving and departing. We had wet feet and some clothes as well on our return trip to the mainland which made for a trip to the bathroom to wash feet and dry up before flying. Lastly, the staff is beyond friendly and accommodating. Be prepared for Fiji time, no hurries, no worries. They were able to confirm transfers to the port and other resorts without question. No tipping required but we left cash at the desk for the...

We booked Matamanoa in April via Booking.com for a week-long, beachfront stay in June to celebrate my birthday. I paid $850 FJD to take the Purple Turtle (the boat company located at their resort) from South Sea Island to Matamanoa. We had until May 5th to cancel our room reservation without a penalty (for me). There were no problems until May 24th, when they decided to cancel our reservation without contacting us while we were in remote part of Fiji. A week later, when we were on the Yasawa Flyer ship to Matamanoa we got a call to inform us that our reservation was given to someone else and we'd no longer be able to stay on the island as expected.||||We spent one night in a garden room at Matamanoa because we had nowhere else to go and their management team has humanity. But it was not a quality room. The manager of Purple Turtle, Trevor, who arranged our next day departure, informed me (again, I paid $850 FJD in full) that he was informed by the reservation team that they should not pick us up at all and leave us stranded. Trevor is a nice guy. He didn't do that... and we already paid!||||Every other resort (we stayed at 5 Fijian resorts during 3 weeks of travel) said to us "Welcome home, Family" upon arrival. This experience at Matamanoa was (from start to finish) the opposite of every other resort. Apparently, people are not truly welcome here and you're just another head with "$" printed on it.||||Days prior to their cancelation of our reservation, I even coordinated a Monuriki trip to celebrate my birthday with Matamanoa (see attached photo). They had my direct email address on-hand but ignored it when they should have contacted me directly prior to cancelation.||||A fraud blocker on my credit card account prompted a hiccup with the very late processing of my payment. Instead of contacting me to take payment, we were treated to too many unfortunate surprises with Matamanoa. Even the crew on the Yasawa Flyer were asking "what's wrong with Matamanoa..."||||Matamanoa is also the only resort (of 5) where we didn't get a farewell of any kind upon departure.||||Thankfully, after all the complications, they cast us away to Castaway Island Resort, which we LOVED. This was a blessing in disguise for us.||||WARNING TO FUTURE GUESTS: Matamanoa's reservation team is not to be trusted. They do not communicate properly (no email, calls or texts) if there's an issue. Pay extra attention to your reservation, especially if you use a 3rd party (e.g. Booking.com), if you decide to stay here or you may experience unfortunate surprises, too.||||Emphasis: Matamanoa really put us through a lot of stress on our vacation, and they took no accountability for their mistake to resolve the payment issue with us. They reached out to Booking a week prior to our arrival and canceled our stay with zero contact -- I checked my email during every day of our trip to Fiji. The last day for us to cancel without penalty was May 5th, and we did not cancel. They had many days contact us and to take my payment, which they...