Terribly bad Breakfast Buffet - covered inch by inch with FLIES; limited, terrible and cold food. Was NO use complaining to the manager - NO improvement shown the next day. In fact another foreign guest also complained about the same thing & asked for refund, while we witnessed.

The swimming pool is overflowing & the water almost covers the restaurant floor... unsafe for kids, one kid slipped bad & hurt himself. I wonder, how can a resort that has a theme of "wellness center" be so negligent in basic cleanliness, hygiene and safety!

No room service facility and most importantly: NO wi-fi, though the hotel website promised!

Lastly, our checkout experience was all the more surprising - we were not told how much was it including tax. To our surprise, though we booked this hotel through hotelopia.com; the amount showed payable by a local travel company. And so, the hotel staff refused to even tell us what the total amount was! (Never faced this problem with www.Booking.com ). Tried calling hotelopia hotline, but couldn't get through. Not sure what's the amount that'll be charged to my credit card!

Overall, Aida resort is certainly not a "wellness" resort & not recommended at all to anyone! In fact, of all the hotels we stayed in during our Sri Lanka Visit, "Aida Resorts", Bentota - was the WORST! Instead, go for Bentota Beach Resort - that's where we had our meals & spent most of our time! Avoid Aida, please!

I had to write a quick review about the hotel as i was shocked by the other comments left....you can't please everyone!
The restaurant served Great food, we found the staff provided excellent service and there was a pleasant atmosphere.
The location is great (we had a room b the river), as you are near the river / sea / and a small tuk tuk journey away from a busy town.
We loved Bentota and we will be back - will we go to Aida? Yes - good value for money and really enjoed our time there.

Very nice hotel, great location right opp the river.
BUT TOTAL ABSOLUTE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ASIANS n INDIANS in PARTICULAR.
Will definitely recommend it to Europeans but never to any dark skinned people.
Dark people are unfortunately treated shabbily there..

I stayed at the Aida, Bentota from the 22 December to 5 January and I could not have wished for a better hotel.
The staff were all willing to give us advice on what sites to go and see and spoke to us everday. They are friendly to the point of actually becoming your friends.
The food is a mix of traditional sri lankan food with many other dishes to cater for those who are less likely to try the spicy stuff!
The hotel is located near the river (great for watching wildlife - eagles, crocs, monitor lizard etc) and a short walk from one of the best beaches we have been to (great sand and shallow water).
The room was very comfortable (large room with a balcony) and clean (everday and night the room boys did a wonderful job).
We went to the Textiles shop where my partner had a 3 piece suit made (made to measure at a fraction of the price in the UK) and I had 2 dresses made (just needed to show them a picture of what i wanted and 'voila' - it really is amazing what they can do).
We also purchased some jewellery from the gem store on site (there are 2 shops / the workshop so you can see things being made / and the museum which explains all about gem mining).
The hotel is split into 2 and the holistic side is welcoming and has a lovely pool and the breakfast served is refreshing and actually makes you feel better! I had two treatments - a full body relaxing massage which was heavely and very reasonably priced and a full body mud wrap (only negative thing i can say was i didnt come out looking like the ladies on the advert - but my skin is still really soft!)
My partner proposed while we were away and the hotel was wonderful - reserving us a table overlooking the river and showering our beds with beautiful flowers. everyone seemed genuinely happy for us both.
I have tried to be as descriptive as possible as I cannot express how different our stay was to the negative reviews i have read.
Would i stay again..........we have already agreed to have our honeymoon in Sri Lanka at the Aida Bentota (if i can get there before I will!) x x