Taru Villas the Long House - Bentota

Tranquil Atmosphere: This property offers a tranquil and luxurious boutique experience with a limited number of rooms, creating an intimate atmosphere.

This hotel is lovely, it could be incredible with some improvements. It is not quite up to the standard that we have experienced before from the small luxury hotels group. 1st the room: we stayed in the family suite which is a great size and layout for a family. However i would not stay in this room again and this really affected our stay here. The family suite was at the front of the hotel, backing onto the road. There is a mosque next to the room that projected the call to prayer for 1 hour twice a day ( starting before 6am) via loudspeaker, it was so loud that it sounded like the speaker was in the room. Also lots of road noise. The noise in the room is significant and is not mentioned anywhere either in reviews or on the booking websites. This is the only room in the hotel without its own outdoor space. Contrast, all other rooms are at the back of the property near the beach. I would advise against booking the family suite if noise will bother you. Beautifully presented hotel, very well kept and clean. Gorgeous setting, the beach is really lovely although strong currents for swimming. The train that passes through several times a day is not a problem at all. Great food, we took half board which was good value, the meals were huge. Would have been nice to have sri lanken food options on the set menus. Aside from our room the other let-down was the drink service. They serve very little alcohol. There is Lion beer and wine by the bottle, no spirits/cocktails or wine by the glass. There is a reasonable wine list for the bottles but they only had 2 in stock and these were very expensive ( for not a normally expensive bottle). There was no drinks service around the pool or sitting in the grounds, no water bought over to sun loungers as happens in other high class hotels. The bar staff for the first couple of days played their own music through their phones whilst they were clearing away breakfast which really took away the relaxing feel of being around the pool listening to the waves. The manager did put a stop to this after a couple of days but it's disappointing that it was happening in the first place. Mosquitoes are bad here, at about 5pm they appear - they are huge and relentless (did not experience this in the other 4 hotels in sri lanka). They come out to the seating areas at the end of the pool. It is so bad for a couple of hours you can't sit there unless fully covered. The staff will light coils if asked but i do feel that they need to be proactive in this area and automatically light coils/citronella candles etc. every evening in anticipation rather than in response. If staying a room at the front and the drinks and bar service are improved this could be a really stunning hotel - its just not there yet.

We had a fantastic time at THE LONG HOUSE. We found the rooms very comfortable and the Manager Asanga and his team very helpful and friendly The food was delicious and we hope to visit THE LONG HOUSE again very soon! Thank you for the experience!