Forever City Hotel

Staff is very helpful and friendly

Location, Staff, Meals

Not enough towel racks and no wall cupboard

We arrived in Sri Lanka very early in the morning (around 2 am), and although there was some confusion with our booking—likely due to booking.com not notifying the hotel about our late-night arrival—the staff handled the situation with exceptional kindness. The team who received us were incredibly understanding and made us feel safe and welcome despite the hour. They quickly arranged a room for us and ensured we were comfortable. Their hospitality really stood out and made a stressful situation much easier to navigate. We truly appreciated their accommodating and friendly approach.

During our stay, we noticed that the hotel is quite popular for daytime events like birthday parties, receptions, and social gatherings. Our room was located right next to the swimming pool, so we could hear some of the activity and chatter during the day. Fortunately, this wasn’t an issue for us as we were mostly out exploring and only returned in the evenings to rest. Our friends, who stayed in a different room farther from the pool, experienced much less noise. Overall, it didn’t affect our experience, but something to keep in mind if you're planning to relax in the room during the day.

The room had plenty of space. The A/C worked great. The staff and their service were excellent - they were friendly, polite, helpful and professional. They catered to my husband’s dietary requirements to the best of their ability for which we are very grateful. There was a good TV, and water bottles were provided for the room. There is an excellent restaurant downstairs adjacent to the hotel (also part of theirs) and the meal I had from them was tasty and their small portion was quite large.

The noise level was not great. We could hear everything so clearly that was happening downstairs (which was the reception and dining area) - this disrupted our sleep early in the morning and at night. There was also a balcony outside our room, and we could hear when people were sat there socialising/eating/drinking - this happened both evenings we were there. The bathroom wasn’t up to a good standard; there was a strange smell in the bathroom, there is a big hole where the extractor fan was meant to be that lead outside so we can hear people talking under the pipework for that (grounds of the hotel), the shower wasn’t powerful but it did the job (after getting them to fix the plug as it wasn’t working initially), the shower was right above the toilet which meant the toilet was completely wet anytime we used the shower and the shelf and towel holder were barely hanging on the wall. The toilet seat was quite dirty. The mattress was quite hard (although I think this is the norm in most households in Sri Lanka) and one pillow was too soft but the staff provided another so that helped. There was a rip on the curtain that needs mending. I am not sure of the cleanliness of the catering/food downstairs (not their separate restaurant as I haven’t been inside there). In the dining area directly below the rooms, they once had an engagement reception and they had a wedding cake there, which had lots of flies landing on it constantly. But no effort was made to cover it or get rid of the flies. This leads me to believe that same care and attention was given to the food that were prepared for us.