Cinnamon Lakeside

My friend and I travelled to Colombo in January from the UK. The hotel is large, modern, well appointed. Comfortable bedrooms, ample choice at breakfast (which can get busy). Our room had a Lakeside view, pretty enough, but it also overlooked the poolside bar/club which had loud music playing till the very early hours, rendering sleep a challenge. I would recommend checking this, before you book, or stay on the other side of the hotel. However, what soured our stay was that the day after we checked in at the hotel, we were victims of a scam. As we left the hotel to walk to the local temple in the morning (still jet lagged), a man claiming to be a hotel employee started a conversation with us. He claimed his name was Sangha Perera. He appeared to be helpful, giving us directions. As it was raining, he advised us that taking a tuk tuk around the main tourist attractions would be easier and cheaper. As he was connected to the hotel, we trusted him. He 'found' us a tuktuk, and even joined us acting as an unnoficial guide. Eventually he ended up taking us to an 'officially credited' government approved jewellery shop, which had 50% off,  he even told us a percentage of profits would be donated to tsunami orphans. We were pressurised by the shop management (all men) into purchasing items.  After that the tuktuk driver told us the ride for 2.5 hours would cost equivalent of £100 in rupees, and things got very heated until we paid up. We reported the matter to the Jeevani Perera, Lobby Manager at Colombo Cinnamon Lakeside hotel. She told us the man did not work at the hotel, and an identical incident had happened previously. We also spoke to the hotel security officer, who said he would check hotel security videos. Later we even sent them photos of the man claiming to be an hotel employee and the tuktuk driver. We were disappointed to receive no response from them. BE WARNED if you stay at this hotel. Scammers are working around there, and the hotel seemingly turns a blind eye, without advising guests checking in! (SEE PHOTOS OF SCAMMERS ATTACHED). Am sure the same thing goes on outside other hotels too... We eventually went to the local police, who were helpful, and they went with us to get our money back from the jewellery shop (Lanka Sapphire Lapidary PVT Ltd., no 83 Dharmaphala Mawatha, Colombo 07), but it was not easy to do so. A salutary lesson.

One of the worst rooms i have ever been during my two month vacation. Unbelievable that they can offer rooms of this quality. had lunch buffet in the restaurant and it was filthy around and under the tables after children had thrown food on the ground and no one bothered to clean up until i asked them as it was so bad. The front desk should have known to give a decent room to a canadian passport holder even if i was a local living out of the country for 50 years and travelled the world but never seen such dirty badly maintained rooms.

Excellent hotel service. Good location