If the words 'Hilton' and 'Resort' is what brought you to this hotel then it may not be the place for you because Batang Ai is unlike any hotel you've ever stayed in. My husband and I had previously stayed here for two nights as part of an escorted tour we took with the Travel Collection (now Kuoni Smart) and promised ourselves we'd return for a longer stay. We spent 9 nights here over Christmas & New Year 2011 and it lived up to our expectations completely. I won't repeat the descriptions that other people have already given just to comment on our experiences. We upgraded to a suite - the advanced booking rate made this very good value indeed. The extra room in the sitting area made a big difference. The restaurant is very good the food is well cooked and varied and despite the low visitor numbers over Christmas there was a large selection. On our previous visit we had taken most of the trips on offer so this time we took two river trips - one to the waterfall and the other to the pebble beach for lunch. On both occasions the guides were extremely knowledgeable and great company - the food was superb and the traditional cooking methods fascinating. The rest of time we spent either totally chilling out or taking walks around the hotel area. As it was the wet season when we visited we spent each evening on the hotel deck watching the amazing sunsets and waiting for the nightly deluge to arrive. IIf you are looking for a complete escape from the rat race, to totally relax and experience a unique culture then you won't find better than this. If you are looking for a spa and Michelin restaurants go to the Banyan Tree. Batang Ai is comfortable but it is not marketing itself to the spa crowd. A final note on the staff - what a fabulous bunch they are, everyone was really helpful and pleasant and really couldn't do enough for us.

Its a long drive to get there (around 4 hours or so with 2 stops) which I believe can be organised by the hilton in Kuching, although our transport was organised as part of our tour with Page & Moy so I can't comment on the hiltons transport... We were lucky to have an air conditioned coach and made stops at Serian, a pepper farm and to see some carnivorous plants by the road side.

You arrive at a small building where they have toilet facilities, which is the waiting area for the jetty... The view from here is beautiful but its not until you walk down the hill to the jetty that you get to see the huge man made lake and the dam to your left. Its a gorgeous view and you have around 30 minutes if I remember rightly on a boat to soak it all in. On arrival at the hotel there are a lot of steep steps to climb and the porters do take your bags from half way up... and when you get to the top you are atleast greeted by a lovely cold welcome drink!

There are a number of the long house style sets of rooms around the main building, and thankfully ours was the closest one! For some of them there was quite a walk, which we wouldn't have minded but I can see that it might be a little far for some of the older visitors. As you walk down the communal corridors there are a lot of geckos and fruit bats... I have heard a lot of complaints about this on here but to be honest I think it added a lot of charm (surely from a trip to the jungle you'd want things such as this), the place wasn't exactly over run with animals and the staff there certainly do their best to keep on top of keeping everything clear of droppings.

When we got to the room it was very comfortable and you get a lot of space. The rooms look a little old in terms of facilities and decoration, and the whole place looks very colonial... However the rooms are well kept and maintained and we were very happy with ours.

The swimming pool here is brilliant and along with this there are so many things to do at very reasonable prices. Some of the activities we went on included:

The jungle trek - This walk is not all that long and took around 1 hour through the jungle at the back of the hotel. There are sections which are quite steep and some people on our tour did struggle, but we loved it and were happy that it really was a jungle trek as opposed to a walk in the woods. At the end there is a canopy walk which is 100 foot high (if I remember rightly)... It looks quite rickety but it is a very secure way to get a beautiful view of the area.

Long house visit - Going to the Iban long house was a brilliant experience. We were worried that it would be uncomfortable but everyone seemed very happy for us to be there and many of them looked like they enjoyed themselves as much as we did... They don't mind having their photos taken and will be happy to be in a picture with you, but please ask before taking photos of kids. Also bring some gifts such as sweets, pencils, paper, toothpaste etc they REALLY appreciated it, and we took ours in a hessian type bag for life which was a big hit!

We only had time for the 2 activities but there is a lot more to do as well including fishing, games, ping pong, longer walks etc. Also we made our own activities in the evening by wandering around the grounds with a torch to find some of the local amphibians... I would certainly recommend some after dark walks around the hotel!

The food here is served as a buffet which was 75RM per person when we went, and to be honest I thought this was reasonable for the location of the hotel and the quality of the food (+ it also includes a desert buffet)... There is also an a la carte option which we did not try. Drinks cost between 15 to 25RM in most cases and I would certainly recommend their house cocktails (the one with Tuak in was delicious).

Only take a bag to last you a few days (if you are also staying at hitlon kuching I believe you can leave your bags with them)... It will make the stairs a lot easier and there is only limited space on the boat.

I cannot think of any negative points about the hotel, and everyone there was very polite and helpful... The girl who took us on our walk, Ramona I think was her name, was very good. If you get the chance to go here please don't let it pass you by! If we get the chance we will certainly be back one day.

My husband and I stayed for one night at the Batang Ai resort in July 2011. We were accompanied by a terrific tour guide and driver as part of the Kunoni Borneo Adventure. This had to be the highlight of the whole holiday. On the long trip to the resort, we stopped for lunch and to load up with goods to give to the chief of the longhouse we were to visit the next day.

We totally fell in love with the rural setting of this hotel, the rooms were immaculate, comfortable and spacious. And we loved the whole design of the the hotel (like a long house). We were told a buffet dinner was included but as there was only about 18 guests staying in the hotel our meal was upgraded to al carte and was lovely. The staff in the hotel were so welcoming and couldnt do enough for you.

The next-day we visited a local longhouse, this trip was fantastic as we were taken by boat to meet the families and the chief in the longhouse there was countless photo opps. The longhouse families provided us with both dance and drinks and we learnt lots about their culture. we also got the opportunity to have a go on the blow pipe before we left.

yes its a long trip to the resort but it really is worth the trip, it was the highlight of our Borneo adventure.

From the confusion at the car park, the condescending gnome at reception (Oh, you are only staying one night) to the awful night's sleep, the Batang Ai took my money and left me a very unhappy traveler.

We were looking for somewhere to break up the journey from Kuching to Bintulu, and it seemed the Batang Ai was the perfect location. I had read some bad reviews and a few good ones and so decided to pose my questions directly to the hotel management.

The first problem? The email address in their literature and on the website was incorrect - it was returned with a 'not at this address'-type return. So I went on the Hilton website - surely that would be correct? You would have thought so... 9 days after we left for our holiday I got a reply - it covered a couple of my questions but not all - and the reason for the delay? " we were experiencing some issues with our email system recently" - really? A hotel that is having communication issues is about as useful as a fish with a bicycle.

As I hadn't heard back from Hilton, I decided to book anyway, we were intrigued at the prospect of the location and decided to chance it.

What a disappointment.

We arrived at the nice wooden building inside the 'compound' at the edge of the lake. There was a man with a clipboard who checked our name. It was the only name... There was no indication of what we were to do, where to go, how to get our luggage from the car to the boat - nothing. I had already parked the car, but looking at it, the 'lodge' is placed at the top car park, the boat is down a few hundred meters of rough driveway - I drive a Jeep, the answer was obvious, despite absolutely zero interest from BA staff. So I did what Jeeps do and parked as close to the water as I could and unloaded the bags myself. I am not a needy traveler. I don't expect little malay men to run to my every beck and call, but the least bit of help would have been nice.

The boat had a lot of people on it, we thought that maybe it would be a lively place!

But, when we got there, it looked like we were the only guests in the hotel - it turned out we weren't - there were 4 of us, in somewhere that has more than 100 rooms. Even though I asked to not be placed far from the main complex, I was put in the third-from-last room in the longhouse. It turns out that staff and friends were occupying the nearer ones - of course they were... they were the people taking up all the places on the boat.

When we got to the hotel, there was a nice little man to carry our bags up the interminable steps to the resort.

Have these people not heard of a simple cable car? Cheap enough for people to put up to their house, it should be a simple thing to put one in for a hotel. Go to San Francisco or to Wellington in NZ and see all the contraptions hauling people up to their houses around the bays. Simple and cheap and effective. Something to think of? On that note, some of the paths around the resort have crumbled away - they are blocked off with signs, but those signs were obviously of some significant age - is there no maintenance plan in place? The same goes for some of the roofing over the verandas round the longhouses - big sections missing, why haven't they been replaced or repaired? Broken doors hanging from one hinge, shutter latches missing - with all the staff doing absolutely nothing for most of the day, surely there are some spare hours to spend in completing all these little jobs?

We decided on a brief siesta after our early start and long drive - this was not to be. Whoever was driving the golf buggy ruined any chance of rest - zooming around right behind our room at full speed and with his horn blaring - thanks guy, really made my afternoon.

We were tired after our long day and long trip from Kuching so decided to pass on the overly expensive dinner and turn in, to get an early start. The other thing deciding us was that the restaurant was dirty - the bain marie's were unclean, the plates were dirty, even the menus were dirty and tatty. It didn't bode well for someone with the prospect of 500kms of travel the next day.

We had brought a carton of juice with us, but the ice tray in the room fridge was empty... surprise! I rang reception and asked where the ice machine was located - pregnant pause... So I asked could I have some ice. "No room service. You get from restaurant. OK, fair enough.

There was three times as many staff as guests when we checked in. Four people in reception and no guests dropping in, would it have been so hard as to drop off an ice bucket? After some time spent trying to find staff at the restaurant, I went to reception - who directed me back to the restaurant. I explained there was no-one there - so they rang the empty restaurant - visible from reception. Eventually we were given a large steel serving jug with ice - which we found was never going to fit in the fridge... but I gave up and consigned it to the 'too hard' basket.

You would think with the number of staff the hotel has, with only four guests staying, it would have been easy to ring the restaurant and ask them, if not to deliver it, to meet us half way?

We turned in at around 9.30. There was nothing to do, no entertainment, nobody in evidence in what looked like a hotel closed for the season.

At 10.30 we were woken by loud music. I put up with the banging for a couple of hours, but then went to see what the noise was. It was a staff party. I thought 12.30 was late enough so politely asked if they could turn the music down - it wasn't like we were that close to the bar, so they didn't need to turn it down much. I didn't demand they turned it off or that they finished their party, just that they turned it down so we could sleep.

At 1.30 it was still going strong and I lost my temper. I called reception and said I wanted to make a complaint. I asked to speak to the manager - there wasn't one - he was in Kuching. "who is in charge then?" - no-one, apparently.

The music was turned down, but then we had to suffer the clomping and door slamming till 2am - we were planning on being gone at 8am for a long day's drive.

In the morning we skipped breakfast as we didn't have time after rising later than we hoped, even though we had paid for it. There was no mention or apology from whoever it was on duty at reception, even though it must have been known that I had complained. I asked again to speak to the manager or someone in charge - blank faces all round.

What is so damned annoying is that the resort is really nice. Lovely environment, great rooms that could do with some housekeeping effort (no valence on the bed, cobwebs, lots of dust under the bed, dusty headboard, and the shower was really dirty - not just a bit of grime - really yuk.)

But it was a lot better than we thought it would be.

The complaints about the bat and bird droppings in the longhouses is confusing - the longhouse has full window covers and doors at both ends - why don't they spend 10 minutes in the evening and morning closing and re-opening the shutters? This would prevent access by the flying poo-droppers, surely? I know I would rather walk down a row of windows fastening shutters than spend hours cleaning guano-laden floors and furniture.

I have high hopes for the Batang Ai. The location is fantastic. The lake is stunning and the accommodations and facilities are lovely (if they could get some maintenance, even better), but the management of the place is dire.

Why wasn't there a manager present?
If the manager was absent, why wasn't someone left in charge?
Why were paying guests forced to the ends of the earth and 'friends' and staff given the more convenient rooms?

I am used to Borneo - I live here, after all - but I am not used to customer service as poor as this, for the prices they charge.

I would love to come back to Batang Ai, but not until someone does a complete staff makeover - the hotel itself is great.

If 'managed by Hilton' was meant to bring decent management skills, policies and processes to this resort, it has failed.

The other thing I would like to address is the prices - they are ridiculous. RM28 for Nasi Goreng? Really? Fried rice?

RM40 for breakfast? Were they using turtle eggs and dressing with caviar?

Despite all the responses to previous reviewers about the distance things have to travel, that is, quite honestly, rubbish. You can get a beer in a hotel in Kapit for a lot cheaper (RM8), and that is significantly more remote than Batang Ai. It is just an excuse made for high prices. There is no justification for the kind of money extorted by this resort.

I would love to see their occupancy rates. I suspect they are exceedingly low.

I could go on about the pedalos (where?) or the kayaks - dirty, unloved. Two for the entire 100 room hotel. The 'jungle walks' - its an island... a damned small one at that... the only wildlife will have 6/8 legs.

Give me the job of running this hotel. I couldn't do worse than the incumbents.

Honestly.