Granbell Hotel Colombo — Hotel in Colombo

Oh boy, where do I even start!||||I booked this hotel a month prior to the arrival and upon booking, requested for a double bed instead of twin bed as we were a couple travelling. Also had requested for a bubble bath with flower petals to be arranged, to which the hotel quoted a price and I happily agreed. The hotel confirmed this too at that time. Then comes the day of arrival. We took a 3.5 hours cab from Kandy to colombo and reached the hotel 30 minutes later to the arrival time. Upon arrival, there was long queue at the desk. Not one staff smiled, greeted or even bothered to offer welcome drinks. After being on the queue for about 12-15 minutes, came our turn, everything went as expected. Still no eye contact from the staff. Then they gave us the room. We thought we will go to the room, order room service and then relax and then go and explore the area in the evening, as we had only 2 nights in Colombo. ||||As soon as I am connected to WiFi (which I was out of from Kandy to Colombo), I got the message from the hotel saying they cant get the bubble bath ready, and instead will arrange a towel decoration and a cake. We entered the room. It was a twin bedded room, with no towel decoration and no cake. I call the reception and a lady picked up. I told her my dilemma and that we need a double bed as we are a couple. She says the hotel is 100% booked and they cant do anything. Then she says they can downgrade us to a room with double bed. I said thats ok, just refund us the balance amount. She says, since I booked from booking.com, they will not refund us any money. I asked for a solution but she seemed clueless and was very rude and blunt. She was unable to understand my problem at all. I asked her to let me speak to a manager, any manager. Front office manager or General manager. But she said it is holiday today and all the managers are on leave. We were confused, hungry and frustrated. We somehow ordered the food and went to have coffee at the reception and then talk to whoever senior person was there. Again at the reception no one greets or even bothers. I approached a guy, he said, please give me a minute. And goes on with his thing. I scrambled through and found a bell-boy and asked him to call whoever manager is available. Then comes the supervisor. I asked him to please bring in whoever is the senior most in the hotel. He said the hotel is run by Front office executive. This was hilarious. i have been working in the industry for 16 years now and this is just hilarious. Somehow the lady comes. She listened to my dilemma and then starts making some stories. It was so frustrating to hear her say standard things instead of relating to my issue. Then she asked us to go to room and she will find the solution. By this time it had been nearly 2 hours of us checking in but we were without a confirmation of any room. We got the food and after that they moved us to another room after following up with her. ||||We went to sauna and jacuzzi in the fitness. I asked the gentleman there to kindly fill up the bucket in the sauna to which he said no the guests need to do it as he cant keep doing it all the time as there are many guests who use the facility. What an answer! No staff n the hotel smiles, greets or even bothers to make an eye contact. Everyone seems to have some kind of pressure or are forced to work without salaries. No one wants guests to arrive in their hotel. ||||Then on our 2nd day, we had to extend the stay for 4 more nights and i booked the same room category they provided us now, so that we dont have to change the room. Then we went to the reception in the evening (a day prior to the departure and extension) and met someone who presumably was a manager (in blazer). He listened to our request and said that we can stay in the same room. Then today (on the day of our extension), a housekeeping supervisor almost entered our room when we were inside our room. When i intervened and held onto the door, and asked him what happened? He asks, are u going to be staying in the same room? What kind of hotel is this? Since 3 nights there is no hair conditioner in the shower. Upon asking the operator at 10:00 am, until 13:30 hrs that still has not happened. God knows, when that will happen. Maybe they are waiting for another blood moon like phenomenon to take place. ||||This is an incredible hotel with awful staff and service. If this hotel simply removes 90% of the staff and makes this a self service hotel by integrating AI, and downgrades the rating, this will be a much much better hotel. In all of Sri Lanka, this is the worst hotel staff I have come across. Oh and we have stayed in Bentota, Ella, kandy and now this. Even other guests feel this is a bit disfunctional hotel.||||P.S., I dont want any of your complimentary stuff. No compensation. Fix your acts. Dont contact us please. Let us...

Oh man, where do I start. First shock was, there was absolutely no one to assist us with the luggage. The lobby is on the first floor, so we had to carry everything there, which was hard as my mom fell by the pool and couldn’t take anything so I had to drag everything myself. We booked two of the highest class rooms available on the dates, one for each of us. When we got to the reception desk, we were asked if someone assisted us with our luggage, to which I said no, there was noone downstairs. The woman answered with an irritated voice,we SHOULD HAVE CALLED SOMEONE. What the hell did she mean. Leaving the bags on the pavement alone,getting a lift to the reception to ask for someone to help us,going downstairs again to show them and up again? What the heck? The worst was she made us feel we did something wrong, not them! The rooms we got after paying for the best rooms available for our dates… the Superior Double with sea/city view-man I wish I took a photo of the view. The rooms were on 4th and 5th floor with the same view over a roof falling apart , a dirty street, and maybe an inch of the sea visible. I demanded for the rooms to be changed. We got rooms on the other side of the building on 21st and 23rd floor. That was much better, but not what we expected after paying for the best category available. As for the rooms, jesus. They look good on the photos, but I am an interior designer and the flaws in the design are just inexplicable. And they are not tiny and will make your life(and night) soo so miserable. I still can’t believe they did it. So first of all, the screen controlling the a/c is in your face, impossible to turn off and so bright it makes all room bright as day- I attach the photo. Good luck sleeping. And if you think you can look away… there is another light,this one flashing non stop every 3 seconds or so, on the ceiling. Wanna watch tv? Good luck- there is no couch opposite, you may only watch it from a sofa or bed, however they sit perpendicularlyright next to the big tv and the rooms are tiny- I salute the genius behind designing the place. Then, the lifts were all out of order and I couldn’t get to my room at all. At first I thought it was the key,but it wasn’t. I met two happily drunk ladies stuck in the elevator trying to get to their room to no avail, just like me. Basically the lifts were working but they wouldn’t react to pushing the floor buttons so people would stay in the lift hoping someone outside will call the lift to their floor or close enough to then use the stairs… mind you the hotel is 27 floors. When I managed to getto my room after going up a few floors by the stairs- I wanted to call the reception. But the phone was out of order. They fixed it and it broke down again later. Well if you think who cares about the room, the pool is awesome here… think again. There are a total of 4 or 5 lounge chairs in a 27 floor hotel. You do the math. The cherry on a cake. I went to the pool and asked for a towel. You will not believe what I heard… „ all our towels got wet in the rain miss. Please take the towel from your room”. You may guess how this story ended, with me going to the room to get the towel, but the lifts out of order…. And this is still not all of the bad stuff . And we only stayed here for one night…AVOID...

Rooms, Breakfast , Ambience , Nearby.||Hotel Lobby is on First floor, Staff at reception are just fine, they smile and do their job. Actually , they did some manipulation in my invoice which I have Witten to the Hotel & hope their Internal Team get back for Investigation.||I stayed here last week - overall it's an OK establishment. I would say a decent 3 star hotel , in front of the beach , which often gets boring as looking at water looses interest after a while. It's more like IBIS in other parts of the world. ||Room was fine, nothing fancy about it. Balcony/Terrace was a relief and fresh air kept things easy. Room setting is more like a beach hut and some hints of Japanese architecture - but nothing extraordinary more of Bed & Breakfast type with basic amenities like iron board, locker, hair dryer etc.||Breakfast is average - just the regular items you find in Colombo. Taste is also average - The EGG station needs attention, there is a girl with Wilsons School apron at Omelette station & little does she know about basic omelette, scrambled eggs - I tried her twice and both days she burnt my order !! I got to know that she is related to the Head Chef and hence customers have to deal with her !!!!!! ||Cost of breakfast is 14$, for same price you can only get coffee and sandwich from outside so better take breakfast option which you are staying. ||Housekeeping is ok - but if you call reception in morning for House keeping the lady at desk with ask you "Sir why do you need housekeeping"||Bathroom is bigger then the room itself, Commode has Japanese style system and you will need 2-3 attempts to learn how to use it , if its your first time. ||Roof top bar , pool is just like any other similar spot & does not offer anything out of the box. Staff is quite rude though .||Hotel faces the sea , but if you need to get any snacks- basic items, the nearest Cargill & Keels is atleast a 10 mins walk - There is a Barrista at 3 mins walk, but closes down at 10 pm. ||Lifts to lobby & rooms require key card. some times it takes longer time for lift to come, so be prepared . otherwise, you can take stairs.||Gym area is fine .||Use UBER or PICKME to go around. Don't Hire the TukTuks parked outside hotel. ||Food delivery options are limited via uber eats & pickme and its hell expensive for such basic food - in general, whole city is expensive for some odd reason. ||The place around hotel gets deserted after 9 pm - they say its safe , but its really dark outside & hence the 10 min walks seems to last forever. ||There is a train station right across and rooms at lower levels might feel disturbance.||Transport from Airport to hotel will cost 4500Rs one way . Estimated from airport to Colombo is about 45mins and the route is a bit scary , take daytime flights if you are new or a solo traveler. ||Data sim will cost around 6 dollars - get Dialog e-sim from airport. ||For the same price, I would say you will find better hotels and deals. |||Pro Tip - Don't go to Petah Market - No No No . its crap|Gale Face Mall is 20 mins walk , nothing special but if you want to pass time then ok. but not for shopping - basic UA Tee is for 110 USD which is absurd. |The city is clean and pleasant in evenings, day time is hot & humid plus the rush in markets...