Chris Clerke Review of The Byron at Byron Resort & Sp...
Unfortunately, this fell short of our expectations...
Unfortunately, this fell short of our expectations. We stayed here for our honeymoon, and we just expected more for the price we paid. Our room was right near the pathway so we had no privacy even in the bathroom - we had to close all the blinds (which kind of defeats the purpose of staying in a rainforest resort because it blocked out the daylight) and the door to our room was really stiff and jammed. Housekeeping came and fixed it but it still was hard to open and close. Housekeeping forgot glassware a few times which was a little disappointing. I think the biggest thing for us was how disorganised the staff were - while sitting around the pool we had to ask for water literally six times, and had wrong food orders coming to us a few times. We ordered a coconut water but then they said they didn't have any (but charged it to our room anyway which we found out at the end). The iPads in our rooms said there was a happy hour from 4-6 but then the staff bluntly said they weren't doing that anymore. One of them said we got 2 complimentary drinks each day with our stay but then another said that was only if we booked through Qantas... and another said because the spa was closed while we were there we couldn't access the sauna as it was all part of it - but the sauna was free to just walk into anytime. I don't mean to nitpick here, and if we paid $200-$300 per night it wouldn't be such a big deal, but with the reputation and reviews this place has we just thought we would get a better experience. The rainforest itself is absolutely stunning, and really nice to walk through - and the restaurant food and service were absolutely amazing - (big shout out to Damian and Ines!). Cocktails and wine were great - so to be honest maybe we just got a bad run and were a little unlucky. It happens, but for what we paid we just felt it didn't live up to our expectations. We will come back to the restaurant as we live locally and really enjoyed it, but based on our experience I don't think we would stay at the resort again.

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