Sutera Sanctuary Lodges @ Kinabalu Park — Hotel in Borneo

The Nepenthes Villa is definitely NOT value for the money. It's very expensive for a family with 2 adults and 2 teenagers. I thought the Nepenthes Suite would sleep 4 people. It is 900 MYR for 2 nights. But it only sleeps 2 people. 😐. So we had to change our booking to a villa. Then we paid 2300 for 2 nights. Definitely NOT family friendly. Malaysia has so many great family hotels. This is not one of them. Definitely just choose the hostel for more than 2 people. The villa was huge. Could easily be for 6 people. But it's only for 4 people. The beds were very comfortable and nice bedding. Bathrooms and showers were very nice. It was spacious. The views were lovely with tons of windows. Nice patio. The furnishings are so pretty and SO stained and filthy. They chose white linen fabrics which look really pretty but are completely stained all over. Every chair and sofa covered in stains. For the 4 star price I paid, I want clean furniture. It was comfortable but not clean. There is a little fridge in a kitchenette area. That was nice. Don't bring plastic water bottles. They have filtered water to refill your own water bottle. That was nice. We had 4 bath towels. Zero hand towels to dry hands. So we turned 1 bath towel into the hand towel. The next day we hiked some paths around the area. Got soaked in a rainstorm. We only had 3 towels for 4 people to shower. There was 1 heater. We needed 2. It was quite cold. The blankets on the bed were clean and soft but too thin. Summer comforter thickness not good enough for the cold. They should provide more blankets. Especially for the price we paid. We wanted to light the wood in the fireplace. Nothing to start the fire. ????? We needed more toilet paper. The phone doesn't work and I sent a WhatsApp message like they told me to. To get help. Nobody responded. We could not get clean towels or toilet paper. Nobody came to clean our second day there?????????? Trash cans needed emptying and there were no extra bags. Tile in the bathrooms have black on all the grout. I imagine it's hard to keep clean with how moist everything is there always. But the villa is so expensive. It should be spotless. There was a rat in the villa. French toast breakfast was lovely. The American breakfast was dreadful. The orange juice says fresh squeezed but is terrible watered down powder. The fruit and toast were very mediocre. We ordered hamburgers for dinner. It was NOT good and we felt sick after. The fries were terrible. We had to ask for every little thing. Salt, butter, jam, extra syrup, waters. The staff very very nice. But tables should be stocked so we don't have to keep asking. There needs to be a daily cleaning when paying such high price. We couldn't even get clean towels to shower the next day. The location is excellent. Right inside the park. Lots of trails to hike right there at the resort. The location is great. But value for money at the villa was...

First of all, you'll think that damn SSL so expensive but let me tell you from my experience. Its affordable! We choose to booked the hostel (Twin Rock) for our accommodation. We've booked thru Booking.Com or you can just booked thru their website. Our c/in process easy peasy. Front desk passed excellently in their Customer Service. Once you've paid for your room, you'll required to put a deposit (best to use cash) when you c/out from your hostel/lodge, they'll refund it you. The accommodation provided especially the bed and hot shower i must give credit to SSL team. Well done! Even if you stayed at hostel, you'll get the same treatment like the rest. The bed's comfortable with bed protectors, duvet etc. The hot shower your must turn on 30min before showering and its still hot for like 20min unlike other places We've been. Since its in National Park itself, the coldness here...you'll need to wear extra socks or bring those heating pad. Our first day stayed here, its raining and temp around drop to 13°c during night time. 2nd day around 14°c during night time. Overall, its a great experience to stayed in the hostel, definitely will stayed there again. As for food, bring your own bread, baked beans, Maggie Cup as there's kettle provided. You don't need to bring endless bottles of water here, there's a water station in the hostel itself. Feel free to topup your water anytime. For Lunch or dinner, you can opt to go Liwagu Restaurant or dine somewhere else. The road to Pekan Kundasang...not something that i can be proud of. There's a few restaurants/cafe nearby National Park. You can look for, Lily Cottage Cafe (Just before Bundu Tuhan junction,left side (from National Park exit), D'Villa Rina Ria Lodge , Nearby the 99 speedmart area (heading to Pekan Kundasang). Otherwise, just walk from the hostel/lodge to Liwagu Restaurant. I'll rate 5 ⭐ for customer service, cleanliness, Value, Comfort amd security for SSL be it a Hostel / Lodge. If you want to see the Mt.Kinabalu, wake as early as 6.00am, Standby your tripod and tools, take endless pictures of the Mountain. And if you peaceful and quiet area,must booked with SSL cos located inside National Park, you'll only hears birds songs, insects ...great to pack a good...

Went with my elderly parents. We stayed in the NEPANTHES SUITE. Our suite is located At the basement floor so you need to go down the stairs to go to the suite, bear that in mind for people with mobility issues. Also, the car park is situated about 3 min walk away from the suite. Few points to note: Operator phone is not working though, and their whatsapp hotline is useless. Don’t bother texting them as you would get ignored. The drive to the reception would take about 5min, little hilly and windy.

The temperature gets quite chilly, but our heater was not working. Luckily we heard there were staffs outside the suite doing maintenance so we called them, they came in to fix the socket but it was still not working. I let the staff know again about the issue when I went out for a walk at around 4pm, he didn’t come back till around 8pm with a new heater( bless them, they were friendly). As usual, the whatsapp line ignored my message about the heater.

The room smells like cigarette smoke. Or smoke from the fireplace elsewhere im not sure. It’s extremely unpleasant for u to relax with the smell, can’t really enjoy the fresh air, bear in mind there’s no aircon in the room, and u dont open the window for circulation as it was cool enough. Despite it being a nonsmoking accommodation, clearly it has not been enforced enough.

some of the waitresses in the liwagu restaurant was not that accommodating and friendly.

Anyway, for the good part, Water pressure is good with hot water. There’s kettle, mini fridge. Room is big enough to add an extra bedding.

Lastly, U can’t see the mountain from the suite, have to walk out slightly. If I were to come back next time, I would try the peak lodge/ hill lodge/ garden lodge, I hope their customer service would...