Overall there were pros and cons during our stay here. We stayed for four nights.

Positives:

-Excellent location, beautiful large outdoor pool and facilities. Could spend all day poolside and it was a great size.

-Bar staff were friendly and it was also great that most nights there was a band or some music which added to the atmosphere. -We only ate at the restaurant for dinner once. We chose the Thai one and it was delicious with great customer service also!

-The massage area was great and definitely recommended as an additional extra. Professional and very relaxing

Areas we felt needed improvement:

-Daily plan- The hotel had a schedule for guests of what was on each day. Being a secluded hotel requiring boat access we often planned our day around this. Often things on the daily plan changed such as one day there wasn’t any music one night or water aerobics for two days it was scheduled . It would have been nice if the timetable was updated to inform guests of this change.

-Check in process- we weren’t updated with what was going on. We could check in early but then not updated on what the process would be with our bags or when to come back etc so we were just sitting in the reception area. We had to clarify this with the check in staff so we could go off to our planned Bentota attraction. They just laughed and said of course we’ll have your room ready when you come back which we felt was quite condescending when we were just sitting there not being informed of the plan.

-Reception service and attitude- Of course some staff were lovely but we had some frustrations during our stay.
Examples include:
1. Our safe was broken on arrival. We called reception and they said come down to reception. We explained the safe is in our room and needs to be looked at. After 5 mins they agreed to come and look. Indeed it was broken and took over an hour of our holiday for them to try and fix and eventually replace

2. Internet was also not working at one point for a couple of hours . Again response was come to reception and that we must not be putting the code in correctly as it’s working perfectly fine there. We checked again with reception on our way to dinner and then were told a different story that the whole hotel was down in internet! Knowing we called it would’ve been nice for them to call and update us on this.

3. We were given two swipe cards. Only one worked which we noticed when we decided to do separate things that afternoon. This meant we couldn’t access our room. This was frustrating and we wish staff checked the cards before giving them to us.

4. Overall attitude. Staff (reception) seemed to want to get rid of your questions ASAP. It seemed we were a nuisance if we ever enquired about anything and observed this attitude with many other customers too. We waited twenty minutes for one receptionist to arrange our bags when checking out which meant missing the boat to our taxi.
5. There was also no friendly greeting any time we went in or out of the hotel and the man that checked us out didn’t even ask how was your stay. A smile wouldn’t go astray with many staff either!
We had noticed the friendly customer service of other hotels in Sri Lanka and were disappointed reception in particular at Centara Ceysands didn’t match this.

Interestingly every time we called reception about an in room issue they said come to reception. We also noticed a man coming down saying no towels in his room and the receptionist rudely said ‘go back to your room and dial...’!

I notice the response to many of these recent reviews is you should have addressed it with management. Reception staff were aware of all the above issues. Also as they were time consuming for us to sort out and we did not want to spend more time on our holiday finding management and complaining also! Im sure this is the case with other reviewers too.

This hotel has great potential to become amazing and I think increasing the customer service skills of reception staff will go along way to achieve this.

We had a wonderful stay at this nice hotel. The hotel was perfect for relaxing holidays. We had a sea view room which was just perfect. It was properly cleaned and quite large. It has everything you wish.
The pool was cleaned regularly. It's amazing!
The buffet food was fantastic with plenty of choices. There were activities to join in such as water aerobics with the animator Chinthaka who was very encouraging, helpful and he speaks German very well!
Overall a wonderful stay at the Centara Ceysand. Thank you to all the lovely staff.

This is a nice hotel, it's a little bit Tenerife in Sri Lanka. The food is too a good standard and plentiful. It's quite chilled out and quiet.

Positives

1. Nice staff, helpful and attentive
2. Check in was quick
3. Rooms were large and ours was spotless. One Bedroom Suite is best to go with. Amazing views with two balconies.
4. Right on the beach which is empty.
5. Decent enough entertainment if a little aimed at the over 50's crowd.

Negatives

1. The whole full board, half or all inclusive at check in needs to be simplified. We heard numerous people moaning about it and staff checking everyone's bills. Some because tourists don't understand the tourist taxes but some because the rules of the all inclusive are confusing.com. Manager maybe make a little paper chart with each payment and what you get and give people a chance to look at it. We booked the all inclusive extra and we can't seem to see what we get for £75 dollars per day extra? We tried to eat in the only bar and it was extra ( so it's not really all inclusive) sure you can go back into the main restaurant as many times as you want. Also a gin and vodka martini is gin and vodka and should be on the all inclusive but the staff charged us extra as they classed it as a cocktail. I'm being pedantic but it's the principle. It literally is gin and vodka in a glass.

2. The pool service is poor, no pool boys and we waited ages for beds and towels ( which smelled). No one goes and takes the towels off beds unused. Also the pool area itself is shabby.
3. In the pool area back lane people try to sell you things by leaning over the hedge. It gets silly. It also doesn't feel like you could leave anything sitting. There is security which is good.
3. The whole restaurant and bar needs a deep clean, surfaces are sticky, unkempt and the Sri Lankan squirrels ( the Bain of hotels in the area) climb all over tables.

Overall, this is a lovely hotel, which just needs a deep clean and to sort out the all inclusive. As I said a chart with the details would save a lot of staff time and client confusion. Also ditch the AI bands, it's not 1990!
It's fine for three-four night stay on the way to the airport but for a fortnight it's too small and we would be bored. But that's just us. We came from the Shangri La Hambantota and to be fair to the Centara it was better in places than the Shangri La.