Our stay at The Residence Bintan from August 15-19, booked through Trip.com, was a complete disaster. We chose this hotel for its advertised beautiful sea views and excellent dining, hoping for a great family vacation. Instead, it turned out to be the worst hotel experience in all my years of travel. I strongly advise all Chinese tourists to avoid this place!
First, the dining hygiene was severely substandard, with unclean ingredients and extremely poor food quality. After eating at the hotel, my child suffered from diarrhea and stomach upset, which ruined our family vacation. The food safety issues were incredibly infuriating and completely unacceptable for a hotel positioned as a high-end resort.
Second, the hotel engaged in arbitrary and unreasonable charges. When we accidentally lost our room key card, the front desk aggressively demanded a $4 replacement fee. They refused us entry to our room until we paid, showing no flexibility or humane consideration. The charging policy was outrageous, making for a terrible experience.
Most unacceptably, one male front desk staff member was blatantly discriminatory towards Chinese guests. He treated foreign visitors and Chinese visitors completely differently, being dismissive and arrogant towards the latter while being warm and polite to the former. This blatant favoritism was unprofessional and deeply offensive, seriously hurting the feelings of Chinese tourists.
Finally, the hotel's marketing is severely misleading! The pristine blue sea and stunning ocean views displayed on Trip.com are completely fake! In reality, large areas of the beach were dried up, with no sign of a clear blue sea or sandy beach whatsoever. The actual scenery was vastly different from the promotional images, a classic case of buyer's regret versus seller's show, which severely misleads consumers.
Due to my child's illness from the food, combined with the abysmal service and misleading environment, we were forced to check out early on August 16th, not staying for the subsequent three nights. However, the hotel refused to issue a refund and made the process of seeking compensation incredibly difficult. I genuinely recommend everyone avoid this hotel. It has poor hygiene, terrible service, discriminates against Chinese guests, and engages in false advertising. Absolutely not recommended!
Original TextTranslation provided by AI
