Our March 2025 Getaway: A Week of Free Living, but Guilt Got the Better of Us

Choosing a hotel for a vacation can be a real challenge, especially when there are so many options to sift through. I usually do my hotel search on Booking, and only finalize my choice after comparing prices across various aggregators. After a week of searching, we settled on Mirissa and the Wavelenght hotel.

Location. The hotel is a 4-minute walk from the central beach, 17 minutes from Secret beach, and 20 minutes from the Palm Grove. We headed to the nearest beach, but walked a bit further from its starting point since there were sewage waters flowing directly into the ocean. The beach itself was clean, and the water was surprisingly so too. However, the waves were quite big. There are plenty of cafes and restaurants nearby, so you won't need to venture far. The nearest supermarket is an 8-minute walk, right at the exit to the main street.Area and amenities. The hotel's compact but well-maintained territory features a pool and a jacuzzi, which can be booked upon request. And, as a bonus, there are monkeys roaming around:

I have to say, I saw these little guys jumping around the power lines every day. Sometimes they'd be in pairs, and other times they'd be a whole party. There's a BBQ zone near the restaurant, and you can even negotiate with the staff to grill your own fish. I'm not sure how much they'll charge you, but when we were there, other guests were doing it too. Oh, and there's a laundry room for 600 rupees. What's even more important is that the hotel has a generator. During our stay, the power went out twice for an extended period, but the generator saved the day. The only thing it didn't power were the air conditioners. Check-in. The reception at the hotel closes at 6 PM, so if you're arriving late, make sure to let them know. We arrived around 8 PM, and the restaurant staff gave me the keys to our rooms without even checking my passport. And they completely forgot to charge me! I thought maybe they'd just bill me through Booking. I kept quiet. Room. We were super lucky to get rooms on the ground floor. It's super convenient. We had our own little patio area near the pool, and our own sunbed. If we'd been on the second or third floor, we'd have had to run to get to the sunbeds, which were on the other side of the pool. The room itself is pretty basic, but it fits the 3* rating. I love the color scheme: There's a mini fridge with a mini bar, tea/coffee, toiletries, an air conditioner, and I have to say, the European-style outlets were a bit of a letdown. The adapter only gave me one working socket, and even that one would occasionally spark. It was a bit of a surprise to find a hair dryer in the closet - I hadn't even thought to look for it!The showerhead was a bit of a wild card - it would spray water everywhere, but the tropical shower worked like a charm. The hot water was no problem at all.

The bathroom itself was a bit of a mess - broken hooks, rust spots, and a window with toilet paper jammed in the gap. Not exactly the most impressive setup.

The closet was basically just a bare shell - no shelves or hooks to speak of. We ended up hanging our towels on the doors to dry.

My first impression of the room was pretty underwhelming. We'd stayed in a similar place on Bali for two nights, and it was basically half the price! I was a bit disappointed, to say the least.

But after a couple of nights, I started to get used to it, and even began to enjoy my stay. Eventually, I found myself liking the place.

The restaurant. It's right across from the rooms, behind the pool.

Breakfast was served from 8 to 10:30 am, and it was included in the room rate. The selection wasn't huge, but we managed to fill up: pancakes, sausages, omelets, toast with jam or butter, two types of fruit, juice, tea or coffee, and occasionally they'd switch it up with rice, potatoes, or pasta. For the rest of the day, you can order a full meal, and the prices are pretty reasonable. The quality's a bit lower than the fancier places (like the grilled tuna, which had bones, but was super tasty). We ate here three times. You can also order a lunch box if you're leaving early. They gave us a container with an omelet and an enormous amount of onions, plus one banana the night before. It wasn't too filling, but it was better than nothing. Service. Everything was great with the service. The staff was friendly and attentive. They trust their guests here. We checked out at 4 am, and we'd let them know in advance. The receptionist asked if we'd taken anything from the mini-bar, and she even checked. And when we left early in the morning, we just grabbed our stuff and left. The cleaning schedule in the hotel is a bit quirky: it's done every two days. To be honest, I'm used to it at home too – I don't clean every day, and I don't change my towels every day either. But I was surprised that they only bring fresh water every two days – one 0.5-liter bottle per person. It was my first time experiencing that. They also only bring one packet of tea, coffee, and sugar for two days.Finally, we get to the most infuriating part: payment order. I've been transferring money between cards, paying the commission and conversion fees, but the payment just wasn't going through! Here's a screenshot from my email:

I'm writing this review from a hotel room, and I'm reaching out to Booking's support. You know how long it took for the hotel to respond? A whole 1.5 months, on the day of our check-in! That's a first for me. I even found their email address and sent them a message on WhatsApp. But I never got a response. What's more, Booking's support team told me that the hotel had confirmed our booking, and that they should be in touch with me about the payment. Remember how we didn't get charged when we checked in, and we had to leave on our own? Unfortunately, I have a conscience. So, the evening before our departure, I went down to let them know we'd be leaving early the next morning. That's when the girl checked on the payment. We could have left without any issues! So, what's the deal? They either want payment in cash in rupees, at their own exchange rate (which is ridiculous!), or on a card, with another 3% conversion fee and commission. Why do I only find out about the 3% commission after the fact? And what if I don't have that amount on my card? I've never encountered anything like this before, and I was totally outraged. They could have just converted the amount to rupees here and saved us the hassle. The total cost for 2 rooms for 7 days, including breakfast was $582.82. They quoted us 175,100 rupees. To sum it up, I'd say that the price per room is overpriced. When I compare it to this hotel, where the daily rate is actually cheaper, I have to deduct a star from Wavelength. And considering their complete disregard for all forms of communication, providing incorrect information about the payment, and conveniently forgetting to mention the 3% commission for card payments... I wanted to give them 3 stars, but the staff's good attitude somehow made up for it. So, I'm giving them 4 stars, rounded up from 3.5.