Heritance Negombo

Excellent hospitality and staff was exceptional specially Sithmi

To the management team:

I booked one night at Sentido Heritance Negombo directly through your official website, because the rate was slightly lower than on the OTAs. The booking was accepted, my card was charged, and I received a confirmation.

At check-in I was told that I had booked a Sri Lankan resident rate, that it was not valid for a foreign guest, and that I owed an additional charge. My question was straightforward: if this rate was not available to me, why did your booking system allow me to complete the reservation and take my payment? I then asked to cancel instead. That was refused under your cancellation policy — applied to a booking you had just declared invalid. You would neither honour the price you charged me, nor return it.

This went on for more than an hour, standing in a reception area where the air conditioning was not working at all. I was told at one point that the situation was my fault.

I finally said that I would write about what had happened. The change was immediate: an upgrade, drinks, apologies, and close attention for the rest of my stay. I want to be clear that I received all of this. My complaint is not that I was treated badly in the end — I was, eventually, treated very well.

My complaint is what that minute revealed. I understand that, at properties of this kind, employees can be rewarded when guests name them positively in reviews, and can face consequences when reviews go badly. That structure explains what I saw. The decision to resolve my case had been available from the beginning; it was released not by the merits of the complaint, but by the prospect of it becoming public.

So there are two failures here, and neither one belongs to your front desk. Your booking platform sells resident rates to foreign guests and takes payment with no residency check before arrival. And your escalation process responds to a guest's reach rather than to the facts. Your staff have no authority over either. I am deliberately naming no one, and no individual should be held responsible for this review.

A guest should be looked after because that is the standard of the hotel — not because the words "I will write a review" change everything in a single minute.

One question, which I would ask you to answer in your public reply: does your booking site now verify residency before accepting payment for a resident rate?