POM POM Island Resort — Hotel in Pom Pom Island

My parents, my brother, my sister and her two kids recently stayed at Pom Pom Resort and, sadly, had a very disappointing experience.

We generally don’t leave negative reviews lightly, but for my family—who is extremely reasonable and rarely complains—to be this upset, it reflects how unacceptable the service was.

From the moment they arrived, they were greeted by a visibly unfriendly receptionist who offered no smile or warmth. The only thing she was quick to mention was the RM100 corkage fee per bottle if my family was to open their wine at the restaurant. That was, unfortunately, the fastest “service” they received all stay—everything else was slow, unresponsive, or simply absent.

My family booked three water villas. The resort told them each villa had three life jackets, but they found inconsistent numbers—4, 1, and 2 in our respective rooms. When they asked for wine glasses, the staff insisted there were two in every room. After physically checking, only one villa had two; the other two had none. Requests for assistance, such as turning on the air-conditioning while the family went for lunch, were dismissed with “we’re not free.”

Facilities are extremely limited. The spa only had one therapist available on Day 2 despite having three the day before. My family was told the only kayak was broken. Activities like snorkelling or trekking had rigid schedules (8AM and 2PM only), and planning anything felt like pulling teeth. Staff were generally disengaged—when visible at all.

My family attempted to go trekking but were told it would be cancelled with even light rain—no refunds. When asked about the difficulty level (we had both young children and elderly parents), staff said they didn’t know because it was a “new” trail. It’s worrying that the resort would offer an activity without having properly vetted it.

Food was very basic, and in some cases inedible. They also lost a room key while snorkelling, and when they approached reception to request a replacement, the desk was closed—for a break—at 3:30PM. When someone finally tracked down the receptionist 15 minutes later, she returned with the same cold, rude attitude. Her first response was: “You need to pay for the lost key,” without asking what had happened. She showed zero empathy, denied my family’s earlier complaints (even the missing life jackets and lack of housekeeping), and dismissed their concerns with a curt “okok” before turning her back.

Despite putting the “Please clean my room” sign on the door, no housekeeping was done until much later—only after my sister voiced my frustration.

My family paid RM2,400 (US$563) per room per night and occupied 3 of the 5 water villas. With so few guests and such high rates, basic hospitality standards—let alone 4-star expectations—should be met. They weren’t.

The resort setting may be beautiful, but when service is this poor and staff are indifferent at best, it leaves a very bitter aftertaste. We truly hope the management takes this feedback seriously, because this could be a wonderful destination with the right team and training.

Until now, we strongly encouraged everyone NOT to stay at this resort unless you want to pay world-class rates for horrendous service.

— A...

Pom pom island is one of the best vacation destination u can go with ur families... Honestly it quite expensive but please dont misunderstood why im saying those...first of all...if u live at east malaysia..u have a lot of island there...but trust me...none of it going to be the same like this one...im travel frequently all around malaysia kinda like a month at this state n another more at diference place...so trust me if im say this is diference...this main island have 4 private resort whick us the biggest resort is name aftet this island "pom pom resort island" and there 3 more reaort here like "mussah putih" , "Caleb beach resort ( CBR )" and "2 win resort" Both of this resort have their own intresting point n adventure such as view that we surely make it count...when i came here on sept for a "work & vacation" for the whole month...we as an outsider of this place surely will find a spot what do we like n dont right...?? So in my opinion...the price that i first talk about is really worth it coz of it "white sand beach" ( almost like a teeth white ) The blue sea around you...wake up in the worning n u will heard the beach coz it so near with u till u can breath the air with the ocean scent....their staff is so freaking nice ( local worker sabahan mostly ) And if u came at the right time...like sept the month i came..i mostly could see the turtle laying eggs everynight BUT strictly all of this animal is under the control of WWF n they have a base camp here on this island...sure u can see they swimm around the island before they land on the beach to laying eggs...friendly remember that every of this turtle has it own tag n sometimes i can heard the WWF agen say "owhhh...this one laying an eggs again this month" Hahaha..okk...forgate bout the turtle..it just an extra attraction for the tourist... Let talk bout the resort..."main resort" here have so many homestay which is a lot of view for u to choose to stay...this place has a gym to for those who love to workout..have a spa too...a great n beautiful restoran with a DELICIOUS and a lot of option ( after all it taste the most important when comes to restoran right 🤣🤣 ) Btw...the price that u pay is include the activities that u will done here...some of trip include a skuba under a survilience certificated skuba person...trip around this island on the boat...( not so big coz im use to jogging around this island and it take me around 1 hours and 30 minutes....depends of how many picture i take during that jog...🤣🤣🤣🤣... But what i love is it white beach and the sand texture itself....it not so small like what we know how sand it is...here it a little "big" hahahaha..what i mean is it not so easy to flow by the air...bhahaha..due to it a little bigger mass compare to regular sand...and if u walk by barefoot here..it so satiesfies guys....it kind some of leg massage....😍😍 U guys shoukld go here all by urself tho..exprience urself what im saying.... Welll...have a great...

My girlfriend and I are from Sydney Australia and booked a four night stay at Pom Pom island resort. ||Safe to say this was the worst ‘resort’ experience we have ever had. We paid a significant amount of money thinking we were going to be in paradise but we were in for a rude awakening. ||So where do we start?||1. The accomodation. Originally, we booked a water villa. When we arrived, we realised that the water villas are about a 400m walk from the main eating area. You can’t swim off the jetty and if you stay in them, you may as well be in a sauna. After much reluctancy, the staff allowed us to move to a beach villa despite there being literally no one in the resort. |2. The food. We give a solid 0/10 for the food served. It’s buffet style Chinese food with the same ingredients everyday and does not change. You have scheduled eating hours so Goodluck if you get hungry. |3. Diving. We contacted them a month early to try book a trip to dive in Sipadan but were told you were unable to book through the resort. When we got here, we were told we couldn’t go because of lack of permits available. I’ll address this further below. Also worth noting that a lot of the coral around the island is dead. |4. Activities. They charge you for every activity you do and it’s pretty expensive. They make you wear life jackets if you want to swim in knee deep water. There is a mountain hike near by and they they charge you roughly 300 RM ($100) and demand you use a guide even thought it’s an easy walking track. You are not able to do anything without some sort of strict policy in place. |5. Bed bugs. Originally we thought we were getting eaten by mosquitos but realised after a long nap inside without any doors open and waking up covered in little bites that it was probably bed bugs.|6. Pollution. The island is covered in rubbish. We walked around the island and were shocked with the amount of rubbish washed up on shore. It’s really sad to see such a beautiful place be so polluted with plastic. |7. Because of all the above, we actually decided cut our trip short and head back to Semporna to book a day diving in Sipadan. In doing so, the resort tried to charge us an extra 600 RM ($200) for an off schedule boat trip back. This was the straw that broke the camels back and we refused to pay. I’m the end, they agreed on the terms of no refund for the lost night of accomodation and without any return trip back to the airport. ||All in all, this was an eye opening experience. The reviews of this place reflect what it may have been 10 years ago but is certainly not what it is today. Very disappointing and hope this review will deter literally anyone else from staying...