InterContinental Hayman Island Resort

Wow - Barely ever write reviews, but this was such a horrible experience... * Front desk is unorganized and essentially could not arrange anything effectively, you sit there waiting on reception for 60 minutes so they can bring you to your room, almost like they forget you exist. * The front checkin person made us wait for other guests to arrive before giving us a welcome, because it was too hard for him to welcome us by himself, this would mean he has to do the welcome 2x. * No one was aware we were coming, regardless of the fact we hired their most expensive residence and we had to be called by security... * Some Restaurants were closed and unavailable, so we had to order an in-room BBQ, which was $140 per head, for cheap rump and skewers, (told it was wagyu). * When we did get into the restaraunt on the second night, 45 mins to get drinks, 1.5 hours to get food and again, they did not have our reservation so we did not have a table setup. * Could not get what we wanted ordered to our room, cocktails etc, it was a limited menu. * $10 fee to deliver stuff to the room, when you have paid $5000 per night? Wow... * Lastly the boat times, the only boats they have, leave at 645AM or 5PM at night? So, we had to get up at 5AM to get home at a reasonable time, same thing with arrivals, nothing during the middle of the day and again, they charge you $240 for a boat ride when you have paid $5000 Per night. * Not one person asked us how our trip was, or cared about our experience, they actually had no idea we had left the island, rang me in the afternoon to ask when I would be settling the bill, did not know we had left, did not ask a question about our stay. This is not a 5-star resort anymore, its hopeless, they have gone backwards since the one & only days and unfortunately just a rip off. We stay all over southeast Asia and this was the biggest rip off that I have ever experienced and I was so disappointed for my team. Save your money for Bali/Raffles/Alila/Kempinski - They actually know how to spoil their guest who spend $15k in a weekend. Days are unfortunately numbered for this place, literally everyone was complaining...

Great location, but sadly the resort is in dire need of maintenance and a makeover. The sink in our bathroom was smashed, paint chipped off walls and doors. The pool tiles have fallen off and the bottom of the pool has rust marks. There are a lot of other resorts that are 5 star, this is not one.

My wife and I got married late last year and could not afford to go on the honeymoon we would have liked to immediately at the time. We decided to work for the next few months to save up for the honeymoon we wanted. We are both nature/wildlife lovers and were amazed by the beachfront pavilion rooms that this hotel offered and knew it would be the perfect blend of comfort and natural beauty. We decided to splurge on this room thinking that our first ever stay in a 5 star hotel would be worth the money. Our Experience here has soured “5-star” hotels for us and going forward we know that we will be disappointed less by going back to more modest lodgements. We arrived in the evening and after checking in we arrived in our beach-front pavilion room around 7pm. While we were familiarising ourselves with our room we noticed that none of the switches for the lights seemed to be working, lights that were on when we arrived could not be turned off and the rest of the lights were not turning on. We were both getting hungry and also needed to wait for our luggage bags to be taken to our room to begin unpacking so we checked our options for eating dinner and noticed that on the Hayman island app it said all the restaurants on the island closed at 8:30. We decided to eat first and then ask at reception for help with our room and assumed in the time that it would take to finish our meal our luggage bags would be delivered to our room and we could unpack that night. Ate a nice meal but with a relatively long wait time for it(servers were excellent but seemed stretched thin). We came back to reception to get help with our room and a concierge drove us back (where we found our luggage had still not been delivered to us) and tried to help us with our lights, proving that every switch and button in the building was not functioning. They returned to reception and shortly after we received a call that the issue was server based and could not be fixed that night so we would have to stay in a different room in the hotel building proper. We asked if our bags can be dropped to our new temporary room and finally got our luggage back albeit with no reason to fully unpack our belongings and make ourselves comfortable as we assumed we would be moving back to our fixed room early the next morning. We were tired at this point and decided to go to sleep with no alarm, then see if we can move back into our original room after breakfast to unpack with the daylight, even if they were still working on resolving the issue. Ate breakfast the next morning around 9am and enquired at reception about our room. We were informed that the engineers were currently in our room working on resolving the problem(so not just a server-based issue then) and we would not be able to enter our room until they were finished. They told us that we would be contacted as soon as it was resolved and even took our personal phone number. Because we were so eager to move into the room which we paid for we chose to stay in our room to wait for them to finish fixing the issue and be ready for when they contacted us that it is ready. Hours passed until 2pm and we were getting hungry with no calls or knock on our door so we left the room to have lunch. After lunch we asked again at reception for an update about the status of our room and we were actually told it was ready, and that they were trying to reach us to tell us. Unsure if they only rang our room while we were at the restaurant and forgot about taking our mobile number but regardless this was good news and we were told that as soon as we were ready to be taken to our proper room they would take us and the luggage. Went back to our temporary room and said to each other that we would call them immediately to come take us to our room because we only had a small few things unpacked and lying around. Well this was another issue as we could not get through to reception. Neither phone in the room seemed to be working(perhaps explaining why they could not contact us but they still had our mobile/could have knocked) and out of frustration we just hauled all our baggage back to reception ourselves after we were done. Arrived in reception and said we would like to be taken to our room now. This was apparently another issue for them because a group of ~15 people were arriving at reception at that time and we were told that “as soon as we are done with this batch of arrivals, then we will take you to your room.” We were at a loss as to why this group of people arriving then was given priority over us, who had arrived almost 24 hours prior and were still not in the room we had paid for. Approximately 20 minutes later a receptionist who just came back from break was told to bring us to our room. To her credit she did offer to help us with our bags, we were however not comfortable letting such a small lady attempt to lift a luggage bag that likely weighed more than half her bodyweight so we again carried our own luggage on the journey to our room. After unpacking it was evening time and only then we felt like we could actually begin our short holiday here, losing 1 out of the 4 days that we booked in our room. We took a walk on the beach in the twilight and then went to have a meal together. At no point was any kind of recompense offered/mentioned to us throughout our troubles so far but as we knew we were entitled to something we went to reception again and asked what can be done for us. They told us we would receive credit on our room, I asked if that was all that we would receive and they repeated that yes the room credit is all that they will give to us. I was livid after this exchange and later checked the value of our room for that night. The room credit we were given was less than 1/3 the value of our room for that night. Even after we were moved into our proper room there was still issues present. Some clothes that we had sent for laundry returned still stained. The ceiling fans in the bedroom and deck were not responsive, unable to turn on at times and then impossible to turn off. The shower heads were also not working properly, only the rain shower head worked and the detachable head could not be turned on. The toilet also constantly dripped water into the bowl which made it hard for me to sleep. Although these issues were present, my wife and I were so fed up with not being appropriately assisted that we chose not to ask for any more repairs/raise any ticket requests on the app as we just wanted to be with each other as much as possible without dealing with the hotel. As we checked out we did list the issues still present in the room to, hopefully, ensure they were dealt with before the next guests arrived in that room. Overall, it felt like we were always the lowest priority throughout our stay and that we were forgotten about because we would not kick up much of a fuss. The location itself is breath-taking and we loved every close encounter we had with the wildlife on the island but is is a shame that this hotel is the only location you can stay at in such a beautiful location.

Firstly - Management please don’t bother responding. I’ve read your previous responses to negative reviews and they are completely useless / fluffy / condescending. In my opinion Management (or lack thereof) is the major issue I read a review which I concur with - there isn’t one significant thing that makes the experience really poor. It’s a combination and build up of numerous things. Overpriced resort (owned by a multinational so corporate greed vs quality experience very evident) Dated / tired - everywhere Inconsistent service to the point our best entertainment was watching how many coffees got returned each morning because the staff couldn’t find the right table. We experienced the same personally at all restaurants at one time or another with watching food and drinks being delivered somewhere else. Really really bad food options. There is only 3 restaurants with very limited offerings. The two pools shut off food and bar at 4pm. The main bar then opens but doesn’t even have water views. Massively overpriced given the poor quality. The half decent Italian was closed on our last night (day 5) because of a private function (read corporate greed comment above) Predominantly backpacker staff - and whilst all lovely and friendly - they don’t have the experience to back up the price point and expectation. If you want 3-4 star service with 5-6 star prices go right ahead. Housekeeping turned up at 5pm on 3 out out 5 days (despite a complaint on day 2). This in a a $1600 per night beach pavilion Plenty of QLD resorts that have far more to offer for the price (im not naming them so they don’t get too busy) So disappointed in Hayman as have always wanted to go there. Won’t be returning .

From rotting decks around the pool to no staff to service people from check in, pool service, restaurant service. Just a horrible experience. Everyone we spoke to staying there were shocked by the state of the venue and the service as well. Would never go back. Such a rip off! Photo below is a photo of our room. It was disgusting. Didn’t get a photo of the mouldy outdoor setting on our balcony