Redang Island Resort — Hotel in Pulau Redang

The hardest review to write. Let's start from an assumption: the staff is extraordinary. Always smiling, kind, friendly and helpful. A warranty. Second assumption: the location. The resort is located on a promontory next to the port and in front of the 'Marine Park' marine reserve. Really nice. The review is difficult because, despite the location, the resort seems 'abandoned'. When many write that it would need a renovation, they are absolutely right. It's hard to understand how a place like this can be left unattended. Old and ruined furnishings, mold and stains on walls and ceilings, rusty and broken faucets. Rotten wood. Remember the two initial premises. The trick to guaranteeing a stay in this structure is, despite the name, not to think of a resort. Simply think of a perfect and economical accommodation to visit Redang and nearby islands. Seen from the outside, the other resorts look much more well-kept but are obviously much more expensive. Honestly, I don't think it's worth coming to Redang to stay in a hotel. The structure offers various services including: excursions, scooter rental and massages. An excursion is free, so it's worth doing. For the other types of excursions we have relied on local captains. The prices offered by the hotel are quite competitive but you almost always find yourself sharing the experience with many other people. With local staff you travel as a couple or at most with a few other people and you can always decide where and when to stop. In doing so we saw places and beaches that we would otherwise never have visited. Unfortunately the hotel does not offer taxi service to and from the jetty boat, they only do this if you book with them or for arrival/departure. For this reason we asked for the excursion boat to pick us up under the hotel. In any case it is only a 10' walk. The restaurant service is very useful as we are in the quietest and most desolate part of the island. There are some businesses near the port but they close early. Anyway to try. At the restaurant they are very kind as always but there are some problems. Many dishes are not available, few choices remain. Average quality and proportionate to the price. Unfortunately we ran out of mineral water during our stay. We had to buy it at the small market. Of note is the willingness to meet the needs of vegetarians. As for the breakfast, the same goes for the general structure. Basic, not worthy of a resort, but suitable for both Westerners and Asians. Excellent massage service. Cheap, quality and in a clean environment. The mini market does not have a large assortment but you can improvise an aperitif. It doesn't sell beers, you have to go to the restaurant. The cost of the massages and the restaurant can be charged to the room bill. The cash-only market. The same goes for excursions and rental of snorkeling equipment and scooters. There are no ATMs on the island and the only facility that offers money exchange service is the Taara with a 10% commission. The pool water during our stay was always excellent. However, here too the spaces and equipment would deserve renovation. There is a small gym. Unfortunately worn out and rusty but if you want to improvise a small workout it can be done. Occasionally there is a smell of garbage. It doesn't depend on the facility, in general on the island they have a problem with management and disposal. Bottom line: if you are looking for a resort where you can spend most of your time, we don't recommend it. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a base to visit the archipelago, it is the perfect place. The friendliness and kindness of the staff will make you forget all the shortcomings of the structure. The room is cleaned every day but the sheets are not changed. Considering the price and our way of traveling it was perfect for us. The air conditioning works well and they provide you with 4 bottles of water every day. Wifi works...

Shady Taxi: The shuttle van that was supposed to pick us up didn’t bother to arrive at the jetty until we were practically at the resort. The driver was barely in his seat when we arrived.

Overpriced & Unsafe Boat Ride: The boat ride to Long Beach, offered by the resort, is absurdly overpriced at RM55, the same as the ride from Terengganu Merang Jetty all the way to Redang Island. On our way to Long Beach, life jackets were conspicuously missing from my field of vision. Providing life jackets to boat passengers is a BASIC safety measure that skippers should enforce without passengers having to ask. When we inquired about the missing life jackets, the skipper rudely dismissed us with, “you ask the resort lah,” clearly shirking responsibility. After arriving at Long Beach, I texted the resort about the issue and requested life jackets for our return trip. My message has been completely ignored (even now), and not a single apology has been issued by anyone from the resort. One has to wonder how the Berjaya Group trains its hospitality staff. Is this really how they expect to treat their customers?

Marine Park: Utterly disappointing. We rented snorkeling equipment from the resort for RM25 per set, which might be a fair price if you actually got something worthwhile. Unfortunately, all we saw in the designated safety range was dead coral. It's far better to view the fish from the shore or jetty where the water is clear enough. We also paid RM5 per person as a conservation fee when entering the island. I’d gladly pay more if the island was actually maintained, but alas, it wasn’t. Trash littered the area, the toilets were filthy and reeked, and the toilet flush was broken. Is this “conservation fee” truly used for conservation, or does it just line someone’s pocket? I’m not sure.

The 4-stop snorkeling experience was fine, though all stops were similar. The coral was very dead, but the variety of fish was still nice. The boat skipper fed the fish to ensure we had a good experience, and you can also request to feed the fish yourself. The water was as blue as an emerald—clean and clear. Hopefully, it stays that way.

The booking experience was a disaster. I booked my stay through the Redang Island Resort official website under their offering page for a 3-day, 2-night stay at RM650 nett per person. When I proceeded with payment, it showed RM630 in total for the package, so I assumed there was a discount and didn’t bother checking further. On check-in day, we were told that I hadn’t booked the package. I explained that I booked through the offer’s page, not the normal booking page. The staff replied, “Oh, maybe the link expired,” and said there was nothing they could do. I was quite disappointed with both their response and website management.

The food was incredibly disappointing. I ordered Nasi Goreng(RM27), which was tasteless; my partner ordered a pizza (RM45), which turned out to be a quick-frozen pizza reheated in the oven. They didn’t even know how to do a scramble egg. I wasn’t expecting Cordon Bleu-level cooking, but it should at least be worth the price. As a Malaysian, I know what decent food should taste like. I can’t imagine if a foreigner traveled all the way to Redang Island and ended up with tasteless Nasi Goreng. Even worse, what if they thought Singapore’s Nasi Lemak was better than Malaysia’s?! (No offense to...

Upon arrival, we need to walk from the jetty to the bus, the bus is not well maintained and a lot of hazard like faulty seat and floor. Upon arriving at the reception, i am given only 1 key instead of 2 keys for 2 room. I need to go back to reception, then i discovered i am only given a single meal voucher instead of 2 for 2 rooms. The receptionist never explain properly and looked incapable of providing a good service, and the other receptionist is really trying hard not to smile like its so expensive. The meal at the restaurant apparently are not buffet as compared to my booking, its ala carte and the taste is only so-so. Luckily the staff there are friendly. We took shuttle to our room because its quite far from the main lobby area, at this point we already discovered that the hotel is far from the beach and to go to the beach we need to take a bus, then need to walk through the jungle for 30 minutes before reaching the shore which is ridiculous. All of these info were not advised in advance. So i ended up paying a taxi van to go to the shore and back to hotel costing me extra RM60 total. Back to the hotel, during dinner, the restaurant staff spilled cold water on me, apologize but instead of giving me a towel she then ignores me and wipe the table. She gave me tissue only when asked. For the dinner menu, we were given an uncooked chicken (chicken chop), asked for recooked, still tasted bad, restaurant offered a replacement meal but this should not happened in a Berjaya standard hotel. For the room, 1 of the room had a faulty fan and another faulty door lock. Proving that this hotel is not well maintained and the management does not bother to maintain it to a Berjaya standard. I booked for 2 night, paid in advance, but i could not bear my Redang Holiday with my family goes to waste, so i checked out the next morning and transferred to another resort which proves to be 1 of the best decision ever. I really am unsure whether my review will be taken seriously or not because talking to the local at the public beach and sharing my experience, the said they heard stories about experiences like these a lot and Berjaya management actually do not bother with improving, they just open the hotel to scam poor souls like myself who book without full checking the reviews at sites like tripadvisor. will be the 1st and last time at Redang Island Resort and maybe Berjaya hotel...