Puri Santrian

We stayed at Puri Santrian for 14 nights and, unfortunately, the experience fell well short of what we expected from a resort positioned at the four-to-five-star level, depending on which booking platform or source you look at.

For context, we are very experienced travellers, typically taking around six holidays a year, and have stayed at more than 30 four- and five-star all-inclusive resorts around the world. We therefore feel we have a reasonable benchmark for what constitutes a quality resort experience. We don’t expect perfection, and we understand that things can occasionally go wrong, but we do expect problems to be handled professionally and the overall standard of service and accommodation to reflect the price and positioning of the property.

There are some positives. The resort has a good beachfront location, the public areas and swimming pools are clean, there was generally good availability of sun loungers, and the complimentary bicycle hire was a nice touch.

However, these positives were significantly outweighed by the service issues and, in particular, the way our room booking was handled.

The room issue was particularly disappointing.

For the first 7 of our 14 nights, we were put into a Superior Room despite having booked and paid for a Deluxe Room. We had the booking confirmation clearly showing the Deluxe Room allocation, and this confirmation had been provided to the hotel.

When we raised the issue with the hotel, rather than simply checking the booking and resolving it, we were met with disbelief that our reservation was actually for the upgraded room.

It took intervention from our travel agent, Kenwood Travel, to finally resolve the situation. To their credit, Kenwood Travel were excellent and sorted the problem within a matter of hours. We were subsequently moved to a Family Suite and given food and beverage vouchers.

What was particularly disappointing was that at no point did anyone from the hotel offer a genuine apology for the error or the lack of understanding.

The food and service were also inconsistent:-

Breakfast was very limited in variety and felt like a fairly standard buffet — pastries, cereals, juices and an omelette station. One particularly strange restriction was that you were apparently limited to one latte or cappuccino at breakfast, after which you had to have the standard filter coffee. This is an unusual policy for a resort positioned at this level.

Lunch service was another recurring problem and could turn lunch into a minimum two-hour affair. It was extremely difficult to have meals arrive at the same time for everyone on the table. On numerous occasions, one person’s food would arrive considerably later than everyone else’s, sometimes after others had already finished eating. What should have been a relaxed holiday lunch became a frustrating exercise in waiting for food to arrive. Over a two-week stay, this became a recurring and very noticeable problem.

More broadly, the service was remarkably inconsistent. Some members of staff were pleasant and helpful, but the overall experience lacked the level of attentiveness, organisation and professionalism we would expect from a quality four/five-star resort.

There was also very little in the way of entertainment or organised events during our stay. If you’re looking for a resort with activities and atmosphere beyond the pool and beach, there isn’t much happening here. The watersports offering was also extremely limited.

Overall

Puri Santrian undoubtedly has some good features — particularly its beachfront position, clean grounds and pools, availability of loungers and free bicycles. But for us, these positives weren’t enough to compensate for the poor handling of our room booking, the extremely dated Superior Room, lack of apology, inconsistent service, limited breakfast, painfully slow lunch service and lack of resort activities.

The biggest frustration is that many of these issues are completely avoidable. Mistakes happen, but what matters is how a hotel deals with them. In our case, the hotel didn’t resolve its own mistake — our travel agent did.

A special mention must therefore go to Kenwood Travel, who were excellent throughout and resolved the room issue quickly. Without their intervention, I suspect our experience would have been considerably worse.

Sadly, based on our 14-night stay, we would not return to Puri Santrian and would struggle to recommend it to other seasoned travellers.

The resort has the location and potential, but in our experience, the accommodation, service delivery and overall standards simply don’t justify the level at which the resort is positioned.

Thank you Miss Emily for such a beautiful experience with my wonderful tea & massage. I feel amazing 💚🌺 This a beautiful spa and so worth a visit.