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One Tenggol Feedback Date of stay : 18/10-21/10 2023
When I did the booking at One Tenggol it was based on the description in the website that the property is reffered to as "our luxury resort" .
When I read this I would imagined that this resort would be comparable to YTL's Pangkor Laut and Tanjung Jara resort which I have been numerous times , with equally similar prices on non peak season.
These was what I discovered with astonishment:
The room was newly renovated with quite comfy bed. However the bathroom had uneven floorimg that led to very bad water ponding till I had to hold a broom to clear the ponding whilst showering - every single time. Very bad contractor job. It was by far the most terrible showering experience at one luxury resort. Perhaps the property should take out that word Luxury Resort in the website till this is being rectified. The room in question is one of the Seaview Room.
The facilities and amenities eg the beach chairs and table though new were filthy and not clean daily as it should be. There were many staff but I guess they were too busy to be deployed to clean the chairs. Only upon our complaint that they did embarked into finally doing it, including putting towels on the chairs. They should continuously clean the chairs as being by the beach, it gets dirtied easily. 5 star service means the towels ought to be placed on beach chairs and an up service could include chilled water being served to customers. There were many staff at the bar but most seems busy looking intently at their handphones. This is the part where the property must have good managers to manage the staff better.
The food served need much improvement. There has been enough said about food in all the reviews before this.
They only provide you with 2 GB of WiFi and that makes a 4 days stay quite difficult. Our advise is to opt for a 3 day stay is enough. I do not see why the property only provide you with 2 GB and u have to pay more after the 2 GB ends. Most properties gave free WIFI now- high speed, no less. There is no TV at the property , which makes wifi even more important. There seems to be a projector and a big makeshift screen at the garden, which we assumed would be for screening movies but no one seems proactive enough to screen one. The truth is , apart from the diving or snorkeling , one would be bored to death at the property. Again, I would like to comment that the staff who seems to languish by the Sunset Bar, seemingly manning it, were all glued onto their handphone, certainly watching a movie or something. Funny that they seemed to have high speed WIFI, which the property would have accorded to the guest instead. Improve on this please One Tenggol. Also improve on the staff at the Sunset Bar, such unfriendly lot.
Bring a water bottle otherwise u would have to top up your only one drinking water bottle that is being provided to you. The rest of the days you would need to top up your bottle at the dining hall.
Be that as it may,the snorkeling was awesome and the snorkeling team which comprises the boatman / captain and the snorkeling assistant were great.
The boats for the property are new and safety is paramount which is good.
A few of the staff are accommodative and helpful. ( apart from those at the Sunset Bar kiosk whom seems to be too occupied with their handphones) .
Accolades and kudos goes to ERIC , JOHN, WAN who accompanied the snorkeling and Azian whom made the stay worthwhile. We would advise Haikal to be more proactive as a Manager and instill "good resort values " n manage the staff better. We have made our complaint n comments directly to him for the sake of future guests.
Meanwhile, I believe the resort should not placed in the website " luxury resort" lest it will be a misrepresentation to public.
Efficient Staff and excellent property will make significant 5 star service. For a dear friend- I'd say at the moment, this kind of holiday here is not...
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Let's break it down into a few components as there are some good points and some not so good.
Value vs. Expectations from what was advertised: It is advertised as a new/comfortable/premium dive resort with a clean and 'fancy' outlook. Also, this resort charges a premium to justify its positioning. Fair enough. We expect comfort, so we pay a premium price (in comparison to the next-door resort). Reality: The rooms that we had were double rooms behind the main area/restaurant. The room is spacious and the bed is comfortable. They are attentive enough to provide a hair dryer and a pail in the bathroom for soaking and washing dive equipment/wear. This is something usually not thought of by many dive centres. The significant plus point of this resort is that they provide fresh water for showers, and there is a water heater for showers with good pressure. I guess this is one of the premiums we paid for. However, for long-term and sustainability’s sake, please use amenities and fittings that suit the environment. Why do you use metal trays, handles, and metal railings that are all rusty? They are so badly rusted that they should have been replaced by now. Just fix one that is fit for purpose! (Plastic doesn’t rust, FYI). And while the room has air-conditioning, the remote-controlled fancy fan is not working. There is no need for these extras, just fix a conventional working fan please. Also, we came in a group, and we had different amenities in the rooms. We are all in the same standard room, so why does my friend's room come with a fridge while ours doesn’t?
Dive Centre: I am sorry to say that this is a dive centre that has no 'soul', i.e. there is no team camaraderie, and it doesn’t seem like there is shared passion among crew members, just transactional. Anyway, that is a subjective view, perhaps it is just their culture. But what irks us is that during Day 1, that specific DM was kinda rude. There is no need to use a condescending tone or manner while speaking to your guests (what more it’s the 1st day upon arrival, and you are setting the wrong foot on the first day itself). "I asked you to come here at 1.30pm and now it is 1.43pm!" Ah well, yes, it is our fault for not being punctual, but the assembly place is just right outside the restaurant where it is obvious that no one was ready nor waiting! The boat did indeed come in late from dropping off another group and we were made to wait too. So, if you expect punctuality, we expect the same from your end too. And when we left our sunglasses in the boat, the remark we got was "didn’t I ask you not to bring it?" Hmm... makes us think, are we in some boot camp now? Strange... Rating: 1 star
For our dives, the ratio is about 1:9.
But kudos to a different DM on Day 2 who made the whole dive experience so much better, with his attentiveness, passion, and politeness (at least).
Unfair equipment dive rental policy: On Day 1 upon arrival, there is only 1 dive—a check dive. But the charges would be for a full day’s gear rental.
Dive boats: Spacious dive boats and passenger transfer boats. And helpful boatmen too. Rating: 5 stars
Restaurant: Overall food quality and servings are very good—in terms of variety and taste quality. The waiting staff are all very attentive, friendly, and helpful. I would give this team 5 stars.
But the drinks area can be further improved by making it cleaner please. What is with all the stained containers and tray? And it is time to change the water dispenser, it is rusty. Plus point, there is ice available. But overall, the drinks section can be better improved interms of cleanliness.
It is evident that Eric is a very service-oriented team lead, probably envisioned to provide the best for his customers, but unfortunately, it somehow falls short of expectations. It is not terrible, it is just okay. But with this price range, then it would be just "Ok,...
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Having been on 3 prior trips to Tenggol, I was really looking forward to a weekend of diving with 5 friends but came away disappointed.
On the plus side, the resort has been refurbished under new management and has a fresh feel to it; the beds are comfortable, the meals are good, and the new boat for transfers from the mainland is comfortable (except that they pack it to the brim on the weekends).
I would not recommend doing weekend trips. Apart from the crowded boat transfers, we spent a lot of time waiting around for our dives. We were instructed to check in at the dive center 30 mins before our dive time: we were at the dive center at 2pm for our 2:30pm dive, and after waiting around for 20 mins, we were told that our dive has been delayed to 4pm due to insufficient boats. When we returned at 3:30pm (30 mins before dive time), we were told that we can only gear up after the DMs return from the earlier dive. More waiting around. We didn’t enter the water until 5pm
the next day we were at the dive center at 8am for our 8:30am dive. At 8:30am, the DMs were still loading tanks onto the boat and setting up our gear, and we only had our dive briefing at about 8:45am, and went in at 9:10am
it was very crowded in the water: I think there were about 16 divers + 2 DMs diving the same spot together. We had to surface as soon as the first diver ran low on air even though our group had 100 bar each in our tanks
I felt that the DMs were watching the clock, and were quick to deploy the SMBs 35 mins into each dive, and we would do a straight ascent up from 18m, to finish the dive in 40-45 mins per the briefing
as we were sharing the boat with so many other groups, we did not get to dive any of the sites we requested over the 2 days, either because one of the groups had dived it the day before, or because the site was unsuitable for checkout dives
the rinsing tanks looked filthy - don’t think they had changed the water over the 2 days we were there, where 40+ divers had to rinse out their gear after 3 dives a day. I probably would have been better off not rinsing my gear off
Service levels were also sub-par. Apart from Eric (who made the effort to engage with the guests) and Albert (who tried to ensure his divers had a good experience), the rest of the staff lacked enthusiasm and energy. Whilst they attended to my requests competently enough, I sensed that they thought I was a burden each time I made a request. Also I suggest including extra toilet rolls in the bedrooms. We had a single roll in the bathroom in a triple room, and I had to wait about 10 mins at the restaurant whilst the staff went to look for a roll of toilet paper.
I understand that the resort is addressing the teething issues since their soft launch in April, but I hope they get their act together soon, as I won’t be planning a return trip until I hear of more positive feedback from...
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