Sabah — Hotel in Borneo

We just checked in and are disappointed enough to write already this review: either pics have been taken ages ago or there is only one clean and well maintained villa in this resort.|I’m aware that this resort is managed by Sabah Beach Villas (our case) and Borneo Beach Villas, even if they are literally the same and attaching to each other; I guess some has been kept with one management and some with the other.|Staff at the reception is kind and available, but that’s the only good point which unfortunately doesn’t compensate the rest. We booked a 2bedroom beachfront villa for my and my dad who just has undergone a surgery, so were basically looking for a place to rest in. The location is surely nice and peaceful, despite the villa next to us is being renovated and noisy procedures are going on. But that’s not an issue since you won’t be able to relax out in the garden, reason why you booked this place: you won’t find those sun beds from hotel pictures in your private garden full of cigarettes, trash, waste, terrible canalization smell and 3 dirty manholes.|Your only choice will be an old wooden kitchen chair, so dirty that you will need to use the kitchen sponge to rub it before even daring to sit on it. Anyway you will never find out if the black dirt is more paint coming off or dirt…|A fence rope all along the sea side of the resort will not allow you to walk close to the sea as all the stone wall is falling down. |The villa itself has seen its good days years ago I guess; everything is massively worn out, from jammed door leading to the small pool, impossible to open as all rusted. Once opened, impossible to close, rails gone. Also, the door has a lock which doesn’t work, an alternative home made remedy for closing the door was suggested to us.|All other sliding doors leading to the small side pools have no handles for “security reason”, you need to go out from the malfunctioning main door and run around the unit in order to reach the marvelous chlorine water. The main pool is so-so, forget the others full of leaves and other stuff.|The shower glass in both bathrooms is simply dirty; stain, old soap splashes, limescale , dust on every surface & drawer, even some gecko poop to be easily spotted.. no way rooms were cleaned properly and recently, only got some room spray in it.|The kitchen has bad odors no matter what cupboard you open; some of the upper ones are anyway broken and not usable, still full of dirty dust and some color remains falling all over the kitchen when tried to open. Dishes and glasses really incredibly dirty; a piece of some old food still in the pan.|The restaurant on site and massages mentioned on their website are not available; a car can take you to the next resort Nexus in both cases unless u walk 30min by yourself. So: Nexus for a massage, Nexus for lunch, Nexus for activities, Nexus for dinner.. trust me, just move to Nexus and save your time.|Furniture is old, run down, not clean at all, the interior garden a sad piece of some perishing green.|Contacted the reception and asked for cleaning products in order to clean myself, given my dad’s delicate situation, wanted to wash/rub/wipe floors, kitchen, bathrooms.. have been sent a housekeeping boy who had one pink spray and a small duster as multi purpose cleaning tool… gave him my antibacterial cleaning product and he passed some surfaces, in 15min the whole villa was “done”. |Took me 2hrs to get at least half of the kitchen to be usable; joined the reception to ask for some cleaning products, have been told they send someone to bring them. Still waiting:)|Asked for a hose a guy who came to change our doorhandle, he brought it and I could at least wash the outer space and furniture, plus all spitting etc on tiles.|No small towels for face or beach towels, not a rag for the kitchen, I’m really puzzled.|I’m not picky, I’m a backpacker and can stay from a tiny tent to 5* hotel, but paying for something you are attracted to by pics but you don’t get, NOPE. I feel like a guy matching a girl from a pic and realizing she was all filters and has nothing to do with herself lol.||Honestly, I should have trusted other travelers’ reviews before booking for 1 week and I hope you will...

Honestly I have no words for the viewing in this resort it's just so amazing to see, I gave it 5 star for location cuz it's very good now for the service it's also pretty good no cap I legitimately stayed here for 1-3 days as requested by my boss and honestly it's a 5 star service because they treat you right and they give you what u need also there's house keeping and all that but just fyi all the utensils from the kitchen to the bedroom is all unreplaceable so can't really judge them tbh they do have alot of resorts to take care of after all. Also I picked the private villa one and honestly the room is spacious indeed however there's slight problem I'n the 2nd toilet sink and there's also quite of no guide where all the item is so I found out I had a ready coffee and all the packages blah blah food on my last day of resort 💀 so that was pretty unlucky but a little guide wouldn't hurt right that's all I need tbh also the private pool? Man just repair some of the tilings and clean the children pool and I would willingly give 5 stars ngl also for the "rumours" of those called "thief's" yes that's correct THIEF'S EXIST HERE!! But no worries they only come at night and on lonely days and all the staff could only give u the advice to close all those goofy ahh doors and lock em also lock the windows, oh btw fyi there's only 2 security that works here so just do what the staff says and you would be able to enjoy all that 5 star location and service fr fr no cap also the cafe here is 24h and EVEN if you stay in the villa you could use all the public pools including the beach and you can pretty much just swim in the beach at ur own risk try not to drown lol oh btw to all my tourists out there I give a shout-out to the UK foreigners you guys are nice 👍 and my final words for this review is bro give us a guide on how to use the tv 🤣 oh bro also the Aircond is really just ur luck tbh some villas (like mine) the Aircond on living room can only be turned on but can't change it and also the fans bro just fix them fr oh btw the fridge is nice no cap like ngl it's a pretty mid size fridge like worth RM 3-5k double doors and stuff so yeah very good 👍 oh btw if u go to the cafe or the receptionist they will ASK YOU!! What's the number of your room or villa cuz if you're not from there they won't offer anything to you cuz you know THIEFS!! but the thiefs don't really go here daily they just go here when it's just lonely so pretty chill also shout-out to all the cafe and receptionist they did a valid job no cap no cap 5 star service and bro all these reviewer's are sometimes dog water reviews like wth do you mean by "nice place, comfy and safe" my boy you better review RIGHT like I did mAh boy cuz bro atleast say "there's thief's around sometimes" not just "good...

Where to begin...me, my wife and our two year old child rented a beach house. About 20 minutes after getting into the room front desk sent a WhatsApp message to tell us there was no water and gave a ridiculously vague explanation that "the government had interrupted the supply" without providing any more information. They explained that a water tanker was on its way and would provide water. At 6pm said tanker arrived and I was told water should be available from then on. At 6:40pm another cryptic message was sent from reception indicating that water had nearly run out. We had no more water after this until the following day. We are very used to rough travel and rustic accommodation, but had just spent over a week in the jungle and were kind of banking on having a shower at the very expensive beach house we thought we'd rented.

We contacted the booking agent we had booked the house through to ask if we could cancel the stay as you kind of need water with a child - they contacted the company to ask what was going on who did not tell the truth to them and told them they'd solved the problem and water had been restored when in actual fact it was off all night. No one was available to talk to after 10:00pm - hardly acceptable when there's no water! Reading the local news, it turns out water supply issues have been a severe, ongoing issues in Sepangar and the surrounding area for several years and that this was nothing new - pretty sneaky not to mention it to paying visitors until after they've arrived.

Aside from this the rooms were filthy with bashed, patched up furniture held together with metal plates. Cockroaches everywhere, their dirt in the corners. Sticky work surfaces, tatty used couches and beds which felt unclean. Fridge stank of old seafood. Locks on exterior doors are rusted by sea air so don't close securely and someone has created a makeshift locking mechanism that is sharp and unreliable. The secondary bedroom in our house stank of mold and was infested with ants.

Beach was dirty, rubbish everywhere. Forget any ideas of a pristine beach unless you enjoy picking your way through garbage, plastic bottles and bags. And don't let anyone blame the rubbish from washing up on shore from overseas - the roads in and surrounding forest are just the same. Total lack of care of the environment. Closest restaurants are 20 minute drive away, which was fine as we had to go out to buy water. At least the pool was so over-chlorinated that nothing...