Sea Sense Resort — Hotel in Phú Quốc

RUN whilst you can!!! We booked 6 nights at the Sea Sense Resort during our trip to Phu Quoc In Vietnam. We decided to treat ourselves to one of their Ocean View Villas with an outside bathtub for our anniversary. We were really looking forward to our stay because we wanted a nice and relaxing stay!

On the day we were picked up from the airport with a curtesy shuttle and greeted with fresh cold juice upon arrival at the resort reception and checked in by a very friendly receptionist, however things took a turn for the worse when we got to our poor excuse of a Villa.

Issue 1. The Villa. Unfortunately it was far from a villa, it was simply a poorly decorated room sandwiched inbetween two other nice villas, it had a small view of the ocean but it was by no means a villa by any standards.

Issue 2. King size bed. We booked a Villa with a king size bed but this room only had two single beds pushed together with a double duvet spread on top to make it look like a king size bed. Not only that, it also had a huge gap in between the beds.

Issue 3. The outside bathtub. The outside bathtub was worst for ware, it was filthy, dirty and had rusty taps and plug hole. In fact I wouldn’t even bathe my dog in it.

Issue 4. Not enough staff. Most of their staff were on strike over their pay so we were told that our room could not made up with an “Anniversary” setting because most of their staff walked out the previous day due to pay issues. So instead we got a poorly basic decorated room.

Issue 5. The Front of House Manager Needless to say we immediately requested to be moved to a different “Villa” that looked closer to the one we booked online as this one was clearly not what we booked.

We had to call reception three times for an update on our request and after about 45 minutes the Front of House manager knocked on our door to speak with us and immediately became quite aggressive and refused to listen to us or even acknowledge the fact that they made an error. He proceeded to lecture us about how they gave us the correct villa type and was not willing to move us to another one because no villas of the same grade were available even though two higher grade villas on either side of this one were vacant but he refused to upgrade us unless we paid a $200.00 upgrade fee per night. He did however offer to downgrade us to other Villas of lower grade for free if we wanted .. we couldn’t believe the audacity of this guy.

Still in shock we continued to plead our case and even showed him pictures of what we booked on their website which showed completely different looking Villas to the one they have us and at this point he became even more aggressive and would not even let us finish speaking then told us that the rooms were designed individually so not all villas look like as nice as the ones in the pictures on their website. In other words, we were stuck with this Villa and he was not willing to help us in any way. He then proceeded to tell us he had 7 years experience in hospitality as he walked out slamming the villa door behind him.

We immediately called our booking agent and explained our predicament for which they were very understanding and explained that but before they could do anything they had to speak with the Front of House manager first and confirm our situation. So they called the hotel and much to their surprise the Front of House manage also started an argument with them telling them he knew a lot about hospitality and was not willing to help us. Luckily for us our booking agent passed us over to their relocation team who managed to find us an amazing resort called “The Shells” and if you ever find yourself in Phu Quoc island in Vietnam you must stay there because the resort was like paradise with awesome views, amazing villas and great food.

AVOID THE SEA SENSE RESORT!!! See some “SENSE” and RUN!!! It is the worst place you would want to spend your...

The view is utterly gorgeus and the beach villa looked right out to sea. It's very peaceful. Our room on the beach was spacious and the bathroom big. If you like good views and quiet and don't care about anything else, including quality of service and inflated prices then you'll be fine. It's a resort you go to and don't leave as you need to get a taxi everywhere - even for bottled water! Food on the beach is good. But we left after 1 day of our 5 day booking as there were too many problems with this place to make the view worth it! I was told I had to email the manager to request a refund, which I did with a full feedback of the problems we encountered.... I have had no response. Their cancellation policy we booked under is 24 hours, so I figured we should be able to get back 3 of the 5 days as if we no showed we would only be charged for 1 night. But.... no response! Continuing the terrible experience we had here. Another couple were requesting to check to early at the same time as us for over issues.... we were not the only ones unhappy!!

Points we raised in detail via email to the manager:

Our room key didn't work properly and the door wouldn't lock. We reported it and they took our key and left us sitting in the dark as the key turned on the power. Over an hour for someone to come and fix it and then they didn't actually fix it but showed us a 'technique' and said it needed replacing. We had to shower by phone light while we waited for them.

Barely any staff serving on the beach/round the pool or in the beach restaurant helping customers. Those who are are running around like headless chickens and not able to keep up. We were ignored by one lady behind the bar. Many sun loungers around the pool and on the beach without cushions, no-one tidying up vacated loungers so limited choices. We had a beach villa but no loungers outside our veranda - weird!! Many more staff needed here. Other resorts have multiple staff beach side to provide the experience customers book a resort for. 1 man cannot do it all!!

Dinner restaurant was poor service, no personal touches in customer care or service. Worst food we ate in Vietnam - hard shells in the food which needed picking out. Barely any vietnamese options. Lots of pasta and pizza?! We waited over half an hour for a drink to be brought which we had seen sitting on the bar for ages before someone brought it over.

Breakfast was poor, stations empty, 1 man clearing tables who again couldn't keep up. Quality average.

Gym was filthy and no sanitiser spray or seat towel to wipe down kit after use (we are at the tail end of a pandemic where hygiene and sanitation should be a priority! Kit in very poor condition.

Wifi is intermittent and poor - we had better wifi in a homestay in the Mekong Delta. We also had better food and better service!

Bed was hard and had the worst pillows ever - massive and hard so uncomfortable. I had to sleep with no pillow which caused me to hurt my neck. No duvet cover - a bizarre baby blanket type hard sheet which has a raised pattern and is stiff so very uncomfortable. Worst nights sleep ever and in pain the next day.

The mark up on food and drinks is exceptionally high. A large bottle of water was 600% mark up. As you need a taxi to go outside the resort as it is a long walk up a hill to the nearest shop (over 2km) you are beholden to it's prices.

We both felt that when you have no choice but to pretty much stay in resort, everything needs to be perfect and the quality needs to be high. Only then are inflated prices worth paying. Sadly here they were not and we did not want to stay 5 nights in prison paying VND 7000 for a bottle of water and a million a night for awful dinner.

I am hoping the manager may eventually reply, although I do not hold our much hope being as it's been 5...

My review is a bit harsh but that's only because I've paid less money for other places in vietnam or other countries and have been more satisfied.

I booked the most expensive room type, a private beach front villa with a private pool and the room was amazing. That's why it gets 5 stars for the room and why I gave 3 not 2 stars overall.

Location is quite remote so it's good for a quiet stay, but I found it difficult to get a driver to pick up my Grab order to go to Ong Lang because it's so close. But I couldn't walk up and down the steep hills because I have a foot injury and wouldn't be able to manage it. It's not close to the main towns or main attractions in the south.

The hotel has multiple golf buggys and if they were smart, and wanted to go above and beyond, they could offer to take you in and out of Ong Lang and just charge a small fee. I'd pay for that.

The grounds are lovely with lots of greenery and seem to be looked after quite well but I saw multiple dead lizards along the footpaths and the only people riding any type of vehicle through those areas were staff and it happened during the day. So they don't even look out for their wildlife.

The beach had a lot of rubbish. The staff were out early each morning cleaning it up, and it's not their fault of course, but I only swam in the beach once and for 2 minutes because I was surrounded by plastic.

Food and drinks in the Sunny restaurant for lunch was OK but inconsistent. I ordered the same dish twice and the second time it had less food. Staff are also very miserable especially the same guy I saw at breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast was not great. They could never get my eggs right so I went out to a Cafe 15 minutes drive away instead and wasn't disappointed there. I shouldn't have to do that. Fruit and other foods weren't always fresh. Seemed like they were from the day before and just reheated.

Price of the restaurants was of course higher as expected, especially compared to the ones in Ong Lang, and they were better than the hotel.

Overall I would only come back because of the room I had. AUD1240 for 5 nights in a private villa and private pool was very very well priced. But these other factors brought down my rating and review. I wouldn't be rushing back to stay here. I'd be trying to find another hotel with a similar room option.

EDITED AFTER RESPONSE FROM HOTEL BELOW: again, you've missed the points I've raised in my review and you're simply turning it around on me the same way you did in your email. This shows how unprofessional the person writing the reply for the hotel is and taking no accountability or saying you will look to make improvements or do quality control. I'm giving you my review based on my experience. And the experience was not great. Others haven't even left reviews who stayed at the same time that I did, so they may not be bothered to leave a review or you have asked guests to leave reviews about the breakfast and food and that is all they have written about. And yes, I can compare to the small cafe because if you really are a 5 star resort then the food would have been better and the eggs done correctly and no...