Marina Hotel Kemaman

For RM60, this hotel suits someone looking for a super low budget option. Don't expect much. It was enough for me to clean up and lie down to rest, which was what mattered before continuing my journey the next day.

For a 1* hotel, I'd rate this 5*. Marina was very clean and comfortable, and gave me what I needed for a safe night's sleep. As a rider, all I need is a basic room with a bed, shower and ventilation to recover from a motorbike ride. I got all of that.

We weren't willing to stay after finding really big cockroaches in the room, so we changed hotels. My friend had said the place smelled of cockroaches when we arrived. We asked the uncle to remove them, but he came with mosquito spray. The cockroaches disappeared somewhere after he sprayed, then a small one came out a few seconds later. We were still traumatized, even when the uncle offered another room. We'd been in the room for less than 5 minutes, but the hotel wouldn't return the money. They only gave back the deposit. We'll definitely never go to this hotel again.

I used to book here regularly, but this will probably be my last stay. The whole point is to have somewhere to rest and sleep, yet the cleaning staff kept waking guests with noise. At 5am I heard someone sweeping the flow with a toilet broom, and it went on until 7am. I heard it again around 11pm. I told him the noise was waking people up, but he carried on and ignored the complaints.