Ratings based on 436 Verified Reviews
4.5 Room cleanliness
4.5 Service & staff
4.6 Room comfort
4.4 Hotel condition
Expedia Verified Reviews
by A verified traveler
Posted 10 Apr 2024
Had a lovely stay, would like to have seen more food options and later bar food service.
Activities team were great, reception and waiting staff were not very friendly, expected a higher level of service.
by A verified traveler
Posted 14 Feb 2024
The property has a beautiful setting with the sea and a primary forest as its backdrop. The hotel excursions are excellent with an added inspiration on marine and forest conservation. Coral garden snorkelling and forest trekking are highly recommended. The staff are all genuinely kind and attentive. A very good resort.
by A verified traveler
Posted 5 Jan 2024 on Hotels
by A verified traveler
Posted 4 Oct 2023
by A verified traveler
Posted 2 Oct 2023 on Hotels
by A verified traveler
Posted 31 Jul 2023 on Hotels
by A verified traveler
Posted 16 Jul 2023
Starting with the positives, Gaya Island Resort is in a wonderful setting. The accommodation is spacious with nice outlooks, though depending where you are you could have quite an uphill hike to your rooms. We had the buffet meals in the dining room and the standard of what was offered was very high. The staff were very friendly and accommodating.
The service however of the management and reservations team leading up to our visit was appalling. Despite having paid in full we were sent automated messages threatening to cancel our booking and keep any monies already paid. When we replied explaining payment had been made and asking for clarification we simply received the same message again. None of these messages came with a name or contact details. Several attempts to ring the reservations line all concluded the same way i.e. being told all the lines were busy and the phone call was dropped. Expedia's initial attempts to contact the resort also failed but we assume they eventually worked, as we received an email from the resort informing us we should ignore the previous messages. No hint of an apology was offered.
On top of this, on two of the days we stayed there was, for different periods of time, no water and no electricity. Regarding the water, on one occasion this lasted for over 9 hours.
Finally the cleanliness of the resort in some areas was disappointing. In particular the gym floor was covered in sand and even hairs - very unpleasant.
by A verified traveler
Posted 29 Oct 2022
Villa was nice and spacious. Service was excellent.
Food needs to improve
by A verified traveler
Posted 5 Mar 2020 on Hotels
by A verified traveler
Beautiful Gaya Island Retreat
Posted 28 Jan 2020 on HotelsMy family and I stayed at GIR for 2 nights and had a great time. The rooms were enormous (complete with separate areas for walk in robes, bathtub, shower, toilet). Room amenities were excellent, with bug spray and ointment for insect bites. Our rooms had fantastic views across the sea to Mt Kinabalu, beautiful to watch the sunrise every morning. The staff were all very friendly and attentive to our needs. We will absolutely be back again. Thank your GIR for a great time!
