Shangri-La Hotels in Kota Kinabalu

We had a good family bonding time at Shangri La Rasa Ria. There were lots of activities catering to various types of travelers. The beach was long with fine sand, and the sunset view was excellent. There were also game rooms when the sun gets too hot or when it rains.

I visited the hotel with my parents, my wife and my daughter. We stayed for four nights, checking in on 3rd May and checked out on the 7th. This is actually my second time visiting this hotel, the first time being 30 years ago, again with my parents. I had great memories as a kid so I was looking forward to this trip. The First night was great, had dinner at Coco Joe's and rested after a long trip. The Second day was fantastic, breakfast and dinner and Cafe Tutu, met a lovely dining lady named Rohana. During the day, we enjoyed the great activities of the Leisure Center. Friendly staff from there made the experience children friendly. And the icing of the dessert - the sunset parade, Jamie loves it. Housekeeping did a surprise heartwarming job, covering the lion doll of my daughter with a little towel on the pillow, very cute and thoughtful move. The Third Day we went out to town so didn't stay much time in the hotel. The Fourth Day, was quite disappointing to be honest. Housekeeping did not arrive in the morning when we were out playing at the pool. I understand as there are many rooms to take care of. We went back to the room to rest between 2-4pm, switch on the ”Do not disturb” button, and somehow housekeeping team arrived so they put a card to say they could not clean as we put up the do not disturb button. Fair enough, but again, there was five hours in the morning which they could clean the room. Leaving the room again at 4pm for activities, I called service center for housekeeping, switched off the ”Do not disturb” button and went out. We returned at 7:45pm, still there was no housekeeping. Frustrated, I called the service center again requesting for housekeeping, they replied they will check and follow up with housekeeping. Half an hour later, still no one turned up. Extremely irritated, I called service center for housekeeping again. This time, housekeeping finally arrived but our whole family were waiting for clean towels to have shower. VERY disappointing with the effecitivness of housekeeping and service center on this incident. On that very same day, I discovered a big crockcroach in the toilet, so I do have a big quetion mark on the housekeeping of this hotel. The day was worsen when we had dinner at Coco Joe's, where we wait for nearly an hour (from 6pm to 6:53pm) before we get all our food served. I did complain it to the manager when he came by, which he did apologise and waived our dining fee. Despite my disgrunt towards the long waiting time of the dishes, I would like to give credit on the manager (I think his name is Mr Kan?) in terms of how he managed the complaint. Overall, the experience is mixed. With friendly staff at leisure center + Cafe Tutu, good food but unreasonably long waiting time at Coco Joe's, and disappointing housekeeping after the heartwarming performance on the second day. The hardware of the hotel is great (view, pool design, restaurant seating) but our experience was mainly affected by the staff. On this ocassions, I would like to give commendation to the following staff: Rohana, Majid (both from Cafe Tutu), all staff from Leisure Centre (especially the two ladies and two gentleman hosting water polo and volleyball respectively), and Kan from Coco Joe's on complaint management. Please keep up on the good work you already have, and work hard on things that requires improvement:)