Ravan Resort Hotel in Tangalle

Absolutely disappointing experience at this resort. The quality of service was outrageous: not only was the staff rude and unprofessional, but they never bothered to address the issues we raised. When we arrived the rooms were not ready, it was 8pm, this is completely unbelievable. To make matters worse, the manager in charge was completely unprofessional and rude beyond any limits. We expected much more from a place that claims to be a luxury resort, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything that justified the price we paid. We will never return and highly recommend avoiding this place. I don’t really understand how is possibile that this place has so hight points on Google/ Booking, believe me it was completely a utopia respect the kindness of the local people. Even asking for a bottle of water was a problem, I don t really understand, it was really disappointing, considering the kindness of local people outside this resort. To sum up I completely suggest you to avoid this “resort”.

We took up an off season 'deal' promoted by Ravana which promised a comprehensive experience with the highlight being 2 hours of kayaking. We drive up and never got the 'welcome drink' as per the package. Dinner was very average, but as can be expected from a stay as this, so pretty OK. We asked for the wifi and a flickering light to be fixed in the room - both went unattended. We asked for the tea to be available before heading out for the kayaks at 7.15AM (so that we don't have to paddle for 2 hours on an empty stomach). The manager says OK. We turn up at 7AM and no one is around and the Manager's phone is off. We pushed the gate open and headed out. Even the security is not present. The kayak experience itself is done by someone/company totally different. Ravana manager just gives us a phone number and a map pin and asked us to find our own way there. Luckily, we had our car. If we took the train, we'd be stuck and would have to figure out transport on our own. Kayaking was only 1 hour long (not the promised 2 hours). We return to Ravana for a very below average breakfast (even for a very low budget place) , which took forever to get to the table. Their idea of an English breakfast is toast, three sausages and two eggs, a fruit platter which had half a banana and few slices of watermelon and papaya. Rooms were clean but absolutely barren. Not even a water bottle, kettle or even soap. They basically advertise someone else's experience to oversell their rooms. There is no sense of service at all. Purely as a bedspace, the place makes more sense. But definitely not what they hype it up to be.

My wife and I booked this hotel months ago to get one of the superior chalets for our stay. We were in Sri Lanka and a few days before this booking was to start I got a message from the Ravan to say there had been an overbooking error and we were being moved to a superior double with a private balcony and the price would be reduced appropriately. On arrival our superior double was probably the worst room in the hotel. The bathroom smells like an open sewer and our private balcony was the open corridor outside our room which had a couple of chairs, judging by the full ashtrays this was clearly smokers corner. When I said this was unacceptable they said they had another room to show me. This turned out to be a completely different hotel and I was expected to pay extra as this was more expensive. Again I refused. We were then left sitting in the corridor with our cases. I then had to run around looking for somewhere to stay. Not exactly what I planned. I would be very reluctant to take this hotels word for anything as even a confirmed booking is no guarantee.