Claire
December 6, 2024
My friend and I stayed overnite at the Grand Papua Hotel be4 our Saturday boat transfer to Triton Bay DIve Resort not wanting to chance missing it from a flt disruption. NEVER AGAIN will we submit ourselves to a stay at this place on our next Triton Bay trip. We'll take our chances missing the routine boat transfer and gladly pay for the non-routine boat transfer as opposed to staying at the Grand Papua Hotel again.
Firstly, the receptionist was hopeless. She didn't speak any English and didn't do very well using Google Translate either. Then when she took our passports to make copies then she had to be asked to return my friend's passport. She kept turning to a nearby housekeeping staff who spoke English very well for translation help. I guess the housekeeper was also the bellhop as this Superwoman lugged our heavy, gear laden bags up the stairs to the 2nd floor as there was no lift. Thank goodness for this woman's help.
Then one of the assigned rooms had been used unbeknowst to the receptionist, and not cleaned as the dirty sheets were still on the bed. Luckily, my friend was upgraded to a grand deluxe room, more spacious and clean! In my room the AC only worked with the key card inserted resulting in a hot room upon returning and the positioning of the AC unit only allowed for the cooled air to be directed to the door leading to the small balcony (which I was not secureable and I decided I was safe enuf being it was the 2nd floor facing the front of the Hotel) resulting in my lowering the temp as much as possible to get the rest of the room where my bed was cool enough for sleeping. The washbasin was about six inches from my knees when I sat down on the toilet and the shower was moldy – smelling and I did not take a shower in that stall.
The restaurant was even more abysmal! 3 out of 5 items listed on each page of the menu were not available (there were at least 5 menu pages) and this was not made clear until you'd pointed to what you wanted as, guess what, the wait staff spoke no English and couldn't use Google Translate also. No Bintang Beer, Coca-Cola, Sprite nor other soft drinks were available, but they did have watermelon juice that was chilled. So we sat and waited and waited a good long time for anything to be served which was miserable as it was very hot and humid with lots of mosquitos. The one thing the waiter did was turn on a floor fan; I took it upon myself to do the same with a 2nd fan that was sitting unused. Guess we should have taken advantage of the room service menu, but I can't imagine how difficult that would have been to order.
This Hotel has a long ways to go before it stands up to the Grand in it's name.