Michelle Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Sri Lanka

Michelle Boutique Hotel:||||||The quality of the veg and non veg food was intolerable and unpalatable.||||We reached the hotel late in the night and were shown our rooms. When we asked for dinner they initially refused but after multiple requests and telling them we had children they made some parathas for which they charged us 2500 SL rupees. We contested this rate during check out and they relented. We refused to pay 12500 for five parathas.||||The Acs in all rooms were not cooling and the tech had to be called to rectify it.||||Next day early morning we spoke to the head chef and asked him to make sure we get proper veg food for lunch. Considering that it’s a 16 room hotel and we occupy 3 rooms, it’s a request they should honour. Again the food was horrible and we left half of it.||||Post lunch I wanted to have a coffee in my room and called up the reception saying that they refilled the coffee and sugar but forgot to give the milk powder. I was shocked when they said that they do not refill the milk powder and I should go to the market and buy it or order milk from their restaurant (paid). ||||We called our guide and told hm to find a good restaurant in bentota since we could not eat again at Michelle.||||So our guide takes us to Avani (?) which was a fabulous place and he also speak s to the hotel management at Michelle in local language about the milk issue.||||That brings me to another problem: everywhere else in Sri Lanka, all hotel staff spoke perfect English. Here they just didn’t understand English and had to call some or the other waiter to translate.||||So by the time we return, the finally give us a bottle of coffee mate for the room.||||Next day breakfast again was as bad and we booked the Taj bentota for lunch and had a great time there.||||No our return we pleaded with the chef to make good veg food for the new year’s “Gala” dinner that they had planned.||||The music starts at 8 pm and the kids are hungry and we go down. Again the food was bad, poorly made and had no connect: there was rice, pasta in red sauce and potato. What were we to eat the rice with or the potato with? Again complained and they cooked some noodles and gave ice cream for the kids.||||They took 100USD as cover charge for all adults compulsory but gave no free alcohol… even the taj was giving free booze at 112USD. What did we pay the 100$ for?||||By 9pm the mint leaves for the Mojitos were over and we couldn’t order them - what kind of hotel runs out of mint leaves?||||By 10pm the head chef had already taken his plate and was eating in front of us and retired from the scene.||||By 1015, the coals that keep the buffet dinner warm ran out and the food was cold stock by 1030!||||We retired to our room and most of the hotel guests also retired by 11.||||We were seeing from the balcony that the management was pleading with the remaining two tables of guests to stay there till new year.||||The so called GM of the hotel had a major attitude problem, probably never went to a hospitality school or knew the ABCs of talking the guests. He was arrogant to the core and deserves to be shot for spoiling our new year.||||Our new year dinner was peanuts and chips that we ate in the rooms. ||||When we peeked out of the room at 1am, we saw that there were no guest and the hotel staff was dancing to extremely loud music.||||At 130am I requested them to turn it down which they did not.||||At 145am I finally went again, took a video of only the staff dancing and I could smell weed in the air and I threatened to call the police if they did not turn the music off. No point in the music because all guests had left. They finally turned the music down.||||Next day breakfast was ruefully bad. We were just happy to check out and run away from what was the worse hotel experience ever.||||Other points:||||The hotel shower area was poorly designed. That was no ledge or countersink. So every time you had a shower, the water would run from under the glass door and flood the entire bathroom. When we asked for extra towels to block the water they refused and said that we first need to return soiled towels. We had to flick some towels to use in the bathroom from the pool area.||||The pool changing rooms and showers were in thorough neglect. It was worse than a public loo.||||We took 2 sessions of half hour massages per room and each massage got over in 15-20 minutes and were charged full. Even the massages scheduled at 8am started at 10am because the staff arrived late.||||Of the three rooms, only one room had a safe! The rooms were poorly maintained and had a damp smell. ||||No supervision from the hotel for the beach either!||||he Sri Lankan head chef couldn’t even cook good SriLankan food. One incident when we asked for a cheese and mushroom omelette, he bought us a regular omelette, a cheese omelette and mushroom omelette - three omelettes!||||You will see someone has posted a review on 31st evening saying the hotel shouldn’t even be...

We stopped for a drink at lunchtime and enjoyed a gin and tonic and a beer, all served very efficiently and when we looked at the dinner menu it was interesting so we booked for the following evening. We asked for a particular table and were assured it would be reserved for us.||What greeted us on the following evening was little short of a farce. We sat in the bar area and ordered a gin and tonic and a beer. The beer came immediately but there was a lot of discussion between the three boys at the bar and eventually a small glass almost full of a clear liquid was placed in front of me with a large bottle of tonic. I asked for a larger glass since there was no room for the tonic and also some ice which came in its own bucket - so far so good, but when I smelled the liquid I knew it was not gin! We asked to see the bottle and it was rum! We were then told that they didn't have a licence for anything other than beer and rum which of course we knew to be untrue. We asked for the manager and was told he was off sick so it would appear that there was no one sensible around! However after a short "stand off" the manager whom we had spoken to the previous day appeared albeit in ordinary clothes and surprise surprise the gin appeared! ||It didn't get any better! He took our order and after half an hour we hadn't been told our food was ready so we walked into the dining room only to find our table had not been reserved! The restaurant was almost empty so we sat at another table and then just one starter appeared which was strange since we had both ordered the same! Finally they produced another but the prawn topping smelled bad so we were not inclined to risk it. ||Then the strangest thing happened- and this is supposed to be a five star restaurant not a French bistro - the waiter carefully removed my used knife and fork to my side dish on top of the roll and butter I had been eating and it appeared that I was expected to use the same cutlery for my next course!||For my main course I had carefully chosen the crab since it didn't have rice which I cannot eat. Lo and behold the dish came with the crab in its shell (and I have never seen such a small one before) on top of rice. The only other thing on the plate was what appeared to be a potato croquet, not the spinach in the description.||We decided to leave at that point but got into conversation with another couple who were staying and equally disgusted with the place and were going to move to another.||Finally as we left we were stopped by the Events Manager who wanted to understand our concerns but she didn't seem to take on-board the fact that the restaurant and food were so badly run and that apart from the manager the staff were running around like headless chickens!||No not the best experience and a total waste of...

Simply the worst hotel on earth! So disappointing from the Manager who smokes cannabis and plays the DJ decks all night long to the worse food ever. ||||Staff can not speak English. ||||Rooms are dark and mosquito infested. ||||Vegetarian food does not exist at this hotel other than pasta in a to store sauce and fries. So do not bother with the $100USD dinner as this is not worth it when there are no options other than frozen fish reheated or insect infested bread rolls. PLEASE go to the Taj in Benatoa instead where the food is amazing and there service exceptional- really wish we had booked there. We ended up eating at the Taj most nights. ||||Apparently the hotel is owned by some Germans but clearly they love so far away and have let the hotel be runny management who are not skilled in hotel management nor hospitality. ||||I had to call all the staff on my leaving day as witnesses to management that there was no vegetarian options reflecting the $100 USD charge per head paid for the so called NYE Gala. After arguing for one hour with the manager and we had the fee for one person waived. What a joke. Oh and the Gala is basically a rave for the manager and their external friends, no care for the customers whatsoever. ||||One piece of advice - DO NOT GO HERE! It is not a boutique luxury hotel but...