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Reviews of Sand & Sandals Desaru Beach Resort & Spa

5 out of 5
Sand & Sandals Desaru Beach Resort & Spa
Bandar Penawar, Bandar Penawar, Johor

Reviews

7.4

Good

Rating 10 - Excellent. 98 out of 465 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 202 out of 465 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 94 out of 465 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 44 out of 465 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 27 out of 465 reviews" "

7.2/10

Cleanliness

7.4/10

Staff & service

7.6/10

Amenities

7.4/10

Property conditions & facilities

7.2/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

8/10 Good

Hui Ling

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Wedding anniversary trip as this was where my husband proposed 30 years ago. It was under a different management then but it does look dated. Maintenance better than the average Malaysian resort. Nice pool. It’s a large resort but there a few guests and most of the time it felt like we had the place to ourselves. Lots of guests appeared on Saturday night, it seems for a MICE event and disappeared again by Sunday. Despite the few guests, they keep most things going, huge breakfast buffet, cafe, Japanese and local restaurants and the beach bar with a lonely pair of singers who keep on singing all night long even though I never saw anyone in the beach bar! The seasports and ATV, minigolf facilities were also open during the weekend although it seemed closed when we arrived Friday afternoon. Charge are high though - it cost RM65 for adults to play mini golf. Only 3 tackles off guests at dinner time in the Japanese restaurant and none in Herbs and Spices. Teppanyaki chef was totally focused on cooking so it wasn’t a fun experience like you would expect and food was quite tasteless. Wasted opportunity with such a beautiful seafront that they didn’t turn the unused bistro and beachbar into a seafood restaurant. We went to the next door Tunamaya resort’s Nelayan Seafood restaurant and it was bustling with tourists and locals and the food was delicious and cheap. Breakfast big interesting looking loaves of bread was stale and not replaced the next day. Nasi lemak was the best

8/10 Good

Sulaiman

Stayed 1 night in Mar 2024

8/10 Good

FOO

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2024

10/10 Excellent

SIMRAN

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Very friendly staffs
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2024

4/10 Poor

Subramaniam

Travelled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness
-
Stayed 2 nights in Jan 2024

2/10 Terrible

Sew Meng

Travelled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Extremely old and rundown resort! Many things are spoilt in the room and TV is not working. Reported to them on the first day and only sent technician to fix on the 2nd day night. Most of the times nobody pick up the phone when you called for service from the room. They employed foreign workers at the hotel reception who can't speak and understand English well, have hard time to communicate. The resort was flooded after rain and have to walk with barefoot as your feet and shoe will be soaked in water. They only give 1 small tube of shower gel and shampoo for one day. We have to buy it from outside. Terrible experience and don't recommend anyone to stay in this property if you want an enjoyable holiday in Desaru!
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Antony

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Friendly staff and good food
Stayed 5 nights in Dec 2023

6/10 Okay

Elly

Travelled with family, Travelled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service
We waited 3hrs to check in. Poor customer service. Upon checking in, extra bed was not ready (charged at RM130 prpn), room was dusty, lots of sand on the floor, the bed linens and towels got dirty stain marks. The rattan swing chair tumble down when my sister sat on it. Only to find out the base stand was not even and the screw was missing. Duty manager Koko was informed, however he did not turn up, no phone calls were made to check or ask if any medical assistance is needed during the fall. On the last night of our stay, I bump with Koko and ask him why he did not turn up when he received the feedback, he replied high occupancy and he was attending to other guest. We were informed by one of their staff that they have less than 15 manpower doing housekeeping managing 300rooms. So late check in is expected.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

My go to getaway
Wanted to spend our New Year out of the country.. A little disappointed.. They don’t have much to offer. Stay was ok thou. Had been here a few times..
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

6/10 Okay

Yong Sheng

Travelled with partner, Travelled with group
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Service is quite lacking, property is quite rundown and poorly maintained. There was a weird smell in our room. Only good thing that happened to us was a free upgrade to a couple duplex suite and the Nasi Lemak served at breakfast. If not this would be a 2 star review.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

MR, Singapore

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Beach walk, bar, staff
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

2/10 Terrible

Yiheng

Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Cons Property is rundown Staff overworked and the place is extremely crowded if not full There is an automatic air freshener installed in the room which will automatically dispense the air freshener every 15 to 20 mins - pray that you like the scent Pros Room is big though *Relatively* cheap Front desk staff is friendly and helpful Issues Fittings are rusty - feel free to inspect the outdoor bathtub and the mixer Moldy fittings - Faat mou Water heater and aircon not working when I checked into the room, it was fixed after multiple calls to the front desk. Electricity went out in the middle of the night, woke up sweating in a pitch black room - something I earnestly hope I will never experience ever again. The Pillow case in my room has a peculiar stale odor (smells like the typical smell one gets when the clothes are not fully dry stale coconut oil) - not a smell that I would want to rest my face on. Called the front desk but it was not changed until the next day (during housekeeping) Lesson learnt, never skim on accommodation if one is intending to visit a resort, there's a reason why certain other resorts are charging triple or even quadruple the price and still managed to sell out. I am of the opinion that this resort caters more to domestic tourists. Overall 1 star for me, in all honesty your experience will likely differ but I suggest giving this property a miss unless you would like to experience the issues I stated above. Good luck~
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

6/10 Okay

Abdul Nasser, Singapore

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Great place for a short retreat however the place could use some upgrade and a bit more elderly friendly like install bathroom / toilet handle bars and improve overall facade and facilities of the property. It sure could use a new paint job. The Airconditioning was very noisy at night and maintenance told us they need to change parts, so was a bit uncomfortable sleeping (due to noise)
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

Rossy

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The room is sound proof though there is live music at night. Once the balcony door is closed, we hardly hear the music. The room is very spacious and good for kids to move around. Bathroom is huge. The pool view is breathtaking! Only one thing that can be improved is the air conditioning. Air con is not so cold. Not sure if it's because the room is big. I wish I had informed the front desk to look into it or change room but my spouse is not keen. Overall, will recommend to others and come back again.
Stayed 3 nights in Dec 2023

4/10 Poor

Douglas

Travelled with partner
Disliked: Amenities, property conditions & facilities
As a European traveller, very little on the breakfast menu for the European traveller. No variety regarding TV channels ok if you are a local. No Sport or movies. Wifi not reliable.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Muhammad

Travelled with family, Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Umi

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Adeline

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Leisurely Stay
A very comfortable leisurely stay at Sand&Sandals. Staff and crew are really friendly and helpful. We had a great time.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2023

4/10 Poor

L

Disliked: Cleanliness
Stayed 1 night in Dec 2023

8/10 Good

sumit

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Staff & service
Pool needs maintainence.
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

Hanafi

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

10/10 Excellent

Amirrul Asyraf

Business traveller, Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2023

8/10 Good

Lee

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Room big and spacious. Free parking with security. Breakfast limited option. Lots of eatery and shopping options 5pm away from resort.
Stayed 2 nights in Nov 2023

6/10 Okay

Noah

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Beware, the pictures do not tell the e tire picture. The resort is very rundown. The entire property needs updating. But the staff were absolutely wonderful, given how understaffed and poorly managed they were. And the rooms were very nice.

10/10 Excellent

Cindy

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
has all it need as a resort, specially want to highlight the japanese restaurant, food is nice with reasonable price. got a lifeband in the evening, near to the beach. they on lights near the beach area, you can walk along the sandy area at night. But this place need some renovation to make the facilities looks more new.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

8/10 Good

Leroy

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
If only there are cables i.e HBO or Nexflix would be great !
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

6/10 Okay

SAADIAH ABDUL, Singapore

Travelled with family, Travelled with family and small children
Pros 1. Access to beach although the beach is quite steep and not swimmable. Beach area has beach hut that's close proximity with one another 2. Variety of food for breakfast although most item such as bread section and the mains were minimally changed throughout our 4D3N stay. 3. Bed were clean when we arrived, everything required such as towels, mineral water, toiletries, sewing kit, iron and ironing board all provided. Cons 1. We booked two rooms for our stay paying RM3000 which is around SGD$$900 for interconnecting room facing the pool. I asked for a complimentary cake which normally hotels with the same rate we paid for would've provided us with a sliced cake at least complimentary. However Sand and Sandals sent us an email quoting me Half kg cake for Rm150, 1 kg cake for RM300 and RM30 for sliced cake. Such a turn off but we decided to give it a chance. 2. Breakfast for kids is chargeable at almost RM50 per day with us paying additional RM140 for the 3 days. 3. Housekeeping was bad..despite doing room cleaning, our rubbish bin was not cleared on second day. Floor still has stain marks means it was not mopped only swept. 4. The refrigerator has very strong unpleasant smell when we open it. 5. This is the worst part, we called housekeeping for additional mineral water and they took 4 hrs/3 calls to deliver them. I had to explain that I need it for my younger daughter who needs her milk and had ran out of clean water to drink before they have it delivered.
Stayed 3 nights in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

QUN

Travelled with family
Liked: Amenities, property conditions & facilities
Ideal for a slow and easy holidays
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023

4/10 Poor

Edward

Stayed 2 nights in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Vincent Yam Hwee

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Spacious rooms, nice pool for kids, little kids playgym, sumptuous hotel breakfast, close to beach.
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

4/10 Poor

Rosalind

Travelled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Resort is poorly maintained. Lots of things were broken for e.g. none of the bikes, e-bikes or recreational tools were working even though they had advertised them as available to hotel guests. Apparently the bikes have not been serviced since Covid so unsure why they have not taken the opportunity to fix them by now. The building had broken tiles and fixtures. Hot water wasn’t available for the first 24 hrs. The arcade game room had about a dozen games but only maybe 2 were working. The pillows were ridiculously thick and hard like rocks which gave us headaches. The buffet had a good variety of food but the rice dish often tasted uncooked (rice was hard). Some dishes were ok or good. The tea and coffee station were not refreshed daily. No sugar packets left in the container on day 1 of our stay and none on day 2. I knew they hadn’t refreshed it because there was the same trash in them that hadn’t been removed. Brown sugar packets were available but when I opened one the sugar was all mushy indicating they had been exposed to moisture. When I asked the staff to provide sugar, he handed me the spoiled ones. There was definitely a lack of care for quality and standards at this resort.
Stayed 3 nights in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

khairul

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Title: Pleasantly Surprised Family Getaway at Sands and Sandals, Desaru I recently had the pleasure of staying at the "Sands and Sandals" resort in Desaru for a 2-day, 1-night family vacation, and I must say, my expectations were exceeded in more ways than one. Despite some negative online reviews, our experience was truly remarkable. From the moment we arrived, the hospitality was evident. The check-in process was swift and hassle-free, setting a positive tone for our stay. One of the standout features of this resort is the diverse range of eateries available right within the hotel premises. This was a pleasant surprise, as it meant we had a variety of dining options without even needing to leave the hotel. The highlight of our stay was undoubtedly the expansive pool area. The resort has gone above and beyond to cater to all types of guests. There's a lap pool for those seeking some serious swimming, a kids' pool equipped with fun slides, a small waterfall adding a touch of natural beauty, and even a playroom for toddlers. It's safe to say that both young and old alike can find something enjoyable to do here. The access to the beach from the resort grounds was another major plus, making it easy for us to switch between poolside lounging and beach strolls. The attention to family-friendly amenities did not go unnoticed. The playroom and arcade were a hit with our kids, providing them with engaging activities to enjoy throughout our stay. While the overall experience was
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

6/10 Okay

DREAMS OF RIHA

Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

10/10 Excellent

Rahilah

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Very good clean and staff friendly recommends to stay .
Stayed 1 night in Aug 2023

8/10 Good

Surianiza Meriati

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

8/10 Good

WK

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

April

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Authentic beach resort, but please bring back the hammock if possible.
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Pauline

Stayed 1 night in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Hayley

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
This was a very comfortable stay. The staff were super friendly and the facilities excellent. Especially Augustina "Tina" who made my day!
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023

8/10 Good

Nurhafiza

Travelled with family, Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
This is my 4th stay at the hotel and so far I've not experienced any major issues. Hotel is a bit dated but no complains. Housekeeping cleanliness had some hits and miss but overall an ok job. Breakfast variety was good and restaurant staff were friendly & welcoming.
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Jackson

Travelled with family, Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Better than my expectations after read the review..breakfast can be better serve with more varieties..breakfast hall bit crowded during peak hour but just come early.
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2023

8/10 Good

Swanie

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Large rooms direct access to beach but facilities looks old and limited dining choices. No convenience store and Far away from city centre
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

Jassemine

Travelled with family
Disliked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
I already lowered my expectations when booking this resort, but there are still many unacceptable things. Room: the room smelt bad upon our first entry and housekeeping didn’t do a good job cleaning the room. There were leftover wrappers from previous occupants underneath the bed and the toilet door was grimy and full of water stains. Also, the water heater broke down on us twice in the 4 days we were there. Facilities: Run down, but this is true to the photos so no surprises there. The only working facilities in the resort are the pool, indoor playground and game room. Games room/Arcade - half of the machines are not working. They also boast 3 restaurants and 1 cafe, but only 2 restaurants were operational. To be fair, the Japanese restaurant is really good - we ate here every night, but you don’t need to stay in the resort just to dine here. Service: Everything is charged - need transport to the ferry terminal or any attractions? It’s MYR 25 per pax per way. Need a late check out, sure, as long as you pay. Water in the room is complimentary, but we arrived early and the reception told us we would need to purchase our own water prior to check in. It would be preferable to couple the pricing to include transportation as well. Pros: complimentary water & wifi, and buffet breakfast selection was ok. The pool was also well maintained.
Stayed 3 nights in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

Lo

Newly renovation but cleanness and amenity can be improve, stain is found in the towel and bedsheet. Breakfast area could expand to cater for staying guess of the day, being waited for 10mins on my first breakfast
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023

4/10 Poor

imad

Travelled with family
Disliked: Property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Poor experience
Check in took a while. endless queue for breakfast in the morning. Old facilities. poor quality of the breakfast. the only positive thing was the kindness of the the staff and the sun but hotel had nothing to do with that one.
Stayed 3 nights in May 2023

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Room comfort
Disliked: Staff & service, property conditions & facilities
The beach front room was good. It was large, and we could hear the sound of waves during night. A wooden panel covering the water pipes etc in the balcony was off and was about to fall off on the bath tub any moment, and seemed dangerous. We also had unfavourable certain insect visiting us 3 times during our short stay. There weren't much option to have a bite during day, and the bar at the pool was terrible, so we recommend to go out for food and drinks.
Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

6/10 Okay

Hariana

Stayed 1 night in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

Mohd

Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023

10/10 Excellent

doreen

Travelled with family, Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
great experience! completely transformed since the opening of post covid era. met the manager mr Najib and front desk mr Coco very friendly and helpful. stay was pleasant! top service from the whole sand and sandals team from check-in to check-out. keep up the good work and standard. 5 star rating!!
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2023