This hotel cost us $500 per night for a "suite" (small sitting room and bedroom) which was clean and reasonably attractive. However, the mini bar fridge was broken and empty. WHen we complained, it was replaced with another broken refrigerator, and we were charged to buy ice to chill our sodas. Drinks from room service or restaurant are $6 for a coke, higher for a beer. Prohibitive, if it is delivered cold in the first place...
Food was unhygienic (one meal with hair in food noted on service to us -- when we told the waitress, she laughed and walked away....another meal, a raw chicken leg was served to my husband) and unpalatable at best. Breakfast buffet was DIRE. We were happy to find one fellow who could cook an omelette so it wasn't raw, and up in Dino bistro, a steak or beef fajita (more of an enchilada) seemed safe and clean enough to eat, although quite salty.
Food and beverage service overall needs a complete overhaul. Rooms are basically clean and presentable, although room windows are locked despite this being a beach resort. Beds are quite hard. Service was horrid. Things completely beyond the control of the hotel staff -- i.e., the view and weather -- were quite good.
Buyer beware, if you want to go to another hotel (like the Banyan Tree "next door"
for dinner or golf, there is only one taxi service allowed at Binan resorts, and the taxi to Banyan will cost you $30 round trip. If you want to go anywhere more than five minutes away, you ahve to rent a car in blocks of at least four hours, at $80 upwards.All in all, perhaps another resort like Club Med might leave a different impression, but with Bintan Island being basically a nothing-to-do destination, it's a shame when the hotel is so poor.
