Trinco Beach Resort

The rooms were the worst part of our stay, and this was the worst hotel experience of all my travels. From day one, my boyfriend and I were given the wrong room, not the one we’d booked and paid for. For over three days we stayed on the ground floor without a balcony, although we’d specifically chosen one so we could dry our clothes. The manager kept saying the ground floor had a “balcony,” but the so-called shared area in the photo was filled with the owners’ and staff’s motorbikes, bicycles, and trash. How could we dry our swimsuits there? After four days, we were finally moved upstairs, only to find there was no hot water. From 9 PM to 3 AM we waited for a room with hot water so we could shower. By the fourth day, they still hadn’t given us the room we’d actually booked on Booking.com. The staff were absent, and the hotel completely ruined our vacation. In over a week, the room was never cleaned. Towels weren’t changed, trash wasn’t removed, and they didn’t even put a new trash bag in the bin. We had to do everything ourselves, searching the first floor for “clean” towels, which weren’t guaranteed, and garbage bags. The staff clearly didn’t care about guests. The hotel refused to refund us or offer a discount for not providing the room we paid for. The plumbing was falling apart, the bed linens were dirty, and geckos were everywhere. We found them wide open at night. The ground-floor “balconies” are shared spaces used by hotel staff themselves. Despite what’s advertised, there’s no beach or swimmable sea near the hotel. The nearby area is residential, with a trash-filled shoreline that even locals avoid. There’s no infrastructure, no people, nothing. The hotel also doesn’t have a swimming pool like the photos show. The photos are fake! For a proper beach, you need a tuk-tuk ride of 15 minutes or a walk of over 30-40 minutes. I wouldn’t recommend this disaster even if it were free.

The service was really poor, and it didn’t feel worth the money. After finding cockroaches in our room twice, we had to ask to move. The only room they offered was a downgrade from our triple deluxe to a much smaller standard room with a single bed. The hotel wouldn’t give us even a partial refund, saying they would have to cancel the booking to change the room. We tried to explain that we hadn’t caused the problem and had no choice since staff couldn’t get rid of the cockroaches. Nobody from the hotel replied to our WhatsApp explanation or seemed to care.

The air conditioning worked well and helped me sleep comfortably, but it was the one clear plus in an otherwise disappointing stay. The photos on Google Maps showed a pool, which was a big part of why I booked Trinco Beach Resort through Booking.com. There is no pool, though, and the property is a roadside building rather than the relaxing beachside place those pictures suggested. In Room 1001, staff told me not to use the bedside plugs because of a power shortage. The door lock stuck, especially when I tried to double-lock it from inside, which made me uneasy. The shower drained badly because its gully was clogged, and the water pressure was very weak. There was a kettle and cups but no tea bags or sugar. They left water bottles on the first day but not the second. I wouldn’t recommend the resort based on this visit. The room’s good AC didn’t make up for the electrical and bathroom problems, the troublesome lock, missing supplies, and pool photos that gave the wrong impression.

We spent hours dealing with room changes and trying to get basics like hot water and towels. It was stressful and exhausting, and it took away from our holiday. At one point staff asked us to move again at 1:00 am, which was completely unreasonable. Their English was very limited, and when they tried to address problems, they’d leave before anything was properly resolved. The manager would only answer on WhatsApp, not by phone, and we weren’t given a senior manager’s or the owner’s contact, so there was no way to escalate things. We booked nine nights for four people, two couples, through Booking.com, and the hotel charged us in cash at a price $26 higher than the official one. From the first day, much of what we found didn’t match the listing. The rooms looked nothing like the photos, the facade was shabby, and there was no pool despite it appearing in pictures. The rooms weren’t properly cleaned, and there was no housekeeping during our stay: no room cleaning, fresh sheets, or trash removal. We got fresh towels only after asking. Both couples were first given rooms without the promised balconies for the first three nights. One couple had no hot water, which wasn’t fixed until around midnight, after two hours of complaints and arguing or talking with staff. That couple was later moved again to a room without a balcony or fridge, with just one towel for two people. The Wi-Fi wouldn’t connect, so we used mobile internet. Reaching the beach meant walking through private houses past an aggressive dog. It seemed meant for fishermen rather than tourists and wasn’t suitable for swimming. There are photos here showing some of the problems. I’d tell travelers to avoid this hotel. What we found didn’t match the pictures on Maps or Booking, and there are better places in Trincomalee for honest service, comfort, and value.