Shangri-La Tanjung Aru — Hotel in Borneo

I visited the hotel with my parents, my wife and my daughter. We stayed for four nights, checking in on 3rd May and checked out on the 7th. This is actually my second time visiting this hotel, the first time being 30 years ago, again with my parents. I had great memories as a kid so I was looking forward to this trip. The First night was great, had dinner at Coco Joe's and rested after a long trip. The Second day was fantastic, breakfast and dinner and Cafe Tutu, met a lovely dining lady named Rohana. During the day, we enjoyed the great activities of the Leisure Center. Friendly staff from there made the experience children friendly. And the icing of the dessert - the sunset parade, Jamie loves it. Housekeeping did a surprise heartwarming job, covering the lion doll of my daughter with a little towel on the pillow, very cute and thoughtful move. The Third Day we went out to town so didn't stay much time in the hotel. The Fourth Day, was quite disappointing to be honest. Housekeeping did not arrive in the morning when we were out playing at the pool. I understand as there are many rooms to take care of. We went back to the room to rest between 2-4pm, switch on the "Do not disturb" button, and somehow housekeeping team arrived so they put a card to say they could not clean as we put up the do not disturb button. Fair enough, but again, there was five hours in the morning which they could clean the room. Leaving the room again at 4pm for activities, I called service center for housekeeping, switched off the "Do not disturb" button and went out. We returned at 7:45pm, still there was no housekeeping. Frustrated, I called the service center again requesting for housekeeping, they replied they will check and follow up with housekeeping. Half an hour later, still no one turned up. Extremely irritated, I called service center for housekeeping again. This time, housekeeping finally arrived but our whole family were waiting for clean towels to have shower. VERY disappointing with the effecitivness of housekeeping and service center on this incident. On that very same day, I discovered a big crockcroach in the toilet, so I do have a big quetion mark on the housekeeping of this hotel. The day was worsen when we had dinner at Coco Joe's, where we wait for nearly an hour (from 6pm to 6:53pm) before we get all our food served. I did complain it to the manager when he came by, which he did apologise and waived our dining fee. Despite my disgrunt towards the long waiting time of the dishes, I would like to give credit on the manager (I think his name is Mr Kan?) in terms of how he managed the complaint. Overall, the experience is mixed. With friendly staff at leisure center + Cafe Tutu, good food but unreasonably long waiting time at Coco Joe's, and disappointing housekeeping after the heartwarming performance on the second day. The hardware of the hotel is great (view, pool design, restaurant seating) but our experience was mainly affected by the staff. On this ocassions, I would like to give commendation to the following staff: Rohana, Majid (both from Cafe Tutu), all staff from Leisure Centre (especially the two ladies and two gentleman hosting water polo and volleyball respectively), and Kan from Coco Joe's on complaint management. Please keep up on the good work you already have, and work hard on things that requires...

We have just spent a week at this resort. What a fabulous hotel!||The hotel is large yet it still feel personal. It is spotless and every member of staff from front desk to the lifeguards at the pools were so very friendly and couldn1t do enough for you|The hotel is quite isolated and you cannot walk into the main town. However you can get a Grab taxi to get into town which are very cheap and it only takes approx| 10/ 15minutes where you can find some great restaurants||Rooms are fabulous, large and spacious. We were lucky to be in room 9715 which had a view of the sunset from our balcony to die for!|The bed was large and soo comfortable|Room facilities were excellent; safe, iron, coffee machine, kettle, fridge, |Balcony was a good size with amazing views|Bathroom was a good size with both a walk in shower and a fantastic large bath and enough towels to arm a small army. Every evening approx 6pm, staff came to the room to ensure that we had enough clean towels, coffee etc. Excellent service||Facilities in the resort are excellent.|An adult only pool as well as a childs pool with slides with sunbeds and pool towels always available|Spa|Lounge Bar as well as a Beach Bar and Sunset bar|A number of restaurants including a Chinese restaurant and buffet|Hotel own jetty to get you to outlying islands( chargeable)||Breakfast was excellent but very very busy!!!|Our only complaint was that as fast as food was being brought out people were like locusts and taking plates full which I appreciate that the hotel cannot be responsible for guests behaviour but there were times where we had to wait and wait for food. The food itself was good with great choices when you got it!|This was the same experience at the International Buffet evening and show. My husband and I got to the restaurant as it opened at 6pm but it was a shambles on the night we went. Again it was other guests being greedy taking 5/6 lobsters/ crabs and steaks at a time, really no need to do this!|We paid a lot of money for very little as we could not see the show either as people were crowding round the artists. Very disappointed!|There needs to be a better system to stop people being greedy. Fine if people eat the food that they take but we saw loads of food just being left which was so frustrating. There should be a limit on the number of lobsters/ steaks that people take so everyone can enjoy what is on offer|I did make complaint along with a few other people who felt the same as we did but we got no feedback which was disappointing.||However , overall this is an excellent place to stay and we would not hesitate to return. Just feel that the buffet breakfast and dinners need some attention so everyone...

4 stars for the overall experience. Updated to 5 stars! Service was top-notch, with every room service request fulfilled promptly. However, the VIP lounge needs significant improvement. The all-day refreshments and evening canapés were disappointing (2 stars): mostly fried foods and mediocre sandwiches. Family hour wasn’t family-friendly at all—unless you consider egg rolls and popcorn chicken suitable for kids.

The highlight of the trip was Star Marina, where my kids had an incredible time with water sports like parasailing and jet skiing. They loved it so much that we went back for a second day. The swimming pool, however, needs resurfacing as many patches are showing, and while the facilities are dated, the rooms are a decent size. Sunsets were lovely, and the food (outside of the lounge) was overall quite good. My kids highly recommend this resort—so it’s still a yes for me.

Review Update: After spending five nights at Trus Madi jungle camp, my kids begged to return to the resort, so we extended our vacation by two more days. To my surprise, the manager had linked my previous review to my reservation, and the team went above and beyond to make our stay exceptional.

When we checked in, Christine, the assistant front office manager, personally came out, gave me her business card, and informed me we had been upgraded to the Horizon Lounge. In my last review, I had noted the lack of kid-friendly options. This time, the staff personally asked my kids what they’d like to eat—mac and cheese and pizza—and the lounge happily fulfilled these custom requests.

I realized that while the lounge has a limited selection, the staff are willing to go out of their way to make custom orders with genuine warmth. Rachel, the lounge manager, even ensured my kids could have their meals after 6 PM, when the lounge switches to adults-only. Chef Fredy personally came out to ask for their preferences to make sure they had dishes they’d enjoy. The team truly made us feel like royalty. I’m humbled by their care and impressed by their genuine commitment to listening to feedback and improving the guest experience.

Special Mention: A heartfelt thank you to the Star Marina team. E-foiling is a must-try. I had so much fun—it gave me that exhilarating rush you get when you first learn to ride a bike. I was even able to stand after just an hour-long session. Hands down, it was the best part of the stay.

Updated to 5 stars for their over-the-top service. Don't be shy to ask for anything you need. They will go out of their way to make you happy and taken care of. Thank you to the team for making this a wonderful stay and providing memories my kids will talk about for years...