Cereja Hotel & Resort Da Lat

I was offered a room upgrade to "Premium Deluxe Lake view" room in Block G upon check-in but this upgrade is a huge disappointment (I wonder how the receptionist could even call this an upgrade?!?). The only plus point to this room type is the large size of its room and balcony. The other aspects of this room are horrendous. It’s ironical that this more expensive “Premium” room category is so bad in its maintenance and so inadequate in the furnishings and interior decoration. In comparison to the other blocks, this G block’s room and lobby is downright shabby-looking and far from appealing. My advice is to go for the blocks closer to the restaurant, such as block D, E or F – no need for any upgrades here- even the Deluxe category rooms look a lot better cared-for and appealing in these few blocks, compared to the neglected G block. The Negatives: 1. Big mold stains next to the toilet/shower-room door, ugly, random spots of wall repainting on many parts of the room walls - most likely to cover up some stubborn, old dirt marks on the walls 2. Terrible stench from the drainage holes in the toilet/shower-room 3. Safe which couldn’t be used because it’s locked by an earlier guest 4. The most laughable part of my stay in this room is that with such a HUGE room size, there is ONLY ONE chair in the room. There is NO OTHER chair, either in the room or at the huge balcony 5. The menu for lunch and dinner is quite pathetic, with just about 5 or 6 choices – mainly fried rice or noodle soup and appear overpriced for such basic meals. Didn’t see any other restaurants or cafes nearby, other than some random makeshift stalls (hygiene-risk) further out, near the small main road 6. Communications with the reception staff is tedious as their English language skills is seriously limited and at times, my requests were misunderstood. They are nice and polite in general, but the language problem can be exasperating, if anything BEYOND the most basic request/response is required The Positives: 1. The hotel premises are clean and tidy, with lots of beautiful flowers and pine trees surrounding the hotel 2. Breakfast spread is huge, varied and fresh 3. Free 15-minute shuttle to Da Lat centre twice a day (8.30 am and 2 pm) with pickup from the drop-off point back to the hotel 2.5 hours later

I stayed for 2 nights and below are good and ng points. Good: 1) Very spacious gardens and surroundings with nature and lake. 2) Quiet environment and feeling cool at outside NG: 1) There are no air con inside room and need to open windows when inside room 2) Mosquito will be expected at night. 3) Shower room and broken pipe toilet 4) Slow dining service. (We ordered food and waited for 35 mins)

Location is too far, but it’s service is perfect.

This resort appear to cater mainly to Korean tour groups – I suspect that over 95% of the guests are from Korea whose presence are felt most evidently during breakfast hours (6.30 to 9.30 am). Among the items offered in the buffet breakfast are Kimchi, Gimbap and other typical Korean dishes (even the food labels include Korean characters/text as well). Regardless, the huge buffet spread is still fairly varied and delicious. The entire resort became deserted by around 9 am when all the holiday groups leave by the coaches and the hotel grounds remain eerily quiet until the groups return at about 5-6 pm and/or when new groups arrive at night. The room is sp****ly furnished (only ONE chair in the room and NONE at the balcony - the website photos of balcony chairs/table are misleading - don't be fooled by the "photography props"). What's worse is that the room (in a neglected building at the far end of the resort) that I was given was not well-maintained eg terrible stench from drainage holes in shower-room, molds on walls and unsightly, obvious paint patch ups on walls and mini-bar is not cold at all even when the temperature control is set at the lowest. Communications with the staff is very difficult as English is not well understood by them. In fact, the reception staff gave me wrong information at times due to miscommunication, though they are generally nice and polite to guests. Transport from and to the airport is expensive - 400,000 to 450,000 Dong - whether by advance private car booking or taxi. The hotels' free city shuttle is offered twice a day - shuttle leaves hotel at 8.30 am and 2 pm and leaves the city pickup point (opposite the 3D museum) at 11 am and 4.30 pm for the trip back to hotel. Meal options (lunch/dinner) are very limited in the vicinity of the hotel. There were smoke from nearby forest fires that were blown towards the hotel during some days of my stay so this really marred my experience. Well, enough negatives above to outweigh the hotel's pretty flowers and tranquil pine forests - what a pity.