Lagoi Bay — Hotel in Bintan Island

Myself and my colleagues were staying here for 3-nights for business retreat. Glad to say that we chose the perfect place especially for ratio between price, value, and experience that we had. My personal review below:||1. Location: This hotel is located in Lagoi Bay and can be reached out via Tanah Merah ferry terminal for about an hour by ferry or via local airport for about and hour drive. It's slightly remote so you really have to pay more for the transport. If you're arriving from Bandar Bentan Telani (BBT) ferry terminal, you can arrange free shuttle bus that goes to the hotel. Once you arrived at the hotel, there is enough to see and do for a few days. You can check other dining places from other hotel/resort areas or the mall. However, mind you that the Lagoi Mall is pretty much dead at the moment. I wish there will be more tenant coming because at this point. ||2. Lobby/Reception: The lobby and reception areas are quite grand for a 4-stars resorts. With high ceiling and open air, they are kind of comforting. I do like the batik pattern which visible in the facade. You will immediately see that this hotel is trying to be modern but also accommodating traditional touch. The check-in process unfortunately was a bit slow despite it was a low season. There were only 2 counters open. To be fair, I think the hotel should add extra staff, especially since guests are coming in with the same shuttle bus schedule. Luckily, the staffs are very kind and welcoming. There's also a concierge staff across the reception desk that happy to give you some activities recommendations around the island. ||3. Room: I got upgraded to a suite with ocean view. The room itself is massive with a separated living space and bedroom. Everything is clean and works pretty well. There's also a guest bathroom at the front. The bedroom itself is spacious, with access to the balcony. The bathroom has a decent size, although I found the tub is a bit too small for tall person. The king bed is quite comfortable in my opinion. The only thing that I found lacking is the room minibar. For a suite, I think they should offer a Nespresso machine or at least better drip coffee and tea products. Room is luckily super quiet at night, but I cannot tell say if there's a party or music coming from the El Lagoi Beach Club, since the whole week was pretty quiet. ||4. Rempah Kitchen: Breakfast options are plentiful, Western, Eastern, also Local options are available. The buffet spreads almost half of the indoor areas. All have decent quality. We also tried having lunch and dinner, there are many options on the menu and everything looks and taste pretty good. I totally recommend you to not miss their local dessert options. Service from the restaurant also excellent, all the staffs including the chef, they are very open for feedback if you are not satisfied with the food or service. ||5. Meeting Facilities: We rent a small meeting room, Anculai 2. Perfect setup, also the equipment like the big LED TV, they are in a very good condition. The banquet and security staffs also very helpful. The morning and afternoon break options are also really good. ||Other aspects: Overall, I'm very satisfied choosing this hotel. The Ararinda Lounge has interesting drinks and cakes also. Sadly we did not utilize El Lagoi Beach Club and the swimming pool (they both looks amazing). I also passed the fitness and the spa facilities and they are look very inviting. The garden and beach area is also clean. My only feedback is the elevator, it's very hot and there is no moving air at all. It was a short ride (only 4 floors in total) but still a bit frustrating, I can't imagine if people got stuck in the elevator (hopefully not happening). ||Last but not least, I'd like to thank all the hotel staffs that manage to accommodate my group of colleagues, they are much satisfied with their stay experience. Thank you also to Ms Ines Julia that made the meeting room inquiry and booking process so much easy...

I can't give this property 5 stars (would do 4.5 if I could) but the staff deserve a 6!!! Everyone working here is so friendly and sincere. It was so refreshing to be constantly greeted with what seemed like a genuine smile. ||The hotel sits on a beautiful beach, the water is warm and very clear (at least it was in October of our stay). There are loungers and surprisingly comfy bean bag chairs that you can use at the beach. The ocean is very shallow for a long time but walk out a ways and swimming is possible and delightful.||The main pool is beautiful, there are islands in it filled with tropical plants and several ledges you can sit on for a break without leaving the pool. There's a swim up bar too! Below this there is a slightly smaller and shallower kiddie pool but most of the children were in the main pool. This is a family friendly hotel so keep that in mind if you prefer things a little quieter (we'll touch on this later but be warned this is not a quiet hotel!).||Main food outlets are the El Lagoi Beach Club (western style) and the Rempah Kitchen (Indonesian). El Lagoi was decent when a la carte was on offer an the Rempah's al la carte menu was delicious and very reasonable. Unfortunately both restaurants switched to overpriced and very mediocre buffets on the weekend we were there. Rempah's dinner buffet was almost exactly the same as the daily breakfast offering but cost three times as much as an a la carte offering.||We stayed at an Ocean view villa and loved having a good sized private swimming pool. The indoors was equally nice and the oversized bathroom with soaker tub and both indoor and outdoor showers was spectacular. My wife really loved the robot bidet toilet too, complete with seat warmer. My only complaint about the villa would be the lack of a Nespresso or other premium coffee machine and apart from the pool, there's not much outdoor space. Also the villa pool water was surprisingly cold, odd given the ocean water was so warm.||This hotel could do a lot more to rewards Elite members. Given the price we paid for the villa we were surprised that the only thing we got was 500 points (were platinum with Marriot). We welcome drink or f&b would be a welcome perk.||Another downside that needs mentioning is that the property is very loud. Unfortunately there was a triathlon on. There was one night where music was incessantly loud until 10 pm (like to the point that we couldn't relax or think) and i was woken at 4:30 to loud PA's and thumping bass. Obviously the triathlon is a rare occurrence but even on normal nights the resort plays music in the outdoors 24/7 so there is always background noise which took away a little of the magic of a tropical paradise for us. Ironically the more expensive ocean view and oceanfront villas are probably louder than the garden villas as those ones appeared to be set back a bit from the...

Had a wonderful 3 nights stay last week! Its easy to get from the BBT terminal. Just write in to the hotel with your ferry timing beforehand, and then get the staff at the terminal to call the shuttle from the hotel (especially if its a non-weekend). You will arrive at the resort after a 15 minute ride. ||Upon arriving, staff is quick to help you with the luggage. We were blown away by the beautiful decor and airy lobby. We explored the facilities which were modern as the hotel is new. Great that they had 3 pools catered to adults, kids and toddlers. The swimming pools were large, but need to be maintained more regularly as the floors were not really in tip-top condition. There was also a decent kids club with an outdoor playground to keep the little ones entertained and activities such as fish-feeding. We used the spa and gym as well, with no issues. ||Breakfast at Rempah Kitchen was delicious with a good variety. The dishes changed everyday. One morning we had soto, and the next we had lontong. Be adventurous and try out the local food. If not, they also had a good international spread. The waffles and mini pancakes were a hit with the kids. The staff at the restaurant were attentive, ensuring that tables were cleared quickly. They surprised my sister with a birthday cake on the second day, after I informed front-desk that we were here for a celebration. ||We would like to give a shout-out to our housekeeper, Verdy who did a towel decoration for my daughter and left a sweet note. Such a gem - he cleaned up our room on Level 6 really well too! ||Some suggestions for improvement - the speed of the check-in and check-out process. Front desk staff were friendly, but process was a little slow especially as many guests came on the shuttle bus at the same time. Also the hotel could look into integrating with the Bonvoy app more. There is an option to request for room items / service, but nobody seemed to be checking it. So we just called the front desk for pillows. There is also a check-out option on the app, but we still had to queue with everyone to process the bill. The resort should look into implementing an express check-out option which we have done at other properties. ||Another reason we chose this hotel was also the beachfront access. The nearest rooms to the beach would be the Ocean View type. But we were happy with our Garden view rooms as it was near the lobby and main facilities. Suggest to have more seats in the lobby for guests who are waiting around, and also more chairs with umbrellas on the beach. There were 2 chairs facing the pond which seemed randomly placed and were underused.||Otherwise, everything else was excellent. Thanks Sheraton Bintan for giving us a...