The Pacific Sutera Hotel — Hotel in Borneo

Dear Management Team,

I am writing to bring to your attention my recent experience at Sutera Harbour Pacific Hotel on the 5th of October. Regrettably, my stay was marred by several concerning issues that I feel compelled to address.

Upon booking online, I was enticed by a promotional offer advertised on Facebook, which prominently stated that all listed room packages during this period would include complimentary breakfast for two adults and two children. As I proceeded to make my reservation, I chose the 5th of October, where I found a deal priced at RM230 per night.

Regrettably, upon arrival, it became evident that the package I had booked did not, in fact, include breakfast. It appears that the link provided in the advertisement led to various package options, some of which did not incorporate this promised amenity. This inconsistency between the advertised offer and the actual booking options is disconcerting and amounts to a misleading representation.

Subsequently, my attempts to seek clarification from the management were met with a discourteous response. The manager (wear spect I don’t know his name) in question displayed a dismissive attitude, refraining from offering an apology and instead attributing the misunderstanding to my oversight. Such a response raises concerns about the level of customer service and professionalism exhibited by your team.

Furthermore, I would like to address certain operational policies that I found restrictive. The prolonged check-in process and prohibitive rules regarding outside food and food delivery were particularly unwelcoming. As paying guests, I believe we should have the freedom to make these choices within the confines of our accommodations.

In addition, I wish to bring to your attention an incident during our stay, where the management denied us access to our room for an extended period. Rather than allowing us to check in and discuss our concerns, we were coerced into either purchasing breakfast or accepting the absence of the amenity. This resulted in an unnecessary delay of an hour, from 3 pm until 4 pm, before we were able to check in.

Furthermore, on the day of our check-out, we exceeded the designated time by 30 minutes. Instead of contacting us to remind us of the checkout time, the manager (identified as the individual in a white uniform with spectacles) used his master key to enter our room without prior notice. This action was intrusive and displayed a lack of respect for our privacy. I find this incident deeply unsettling.

I implore you to take these matters seriously and investigate them thoroughly. It is my hope that appropriate action will be taken to address the behavior of this manager. I kindly request that you reach out to me at [+601118909336 whatsapp/call] for any further details or...

Ehhhhh ok so the hotel is definitely nice. The rooms are clean and spacious and well-designed. But there were many things we experienced during our stay that were off-putting:

There is no outside food allowed. They “force” you to order exclusively from the in-resort restaurants. I imagine this is to direct revenue to these establishments, but they say it’s for the “safety of guests” and that just does not seem right. It’s a frustrating, controlling rule in the first place, and saying that it’s for “guest safety” feels like an excuse to hide the monetary motivation. Just be honest idk😆 Related to the first rule, though the in-resort restaurants are nice, the room service menu is not. I ordered pizza and it was extremely mediocre, bordering on bad. If you’re not allowing guests to order delivery, you better have a good room service menu, and they don’t (at least the pizza isn’t good; maybe other stuff is better) We were checked into a room with a twin bed because they didn’t have any queen or king beds left. That’s fine, because we booked a “deluxe sea view” and I guess based on their website that this has king, queen, and twin designs. This was more just a bummer, but it happened to lots of people in our group. I kind of don’t believe the hotel was SO busy (it’s huge) that they didn’t have options but I’m just speculating. Because we got a twin bed, we were told we could push the beds together. To do this, we temporarily unplugged the phone. When I plugged it back in, it wouldn’t work. I went down to the front desk, and they said they would send someone in 5-10 minutes. 40 minutes later, no one had come. I had to go down again once it was clear no one was coming, and the guy then made sure someone came to my room. That time, they did come after 10 minutes. The bath drain doesn’t work properly. It doesn’t really open or close at all; it’s always slightly ajar, meaning it’s always letting water drain. This made it hard to take a bath lmao The gym when I went didn’t have sanitary wipes to clean equipment after use, and one of the machines was missing the pin to set the weight. There were also no cups in the water dispenser. The Internet didn’t work!! This was a big one for us because we had to use data which we try to reserve for being out on the streets exploring. The WiFi was so slow and almost never worked during the entire 4 nights we stayed there. A 5-star hotel should have fast, functioning WiFi, and this place doesn’t, at least not in our room during our stay.

Overall, we had a fine stay. But it wasn’t a 5-star vibe, at least from our unique experience. To end on a positive note though, the sunset from our room was GORGEOUS! That was the highlight...

We stayed at Sutera Harbour Resort from 15 January 2025 for 4 nites.

I wish to highlight a very serious incident that happened during my stay. I was having my breakfast half way and was interrupted by En. Azmi whom I understand to be the Deputy F&B restaurant manager at the breakfast place. En. Azmi demanded to me to open and show him my bag as he accused me of taking food from the breakfast table.

I was shocked at En. Azmi's rude behaviour towards me. I told him that firstly, I am taking food away from the breakfast place as there were flies on my breakfast table and I do not wish to keep on batting the flies away while eating. Luckily, I took some photos of the flies and will be happy to share this with the resort's senior management if required. Secondly, I told him he was not a police officer, so to demand me to show my bag and search its contents were wholly unfounded (perhaps the resort can train its staff better ?) Thirdly, I told him that instead of trying to imply that I am stealing food from the breakfast table, he should instead have asked me politely why I was doing so and I would have been able to enlighten him.

En. Azmi tried to justify his actions by saying that the hotel's policy does not allow guests to consume breakfast food outside the the breakfast hall because of hygiene reasons. I reminded En. Azmi to that his frivolous excuse was wholly misplaced as I believe it would be more hygienic for me to consume the breakfast food in my room instead of sharing my food with the abundant flies in the breakfast table.

I also reprimanded En. Azmi for his rude behaviour towards all the guests in the breakfast table as I noticed him shouting loudly "WAIT" "WAIT" whenever any hotel guests tries to ask him questions at the breakfast table.

There many china and korean tourists that frequent the breakfast table before going off island hopping and I have noticed many of them taking some bread and simple food stuff as well. I sincerely hope these tourists did not get accused of stealing food as well, otherwise the resort may as well bid adios to all their tourists for humiliating their esteemed guests.

I would like to see such a recalcitrant staff like En. Azmi removed immediately from the F&B department at this resort. I hope the General Manager acts swiftly instead of putting up its normal manufactured responses to all complaints by hotel guests. As a senior corporate lawyer that have travelled half the globe , I can assure all that I will be pursuing this matter with the senior management and the owners of the resort, so please don't take this...