Stayed at the Grace Hotel Lahad Datu for a night on our way into Danum Valley in Borneo. This is a cheap hotel and really just a place to lie your head. Booked online on booking.com for HKD$270 so you’re not going to be living it up in style and taking selfies of yourself jumping in the air at the infinity swimming pool, and not just because there is not one!
There’s a couple of different places listed for Grace Hotel Lahad Datu on Google, make sure you go to the right one, which is not listed correctly on booking.com. We walked, but were covered in sweat, and took about 15-20 minutes. Get a taxi even though it’s not that far. We checked in around 5, two credit cards didn’t go through and after 15 minutes I just told him to try tomorrow.
This is a 2-3 star hotel so don’t expect anything nice. The rooms are huge but a bit shabby. Nothing too dirty and fine for a place to sleep for a night, but this is not the type of hotel you’re going to be spending more than a night at. The town of Lahad Datu is an absolute shithole, probably the crappiest piece of shit I’ve ever been to. You can read more about that in our things to know before going to Borneo section.
Back to the rooms, they’re ok, pretty typical for a 2-3 star hotel, bed is fine, bathroom is ok, shower works alright. There’s a couple of bottles of water but no fridge. View out the window of part of the sea and the shithole that is Lahad Datu. We went out and had some dinner, which is a mission in itself because Lahad Datu is such a craphole it’s hard to find something. We walked around for a bit and found a chicken shop, okay but you won’t be instagramming that.
Grace Hotel Lahad Datu doesn’t have a restaurant and you have to walk to a nearby restaurant (about 50 meters away), to have breakfast, which is included. Air Conditioning works but is rather loud since the main bit of it is right outside your window. There’s not many options in Lahad Datu and even if there was, you don’t want to be staying in this town if you can avoid it.
Overall, for HKD$270, it’s fine. We came back and saw a big Gecko in the room, which was heaven for Grobbler, but if you’re not that type of thing, just a heads up. The decor in Grace Hotel Lahad Datu is about what you’d expect at a hick small town in Borneo, but honestly, unless you’re really uptight about accommodation this is fine for a night. Oh, there is wifi but I wasn’t able to connect to it. There’s a mobile phone mall right next door and a market nearby but neither of those are worth a visit.
For more information on Grace Hotel Lahad Datu, feel free to email us or ask us on Twitter. See our Borneo Destination Guide here.
