I stayed in the sapphire hotel in September 2010 while attending a conference in Colombo. First of all, reservation by email was easy, they didnot request credit card information to book the room. They also, upon my request, arranged for my pick up from the airport, which although pricy, is a good idea. I wont, however, recommend you depend on the front desk to book your taxis, because they overcharge as I discovered later throughout my stay. You can easily buy a local mobile SIM card and make all the taxi bookings yourself. If you intend to go sightsighing throughout Colombo, u can easily book a cab for the whole day to drive and wait around for you, and for a very reasonable price too.
As for the rooms, they were fairly clean and tidy, although the style was quite dated in my opinion. The front desk staff were helpful, though not particularly friendly. The room service was good: upon my request, they send my breakfast to my room very early in the morning for no extra charge. The downside is that they speak very little english, and sometimes I dont get through to them at all!!
The hotel is small with a quiet lobby, I sat there in the evening as the Wifi signal was much stronger, with almost no disturbance.
All in all,if you are looking for a moderately priced, basic room, I would say Sapphire hotel doeas the trick.

The hotel looked pretty nice in general but the rooms were terrible. My room faced the door to the kitchen and my parent's room window faced the swimming pool. Thus there was no option of opening the window curtains. Maybe with a different room the experience would be better. The food was average overall.

I stayed in this hotel for three - four days in three trips to Colombo between Jun 2010 to August 2011. They charge exorbitant amount but the rooms are not that great on a comparitive basis. Plus the habit of charging more for foreigners is always there in this hotel. Need to check the prices for localaites before confirming the booking.
The value offered in terms of rooms, facilities in rooms, food served in hotel is not the ROI for your time and money. Strictly no for even a business trip overnight stay.

The reception area is quite big and comfortable and the front desk staff is polite and helpful. We were 2 families with kids and had booked 2 king size bedrooms. Strangely enough one of the rooms allotted had the double bed being separated in between by the side table. But the hotel was prompt enough to change this room once we notified them of the problem. The rooms were clean and standard, bathrooms were small and ok.

The biggest plus point is the location of the hotel. You won’t really need a vehicle to get around. Public transport as well as autos is easily available outside the hotel. Accessibility to the market and shopping areas is also quite good. The landscaping of the hotel is nice and we loved their small garden. The swimming pool looked quite tempting but we didn't get a chance to try it. We had a good time clicking photos in the garden.

The only negative point with this hotel is the food problem for pure vegetarians. Although their restaurant at the top is quite spacious, the strong smell of non-veg food is a big deterrent for vegetarians. It was impossible for us to stay even 5minutes in the restaurant surroundings at dinner time. Thankfully due to the hotel's central location we could find vegetarian food in the market easily. It was no better at the time of breakfast. Even with a buffet breakfast, the choice of vegetarian food was very limited. The noodles had pieces of meat although the restaurant said it was made only of vegetables.

The hotel is good ambience wise and if you want a night stay only; but cannot recommend it for vegetarians. If you want peace and quiet ask for a room not facing the main roads and not above the swimming pool.