Shangri-La Properties in Kota Kinabalu

The hotel and grounds are stunning! Beautiful pools and nice beach. The hotel room (Garden superior) was nice- with a big balcony. Water, coffee, insect repellant etc was refilled daily which was a nice touch. Daily cleaning was wonderful. The breakfast was perfect - Western and local choices- but trying to get coffee was terrible- long queues and unreliable coffee machines. Most days I skipped it and bought coffee from the pool bar. Happy hour 4-6pm daily is great with regular entertainment- fire shows and tribal dancing. Bar prices are obviously very high - £45 for a bottle of cheap wine. The biggest problem with this hotel is very slow service (hard working staff but not enough to serve the guests) The staff work super long hours so I felt bad complaining when I was waiting 45 mins for drinks each day. Also, all the restaurants stop serving food around 9.30pm then everywhere closes around 10.30pm which means the evenings can be quite boring- especially when there’s nowhere else to go as the hotel is far from anywhere. The spa is overpriced but I enjoyed my facial and hot oil treatment. My last gripe is the hotel day trips- absolutely appalling. The hotel is affiliated with Sabah travel company- poor communication, poor service, hugely overpriced and generally very bad. I recommend booking day trips through Trip.com instead of through the hotel. Allen the hotel supervisor was amazing trying to sort out the fiasco and I’m grateful- but I wasn’t offered a refund or compensation which is disappointing. I wanted to leave a poor review on the Sabah Travel’s website but they removed my booking so it wasn’t possible. I’d stay at this hotel again as the price is fairly reasonable but it def falls below the usual Shangri-la standards.

I booked the best sea-view room in the Tanjung Wing, specifically one facing the sunset. However, upon entering the room, I found that over half of the sunset view was obstructed by trees. I called guest services from the room to request a room change, and they told me to wait. After an hour, I heard nothing. I called again, and they told me to keep waiting. Roughly another hour passed, and when I called a third time, they said a change was impossible because the hotel was fully booked. They said it was impossible to change rooms right after I checked in that afternoon. I wasted two whole hours waiting in the room for nothing!!! My flight arrived in the middle of the night, so I was already tired that afternoon and wanted to rest. Because I was trying to change rooms, I felt uncomfortable even using the room. I was tired, exhausted, and furious. The hotel's phone customer service was incredibly unprofessional, impatient, and impolite. I ended up going directly to the front desk and spoke to the manager, making my complaint entirely in English, before finally getting some resolution. Other than that, though, the hotel's scenery, location, dining, and everything else were quite good, especially for Malaysia! Oh, and you absolutely must try the hotel's paddleboarding; it's worth every penny and an unforgettable experience!!!