Sembayu Villa — Hotel in Negeri Sembilan

It was a dissapointing 2d1n stay in sembayu.This "villa" is merely a 3 star boutique air BnB with some nice design at the outdoor, but not in the room. We booked a "luxury room with balcony",paid rm1252.50(for 1 night with 2 breakfast) but it was not worth the money at all. With this price, i can stay at a 5 star crockford hotel at genting highland, which provide an excellent service, nice weather and super nice room.

What is chocking? Room -when we check in at 6pm,ms purnie brought us to our room, when i open the room, a very strong bad musty smell came to our nose. The smell is not acceptable for a 5 star price paid. The premise's check in time is from 3pm onwards, the housekeeping team should have ample time to make our room ready and fresh to welcome new guest, right? i did request whether can i change room, however she told me that housekeepers already went back home and the room can only be ready at 8pm(by her). Too tired to wait for the change, so we stayed as it is. room design is simple with industrial feel, concrete floor, bricks wall, only 1 side table available, and there were only 1 power point at bed side in the room. No dressing table, no any chair available in the room(chairs are available only at the balcony). Only 2 old bath towels, no face towel or so forth. -bed is 3 star hotel bed, not too hard nor too soft, but not comfy. sinki is beside the bed, but it is not available in the toilet the good thing we enjoyed is the hot water shower with good water pressure at 8pm, and the bath tub at balcony with hot water available (but lack of privacy as there were only a blind on 1 side).

Service before checking in, ms purnie msg me and reminded me to place order for the dinner before 3pm. I requested the dinner to be serve at 7pm, however she told me the slot is full. So, i booked 730pm. when we went to have dinner at the cafe at around 730pm, there were only 4 person(2 tables) eating dinner for the 7pm slot. To my surprise, I saw ms purnie is in the kitchen preparing dinner and serve to us. So then i understood why she said 7pm slot is full. She is the front desk, housekeepers, chef and waitress 😅 Food is normal cafe food, nothing to shout about, but exorbitary costly, nasi kerabu ubang+ grilled chicken+ 1 canned coke costed us rm150+. during our stay, ms purnie is trying to give her best service, but with the lack of support from the management, she has her limitation. with rm1k+ a night, customer will expect a 5 star service by a team. Not only 1 person. breakfast is limited choice, english breakfast with overcooked scramble egg, fried mee hoon with lots of msg, and diluted tea&coffee. U can taste the quality of food provided.

Facilities being in the forest, meaning your internet connection will be bad. The WIFI signal in the premise is unstable, no internet/netflix available in the tv. Ms purnie downloaded some old movie in the tv for us to watch. No internet means it will be good for digital detox,however with no other activities available, you will be bored. if the room is very comfortable with comfy bed and nice scent, we can enjoy the room however sadly that was not the case.

Road to the villa the road up to the villa is poorly maintained. Driving up hill with uneven road need extra attention and good skill as the road is wavy too. So many villas/holiday house at this pantai area, why not you all share the cost in repairing the road condition so your guest can have a safe drive up to your villa?

All in all,we feel that this is an overrated holiday house with 5-star charges ,but the service and room is not on par with the price paid. If u are ok to pay high price for the forest view and instagrammable picture at the common area, then this is the...

Lack of Welcome Gesture: Upon arrival, I was surprised and disappointed to find no welcome gift or drink awaiting us. Even hotels with significantly lower nightly rates manage to provide such a basic courtesy, making the absence of this gesture at a premium establishment particularly perplexing.

Inadequate Service and Staffing: While I acknowledge the efforts of the staff, it was evident that their numbers were insufficient to meet the needs of the guests effectively. The limitations of only two visible staff members hindered their ability to address and resolve guest requests promptly.

Hygiene Concerns: Upon checking into the room, I was dismayed to discover human hair of unknown origin on the bedsheets. Additionally, there were multiple unidentified stains on the bedding, which significantly compromised the overall cleanliness and comfort of the room.

Privacy Issues: The promise of privacy, especially at this price point, was undermined by the lack of seclusion. Guests could easily be spotted and observed on the balcony, in the room, and even in the bathtub area, compromising the tranquility one would expect in such a pricing.

Culinary Disappointment: The dining experience was marred by a live worm in the grilled chicken salad. While the staff replaced the dish, the substitution of mashed potatoes with wedges felt like a significant downgrade as it tasted like store-bought frozen wedges. Moreover, the quality of the food did not align with the steep prices, with the dry piece of chicken priced at RM60 being particularly unreasonable.

Insect Infestation: I understand that being in a rural area may invite some insects, but the level of infestation was unacceptable. Returning to the room after dinner, we encountered a balcony overrun by ants, mosquitoes, and moths. Additionally, the unwelcome surprise of a cockroach upon entering our room was deeply unsettling.

In conclusion, the overall experience did not warrant the high price tag attached to the villa. If I had been unaware of the cost, I would have assumed this to be a villa in the RM400 to RM600 range. In essence, the resort felt more like a generic Airbnb rental with an added bathtub and a supposedly more natural location.

On the other hand, I understand why the owner set the price at this high, the furniture used are on the expensive side, but the owner has to understand this comes second to the guest, what we want is good service, clean room, tasty food, relax ambience to round up the entire experience, but not the expensive furniture that brings nothing to the table if none of the criteria above is met.

Good luck to the owner but I don't think this is a sustainable...

I'm encouraging this facility to onboard a professional manager + train the staff to respond the hefty roomrates, as there are currently areas in Service which could elevate this place.

Pro's: The view from the room, restaurant and pool are absolutely wonderful style of the facility is industrial and cool, equipment is new and clean beautiful bath tub in the balcony, plenty of hot water available and tub fills fast, which is excellent good tasting food despite of the limited options - every meal was very good and the chef was very nice person too Nice young chinese lady who was clever and proactive in the restaurant and reception. Her presence clearly had value, as since she arrived on our 2nd day, things started to roll better.

Con's: roomrate was RM1670++/ night which was way too much as the provided service is not Four Seasons level. when we arrived, the bedding was very dirty - they were immediately exchanged by request but with this roomrate that's absolutely unacceptable lack of privacy - our room was next to the swimming pool with only limited coverage to secure the privacy, which resulted as a need to wear swimming attire while taking a bath in the outside bathtub, which is a shame as the tub was the reason we booked this room in the first place.. the room was in deep Mold which gave me a headache. When the sheets had been exchanged, the smell was more tolerable but e.g. washroom smells very strongly screaming from the pool disturbs constantly, but staff doesn't do anything about it, so had to politely handle the situation ourselves after listening the screaming for two days extremely loud renovation since 9 am on PH morning - we had to and request it to stop, which is silly. How could you possibly expect your customer to be ok with such level of sound pollution..? customer has to know all of their meals almost a day before - you are asked about your lunch preference (only 1h timeslot to have it btw) on the previous day and considering how limited the selection is, this is very silly food is served to a couple at different times - my husband had many times finished eating when I got my food, which was disappointing as we were celebrating our anniversary and wanted to eat together not responsive of email - two of my emails never got answered before we arrived No refund policy, but not clearly stating "hiking trail is closed", "bar is nonexistent" or "food options limited to few and need to be shared in advance...