The Grand Walawwa

The hotel was very grand and immediately impressed upon our arrival. There was a nicely sheltered swimming pool to relax at. The accommodation was beautifully furnished and the bathroom was excellent. We were presented with a cake and some music to celebrate our wedding anniversary which was a very nice touch. Breakfast and dinner were both excellent. Mr Anand and his entire team excelled during our stay.

Nothing really, a great stay

+ The Garden was beautiful, the hotel is on a hill + The furniture in the room was ok + Very good facilities, but poorly maintained + There was an iron + There was a hairdrier + Warm welcoming - Huge problem with insects - Insects on the sheets - We kill two cockroaches during the night - We rent two bedrooms for the same price, but they were very different in terms of size. - There were stains on the sheets. - Full of ants - The hot water is available when you switch a key, it was off when we arrived - Our door was not maintained properly and it was very hard to close - There was a dead lizard on the floor. There were no other guests except us which was very.

It was just excellent, and incredible value for money.

Nothing

The most beautifully restored colonial property, wonderful and attentive staff, incredible room and bed, loved relaxing by the pool. Diner and breakfast was delicious.

Limited hot water. Limited seats ( only 4) around the luxurious pool… wait times for dinner were too long… close to 1 hour on one evening.

Beautiful building renovated to high standards. Tasty Srilankan breakfast.

I stayed at Grand Walawwa with my family on 14th January 2025, and it was one of the most disappointing experiences I’ve ever had at any hotel. We booked four rooms through Booking.com under my wife’s name, who is a foreign national, solely because she had a discount on her account. However, I was the one who organised and paid for the stay as a gift for my family members. I paid over 1.5 LKR per night per stay, expecting a premium experience. Instead, we were met with unprofessionalism and discriminatory behavior that completely overshadowed our stay. The check-in process initially seemed smooth. My wife provided her ID, and I, as her Sri Lankan husband( foreign resident), was standing right there. The staff completed the check-in without any mention of needing additional IDs. However, shortly after, when we were no longer at the reception, the staff deliberately approached my brother who is Sri Lankan and demanded two local IDs from him. They did this without having the decency to address me or my wife, even though the booking was under her name and the check-in was already finalized. This behavior was not just unprofessional; it was blatantly discriminatory. It’s clear the staff assumed my wife was the one paying simply because she’s a foreign national, completely disregarding my presence and role in the booking. Their biased attitude toward local guests was evident in how they singled out my brother while treating foreign guests differently. This wasn’t about hotel policy; it was about prejudice. If there truly was a policy requiring local IDs, why wasn’t it mentioned during check-in? Why was my brother approached separately as if he didn’t belong there? This selective enforcement of so-called “rules” is nothing short of discrimination. As a Sri Lankan, I find it disgraceful that locals are treated like second-class guests in their own country, especially when they are paying customers. This experience was insulting, humiliating, and completely...

very nice hotel with big room, bathroom, and great breakfast not far from the elephant river

Lovely property! Beautiful weddings

This property was a wonderful experience. The staff were incredibly friendly and accommodating. They were so attentive my teenage kids said they felt like royalty. The food in the restaurant was delicious and the quantities were huge. We only stayed one night as we were between Sigiriya and The Elephant Freedom Project tour. But we would have stayed longer if we could. We loved the pool and the rooms.

Pool, restaurant, staff and rooms

Comfortable rooms and good food. Friendly happy staff. Lovely fruit juices