Adena Beach Resort — Hotel in Pahang

If you come as a small family or group, you might have a different experience. But this resort is incapable of dealing with big group at all.

From the very beginning, the conversation with the staff in charge was very poor. Instead of communicating to us professionally, the staff in charge kept on refusing to receive our calls for discussion and the turnaround time was more than 24hrs. We need to keep following up to get our questions answered.

They were not being upfront on all the information that needs to be shared with us. For example, we requested one room for early check-in. Instead of letting us know that it can done subject to availability and EXTRA CHARGES WILL BE APPLIED, they only told us 2 days before the check-in date. We also paid for a rental space of RM600 and was told that the space will be ours but we found out we need to share the space with other group.

We booked for Deluxe rooms but some of the rooms we got was Superior. When we asked the receptionist, we were told that the room was Superior but we confronted the manager, the manager insisted the room was deluxe and insisted the receptionist to call us back and correct the information. The superior room we received was so small the occupants can barely walk around the room. They even offered to add extra bed, shows lack of comprehension and understanding that the rooms are so small, they can’t even fit that extra bed.

When requested for room upgrade due to this incident, the manager told us off by saying “don’t talk about room upgrade with me”. If he was being honest with us from the very beginning either by admitting the room given was superior room OR there are different sizes of deluxe room, we’d make a different arrangement. We booked the place 7-8 months in advance and was told we can confirm the room booking 1 week prior to the the check-in date, so room availability should not be a problem for us.

All the staff are super unprofessional, rude and untrained. Understand it was a long holiday/school holiday and you need to hire extra staff, but please make sure all information are communicated clearly top down. Some examples:

We paid for 90 pax for breakfast including kids but was expected to line up (with elderly and kids) so that they can check room by room. The excuse given was “takut makanan tak cukup” when we already made arrangement and paid the food for 90 pax. When we asked why do we need to go through this when we are clearly came as a group, the staff flipped and said “hah masuk lah, masuk masuk!!”.

We requested for chairs during our telematch and the staff was not informed on the request. When we requested again that morning, they told us they don’t know and said “kalau nak marah jangan la marah saya marah management sana”.

When we proceeded to take matters onto our hand and took the chairs we saw, they scolded us back and asked to return the chairs back to their places.

On of the kids asked if the pool was open, the caretaker answered nonchalantly “hmm pukul 8 dah. Dah bukak la ni”.

When we discussed about the room upgrade because clearly some of the rooms we received were so small, the manager replied “don’t talk about room upgrade with me”.

When we asked about the person in charge of our group during the telematch, the receptionist told us “saya taktau la siapa yang awak refer ni” instead of saying “kejap ya saya check siapa yang available”.

The list is long if I want to mention one by one. But the staff and the manager need to be trained on professionalism and how to improve...

We have been to Puteh Beach Bar on many occasions (we come down to Kuantan/cherating at least once a year) and have always looked forward to staying at this resort on numerous occasions (it is frequently fully booked). Needless to say, my husband and I, along with a group of our friends were eagerly anticipating this trip. Unfortunately, all the excitement came to a staggering halt the moment we stepped foot into the lobby. Two lines were formed in front on the counter leading all the way to the steps of the lobby and it took us 1 hour 15 minutes to check-in (3.05pm - 4.20pm). Why the delay, God only knows, as each counter was manned by 2 staffs each and the process was relatively straightforward. We had also emailed the resort to request an extra bed which was not prepared upon arrival (or the email acknowledged), but fine, we will not let this put a damper on our trip. We had a few drinks at the bar and proceeded to check in to our chalet (which was the last one in the row and probably the most run down of the lot). As you enter the chalet, you are greeted by an uneven floor that was sloping to one side, the airconds were barely blowing any cool air (to which we understood why - the aircond filters were FILTHY - unable to attach photos to this post), and a simple request for extra glasses from the resort were firmly declined (shortage of glasses at the resort?). Still keeping our spirits high, we proceeded to settle in and the extra bed we had previously requested arrived at 645pm. We decided to take a shower before heading out for dinner but little did we know that in between each shower, we had to wait a good 15 minutes for all the water to drain from the shower recess. The showers had to be kept to a maximum of 10 minutes each to avoid flooding the entire bathroom, so for all of us ladies, washing our hair was simply out of the question. Even the sinks were poorly draining which warranted only a 20 second hand washing at best. A request was made for the maintenance team to come and check on the issue but the problems were not solved. Cleanliness of a hotel/resort is something that even the most basic of establishments I’ve stayed in has been able to provide but it simply falls so far below the passing mark for Adena Beach Resort. The place looks simply beautiful on the drive in and we’ve always admired the well-manicured garden (kudos to the landscaping crew) but everything else simply fell short. We spent most of our time of our trip outdoors or away from the resort to avoid spending too many hours in that dreaded chalet. If anyone were to ask us if we got our money’s worth and would recommend this resort to others, a simple answer would be - No! On a final note, not everything about our stay at Adena left a us with a bitter note. I would like to commend the staff for always being polite and courteous, the cleanliness of the beach is commendable and the service at Puteh for always exceeding my...

This was quite possibly the worst holiday stay I have ever had with my family. If it was possible to give this place a half star rating, I would but unfortunately I have to settle with one.

To start off, the service and staff were awful. From the get go, when we found that the chalet which we had booked for 2 nights (worth almost 900 ringgit) was smelly, dirty and covered in mould - we went to complain. The staff at the counter did not even look at us as we were complaining, eyes glued to her monitor instead with obvious disinterest in her face. Then we met the manager who then offered us a replacement room for our stay since the chalet was in such an intolerable state (I'll get into the details soon). The manager went on to explain that places like these are hard to maintain since there is so much rain and the chalets are mostly made of wood. If you lived in Malaysia for any amount of time, you would know that rain is common in every part of Malaysia, it is no excuse for why the chalets can't be maintained since the wood didn't even have shellac on it. The staff overall looked like they could care less about our complaints which reflects how neglected the whole place is.

The chalet we had booked had extensive water damage which caused the mould to grow everywhere, smelled like smoke and some other indistinguishable odour, and smaller than expected. So then we changed to another room where there were questionable stains on both the walls and the bedsheets, a cockroach infested smelly bathroom, bird poop stained windows and making the decision to choose to stay in either the chalet or the rooms was like choosing bad or worse. Both options sucked. Additionally, when the manager was showing us the room options we could change to, the bathroom bidet broke and sprayed water everywhere. We requested for the bedsheets to be changed as well since it was stained and the staff mentioned that "all our bedsheets have stains"... definitely not what we want to hear.

The breakfast was underwhelming as well with most of the food lacking in flavour and some possible off foods causing a family member to have stomach discomfort. The volleyball that was supposedly available for guests to use was stolen while their other beach ball deflated. Their furniture used for the waiting area at the main counter and the dining area all had concerning stains or had obvious wear and tear. At that point we were too scared to touch the swimming pool.

The only upside was the beach next to the resort and the bar on the beach. The bar wasn't spectacular but shines in comparison to the other aspects of this "resort".

Don't waste your money or time here, it is most definitely...