Mahout Lodge

Stunning hotel in a stunning location but this hotel is not a hotel there are NO staff!!! We arrived and there was one "volunteer" lady who said there was no staff just her and the mahout (in charge of the elephants). A Canadian couple arrived the sane day and was also staying 2 nights the same as us but had already said they we're going to change hotels as no hot water in room. No cook / chef, if you wanted dinner this was at 6pm and the food was bought in from town by motorxycle which consisted of cold rice, egg salad and cold fried aubergine and a tiny bottle of water. There was no option to buy any cold soft drinks or beer even though there were fridges everywhere. There was a shuttle service timetable behind reception we was told to ignore this and let the eccentric lady know if we required taking to town. We booked a trip and was picked up at 7am and fave our key to the lady. Coming back we asked the travel office in town about returning to the hotel about 2.30pm they told us we would have to wait until 6pm which by then it would be dark so we paid for a tuk tuk back who after f Giving him the leaftet of the hotel and asked if he knew the hotel took us to the wrong elephant camp and then wanted more money which obviously I refused. We got back about 3.30pm and some kids the relatives of the owner as I understand we're there watching TV, drinking beer and smoking in the foyer with there sleeping bags in front of the only TV in the hotel. There was no sign of Alicia who took our too key therefore we had no access to our room or to get changed to even use the pool. There was no refreshments for us and it was apparent that we was the ONLY guests staying at the hotel. Basically we had been left alone in a remote hotel in the jungle with a couple of 13 year old boys!!! No food no water no phone no contact to the outside world. We finally got our room key at 6.30pm!!!!!! This is NOT a functioning hotel!!! We booked a taxi for 5am as we had a flight to get at 7.30am, the airport was only 15 mins away but no taxi came. Alicia appeared at 5am and thought we had gone, she was then phoning people begging for someone to come out to us regardless of the price, again no free airport shuttle service was available, we had to pay through the nose - luckily we had some money left!! We didn't think we was going to make the flight, this was not a relaxing experience it was awful. Please note the second night there was no mention of dinner luckily we had bought some snacks from town. The hotel is a complete shambles and needs to be managed by someone who has an understanding of hospitality which is currently non-existent and like others have said this hotel should not have a licence to operate. If you got hurt at this hotel in my opinion this could end up in a fatality avoid at all costs and book a hotel in the town.

Pros: comfy bed and big room Cons: brown water through taps, grounds are messy, shuttle appauling, restaurant was a joke we waites 1.5 hours after ordering before a group of 16 people...half of them got their food before we cancelled ours, then they cancelled the rest of theres. We had 3 nights here, 2 nights 2 staff members opened our door when we were in bed!!! Tried to look for another hotel but none available so short. Would try to have got a refund but the communication was so so poor. Never visited the pool. Avoid.

Too far from airport and no transport available to go to main town apart from the hotel shuttle with v limited service - customer service is appalling - no staff around when needed - we had no power in our room and no hot water - reported to the 'so called office ' no help came and after a long wait the water started but it was filthy and the water drainage was so poor it was not moving and filled up the tub Beautiful views and the Acess to the elephants was the only highlight - food was not worth it at all and if you were not back on time no dinner was available and nothing close by either Wifi very poor or none at all I would never ever return to this place and a lot of I improvements are required - how such a place can be given a licence to operate is beyond belief