De Saram House by Geoffrey Bawa

Excellent location in central Colombo. Lovely history and design elements across the whole property. Attentive and helpful staff were on hand to assist with everything.

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Original authentic property with lovely staff.

Staff were very helpful, location was great - nice part of town, but quieter and easy to get around from so a good base. Room was spacious and air con worked well

Room felt a bit basic for the price but other rooms in the property looked really stunning

Good location and nice, trendy neighborhood with cafes and restaurants. The house offers a more authentic stay than a hotel and has the Bawa architectural history. The room was spacious. The younger gentleman from the staff was always friendly.

To describe the accommodation as a 4 star hotel is very misleading. It is a 2-3 star bed and breakfast in a house owned by the Bawa Fund. The family stays there once a year (from what we read) and the rest of the time it is rented out. This is definitely clear from the services, as they are very different from a hotel and there are no amenities. The staff was not very friendly. The older gentleman was annoyed when we arrived 2 hours before check in and initially said we could not wait in the common area until check in time. Eventually he let us stay and check in about 30min early. The same person rushed us out on check out day. He was sometimes nice but generally seemed bothered. However, the younger gentleman was always friendly. The room was very noisy. From our room, we could hear every noise from outside, animals, insects, the children from a school nearby which was very loud in the early morning. The house is not very well maintained, it feels rather dusty and is not as vivid as it looks in the booking pictures. The terrace outside our room had dusty cushions, and the towels, bedsheets and pillowcases had stains on them. When coming and leaving the property, someone has to open a huge entrance gate for you which is not a big problem but can become an inconvenience if you enter and exit multiple times a day. Overall, it won’t be a bad stay if you know what to expect. The house offers an authentic stay with several inconveniences, but for us it was misleading to describe it as a 4 star hotel. Therefore, the price should have been lower for what it offered, but we understand that a large part of the price is because of the Bawa name.

It was a pleasure to stay at this beautiful home surrounded by Bawa’s wonderful design work. The staff were always super helpful in assisting our needs during the stay.

The architecture and location

The breakfast was poor

I had breakfast there on one of the two mornings I was there. It was fine, not exceptional. I am not a fan of chicken sausages/chicken ham, which was the only option with eggs! It was a simple breakfast but not memorable — but the wonderful part was experiencing the dining room, large and airy, a part of the Bawa Modernist design heritage.

I think the breakfast could have more, and a few innovative options, though we were told that this was Bawa's preferred breakfast, which may make it authentic for the house. But then the house is owned by the De Sarams, who may have had their own breakfast traditions, which could also be incorporated!

Historic property in excellent condition

Nothing