Lato Lato Resort — Hotel in Sabah

Some things that you should be aware of before booking this through Agoda. Firstly, the booking cost does not include the boat transfer. We paid 400RM for 4 people return. Secondly, the communication from the property was awful. We messaged them (3 weeks in advance), and initially they responded, but only to ask for our booking details. After that, there was no response. We repeatedly asked for them to confirm they location of the jetty, but nothing. No details of where to park, etc. On the day, we went to the wrong jetty and only then got a response from them. After a lot of issues trying to find the correct place, they eventually agreed to pick us up from the jetty we were at. We also paid 60RM for our car to be parked in a 'safe' car park. When we eventually arrived at the resort, we were given our room. After seeing the room looked nothing like the pictures of the 'superior' room booked, I spoke to the staff member. She claimed that the issues had something to do with Agoda, and that I needed to contact them. She said something about the agent and even though I showed her the booking (which clearly showed 'superior room') she claimed we had not paid for that. When we questioned her about the price for that room and then showed her that was what we had paid, she still said we needed to contact Agoda. With no mobile signal and no available WiFi at the resort, this was obviously difficult. However, she let me use her WiFi and I attempted to contact agoda through the live chat. After some time (and her making a call and clearly referring to us as 'white people' in malay on the phone, she eventually said she would give us the superior room we had originally booked. No apology, no offer of assistance to move our bags, etc. We also found another review online where this also happened. I did begin to wonder if this was intentional?! So after all that, our stay was okay. For us, the food wasn't great. Although the afternoon tea doughnuts were the highlight for the kids. If you are a seafood lover, this would be more up your street. You can purchase bottled water and a limited range of drinks (and pot noodles) from reception, but on our 1st full day, they ran out of water. Although there is a water dispenser available, I was not happy using this due to other reviews we read. Additionally, the room was not clean at all. Cobwebs round door frames, dirt and dust on the floor beside the bed, window frames clearly unclean. The outside area our superior room just had a bench, while others seemed to have chairs/tables. The properties need maintenance, the wooden walkways and floors are uneven and potentially dangerous in places. Overall, communication and customer service is a real issue here. We did notice that the staff were far more attentive and friendly to those that spoke malay. I get that this resort is far cheaper then some, but honestly, I wouldn't recommend. I would recommend reading other reviews...

I had a great time in this paradise resort but so many things were unclear. We booked on airbnb and didnt relise all the food was included. ...we found this out via other tourists. Meet and greet also alittle weird, for months i thought i was talking to the owner who signed off his messages as lato. He told us to meet him at the harbour ...we had no idea what he looked like and in the end some other person found us in the agreed spot. Lato who we later found out whose name is moon was actually in another part of the country...he had sent his boatman to meet us but nobody introduced themselves.They just came up to us and sald 'lato lato' On the boat a lady asked if we were hungry... we find out shes moon's (the owner) sister and runs the place. On arrival two suitcases are in the room and the owners ofthe cases come back and shower while we are in the room...not a problem but I'm high lighting the very fast turn over off guests...the minimal of cleaning was done and no tolit roll but they were good enough to give us a box of tissues. We received towels and a bottle of water on our last night there which another new tourist informed us we should had received on our fist night which was two days ago. The four ladies working on the resort appear over stretched with cooking three meals aday and changing bed sheets and washing.. the welcoming donuts were greatly appreciated on the first day. The views are exquiste.....and snorkling and swimming is a must so bring your equitment. The week we went there was a big group of chinese tourists who were quite loud but we were lucky to be sleeping the other end to them. People who sleapt in the neighboring hut had a bad sleep. I would say the resort has 90% chinese tourists. The shower didnt work and i believe all the showers on the resort were in the same condition to save water. The bucket and pour were adequet enough but every one everyones taste. If you want to visit other islands from the resort...this can be done but most people had organised this before hand... there is a large white notice board in the dinning area with no information about boat rides or anything which might interest the guests. Finally for your departure i would suggest you book the boat back to the mainland half a hour early as it could be anything up to 50mins late. We booked it for 8.30am but actually got away 45mins early because moon the manager had arrived the night before and was ready to go back to the mainland. Someone pointed him out to us and he asked us where we were going ?. It appeared a little odd the owner didnt introduce himself and ask us if we had a pleasant time but i guess thats how some people do things in malayshia. To sum up a beautiful haven but take into account its...

Wow, what a venture of paying money just to encounter all the bad experiences that all the ex-guests have submitted. Guys! We can really be confirmed that all the bad reviews below are true!||||1. Poor service - Transport is late for one hour to the resort with no explanation and apologizes. The room is not completed with the toiletries and we need to take towel ourselves at counter. There is no toilet paper, you need to clean after yourself with water bucket. ||||||2. Staff not friendly - Our standard is quite low, We don't expect smiles from staff, especially if they work overtime with low pay at Malaysia. But...the staff at Lato Lato are really not friendly at all, we can even say they are rude, for example, every time before we open our mouth (it's not even about complaints or requests), their face already turns to sour, and the replied they gave is often one word with little but no explanation. If we want to seek more explanation, their face turns more sour, signalling that they are unwilling to tell you more. ||||3. Broken and poor facilities - Our balcony rooftop has many huge holes on it. The wooden bridges have holes to them. You can only shower with a bucket of cold water. ||||4. Not a secure place - windows cannot be closed as the lock is spoiled. Our windows are being forced open when we go out for our island hopping trip. Luckily no item has been stolen as we have brought all our valuable things with us to the islands. ||||5. Free breakfast, lunch and dinner? more like foods that are provided to beggers. Food prepared is not enough for the number of people check-in to the hotel. Although there are timing given to breakfast, lunch and dinner, be prepared to arrive early before the given timing as the food portion are limited and you need to fight for the food or else and it will be gone very fast. No re-fill after the food is finished. Imagine if you didn't manage to eat and your stomach will be empty for few hours. Food variations are the same for everyday too. ||||6. Dangerous - during one of the night of our stay, the wind and rain were so strong that the whole chalet was moving. We was wondering how to escape if the resort don't have any transport at night. In the morning we saw one of the in-progress chalet has been stumbled...