Four Points by Sheraton Desaru — Hotel in Johor

Positives: • great location near local shophouses supermarket just 2min walk from lobby • pleasant looking hotel with nice deco • pricing is much better than hotels along the coast

Negatives: Did not provide the basics of a good hotel experience IMO check-in delays room service buffet dinner noise level offered discount

Check-In Delays 🕕🕦🕚🕐🕥🕧 My group of 15 guest deliberately arrived after 3pm as stated on the hotel booking so that we might minimize waiting time for rooms to be ready. We booked 5 rooms, but one room was missed out during the process even though we received confirmation emails from the hotel. The room was only given to us when our group was heading out for the next activity. Another room was supposed to come with an additional bed, but was only given later during the night.

Room Service

Our family rooms were big & spacious 👍🏼 but the extra bed (tent) came without pillows or blanket. So we requested for it. Once after check-in, but wasn’t given after we came back from dinner, & had to call room service a third time stating that we still haven’t received it for them to deliver it immediately.

Father’s Day Dinner Buffet 🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️ After checking out the previous night’s buffet dinner, the spread was amazing. We decided to go for it on Sunday, to find that it was a special menu - Father’s Day Special. They closed the usual counters, but focused & set up their poolside carts. Serving pizza, pasta & BBQ. It all sounded amazing, but I think they weren’t well prepared to handle the crowd. Especially the pizza counter, which I waited 40min as the firewood oven’s fire couldn’t heat up the pizza properly. There was also only one chef trying to cook the pasta for the long queue of customers. BBQ food was amazing, but similarly, because it could only prepare a limited quantity each time, it was able to serve the crowd.

During the dinner, a staff (who seemed like the floor manager, or at least the event manager/IC) invited and explained to me about their BIG BITE CHALLENGE where participants will compete against each other to see who can finish their burgers fastest, where a RM300 prize would be given to the winner. When the event was about to start, seeing that he was trying hard to invite participants, I gladly responded to his invitation. In the end, there were only 3 participants & we started the challenge. I happened to win. [Challenge posters & prize in pics]

At the end of my dinner, he approached me with a “Consolation” prize of RM50. I asked why it was different from what their poster mentioned & he said due to the number of participants not having met their min quota, they will only give me the consolation prize… WHAT?! They just changed their rule however they like after the event was over.

To make matters worse, after they invited my family to witness the competition, the restaurant staff cleared the food that we waited so long to get without asking us. 🤦🏻‍♂️ it’s really quite a joke

ROOM NOISE LEVEL 🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉 Throughout the two nights the aircon compressor was really noisy. I attached a video of the sound it made throughout the day. I did so in the daytime as I couldn’t bring myself up in the middle of the night.

During check-out, the staff was nice to ask me about my stay. I mentioned this issue & he waived off 50% of my group’s breakfast fee. It was a nice gesture that I fully appreciate. I didn’t have time to talk about the other experiences as we were rushing off.

All in all, the hotel gave a great first impression. If the management was ready for the long weekend crowd, & the restaurant & events team were better prepared, I’m sure the guests would all have had a great time. Not sure what could be done about the loud...

Positives:• great location near local shophouses- supermarket just 2min walk from lobby• pleasant looking hotel with nice deco• pricing is much better than hotels along the coastNegatives:Did not provide the basics of a good hotel experience IMO- check-in delays- room service- buffet dinner- noise level+ offered discountCheck-In Delays🕕🕦🕚🕐🕥🕧My group of 15 guest deliberately arrived after 3pm as stated on the hotel booking so that we might minimize waiting time for rooms to be ready. We booked 5 rooms, but one room was missed out during the process even though we received confirmation emails from the hotel. The room was only given to us when our group was heading out for the next activity. Another room was supposed to come with an additional bed, but was only given later during the night.Room Service==========Our family rooms were big & spacious 👍🏼 but the extra bed (tent) came without pillows or blanket. So we requested for it. Once after check-in, but wasn’t given after we came back from dinner, & had to call room service a third time stating that we still haven’t received it for them to deliver it immediately.Father’s Day Dinner Buffet🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️🍽️After checking out the previous night’s buffet dinner, the spread was amazing. We decided to go for it on Sunday, to find that it was a special menu - Father’s Day Special. They closed the usual counters, but focused & set up their poolside carts. Serving pizza, pasta & BBQ. It all sounded amazing, but I think they weren’t well prepared to handle the crowd. Especially the pizza counter, which I waited 40min as the firewood oven’s fire couldn’t heat up the pizza properly. There was also only one chef trying to cook the pasta for the long queue of customers. BBQ food was amazing, but similarly, because it could only prepare a limited quantity each time, it was able to serve the crowd.During the dinner, a staff (who seemed like the floor manager, or at least the event manager/IC) invited and explained to my husband about their BIG BITE CHALLENGE where participants will compete against each other to see who can finish their burgers fastest, where a RM300 prize would be given to the winner. When the event was about to start, seeing that he was trying hard to invite participants, my husband gladly responded to his invitation. In the end, there were only 3 participants & we started the challenge. He participated and won. [Challenge posters & prize in pics]At the end of my dinner, the event IC approached us with a “Consolation” prize of RM50. We asked why it was different from what their poster mentioned & he said due to the number of participants not having met their min quota, they will only give us the consolation prize… WHAT?! They just changed their rule however they like after the event was over.To make matters worse, after they invited my family to witness the competition, the restaurant staff cleared the food that we waited so long to get without asking us. 🤦🏻♂️ it’s really quite a jokeROOM NOISE LEVEL🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉🙉Throughout the two nights the aircon compressor was really noisy. I attached a video of the sound it made throughout the day. I did so in the daytime as I couldn’t bring myself up in the middle of the night.During check-out, the staff was nice to ask me about my stay. I mentioned this issue & he waived off 50% of my group’s breakfast fee. It was a nice gesture that I fully appreciate. I didn’t have time to talk about the other experiences as we were rushing off.All in all, the hotel gave a great first impression. If the management was ready for the long weekend crowd, & the restaurant & events team were better prepared, I’m sure the guests would all have had a great time. Not sure what could be done about the loud...

The hotel is located at the edge of the Bandar Penawar. There is a long row of shops (which mostly seemed closed) just opposite the hotel, including as Maslee Express supermarket whichh ad good deals for stuff like diapers, etc. There's a SKS City Mall just 3 min walk down the road. There's a wet market within, plus some shops selling cheap clothing , with a couple of shops selling Kickers, Lois, Edwin, and the like. There's also a Trend Master shop selling branded watches. There's only 1 Desaru Kopitiam shop selling food within the mall. A further walk out to the main road has a very long line of shops selling all sorts of things including a few food establishments. Locally, there really isn't much food available except for that few shops mentioned above. The hotel is 25 min drive (25 km) away from the cluster of seafood restaurants like Jade Garden, Restoran Sin Kong, etc, and about 10 min drive (5 km) away from the Desaru public beach. Overall, location is good - quiet suburb within Bandar Penwar, but close enough to the places like the beaches and seafood restaurants. Hotel facilities were superb. We booked the Family Room which faced the back where there was a large plot of scrub. Very quiet and tranquil. The balcony was just suitable for drying our swimsuits, not for sitting and chilling. The room itself was huge! I mean, it took quite a walk to the toilet at night... room is exactly how it apeared in the photos. The children's play tent was a huge hit with my 2 kids and it was clean and well-maintained. There were 2 double beds. The beds were plump and firm, very comfortable indeed. The room was full of cupboards, wardrobes and drawers, so plenty of storage. Toilet was very well designed and super clean. Hotel is new so facilities are all new. Swimming pool was good too - shaded in the late afternoon so suitable for swimming and playing without getting burnt.

The Mesh restaurant served very good breakfast. However, the a la carte menu was disappointing. We ordered strip fries and a caesar salad (which were excellent), and then a butter chicken naan, and honey glazed chicken wings. The butter chicken was extraordinarily sweet and spoiled the taste, while the naan was thick and dense and totally unlike any fluffy naan I have eaten before. The chicken wings were completely tasteless, and the thick flour layer on the top wasn't fried till it was crispy and light. Quite disappointing relative to the prices charged. We also had the Selara Buffet which cost RM138 (we paid a day in advance for the discounted RM98). The food was better, especially the satay was outstandingly good, so was the whole roasted lamb, and rendang. However, some of the food were too salty, like the chili blue swimmer crabs. There were plenty of syrup drinks, but perhaps only the calamansi lime drink was good. Large quantity of food for the buffet, but quality not quite matching the asking...