InterContinental Hayman Island Resort

They try, but they don’t quite get to the 5 star level this place claims to be. 1. The adult pool is a beautiful setting. That said, pool tiles are literally falling off into the pool, as I am in the pool. 2. The pathways are a mix of marble and stone. The stone was much appreciated during the rain we had the first few days here. However, the marble is not a good idea, very slippery when wet. And this is still a problem as there is leaking near the fire extinguishers, i have slipped more than one, as well I have seen staff slip. How is this not fixed? 3. Breakfast. I get the birds, they are protected. However, you must special order eggs from the waitstaff, on my 4 days here, I was only asked if I wanted eggs once. When the omlet arrived it was overcooked and cold. I had scrambled eggs from the buffet twice, they were also cold, the last day I had a fried egg, although this was cold, it was edible. The last day is the only day I got my coffee before finishing my breakfast, because I complained! And don’t get me started on the coffee, it could be so much better!!! 4. My second night here, the main walkway was closed for a private event. I was forced to go down a dark dirt path to get to the restaurants. What is this about? Not well lit and dirt/gravel, tha is still a bit wet from all the rain. 5. Let’s address the film crew that has come in and disrupted the environment. Things are closed, including the main reception and one of the restaurants.‘the reception is now in one section of the main bar/restaurant, again what? 6. Finally, I was made aware that I would need to be flexible with travel to/from Hamilton Island airport, but needing to arrive there 3 1/2 hours before my flight is a bit much. The following, in my humble opinion, is not correct. There are so many small things that could be done to make the experience great at the 5 star level it claims to be.

Lovely location and the resort is set up very nicely. Very clean and warm welcome. Whilst the staff are very friendly for the most part the restaurant staff are often forgetful and walk around without noticing customers needing service. Food was very nice. Lots of gluten free options which was great for me.

Hayman is such a beautiful destination, we celebrated our engagement and were so well taken care of, from the moment we arrived in the luxury transfer to the departure the dedicated staff were so friendly and helpful. Atama at the Aqua bar was so welcoming and kind. The food and drinks were wonderful. The spa was so tranquil and the Oasis experience was amazing!

My partner and I just spent 4 days here and I couldn’t leave without writing a review. I haven’t had an experience like this in years, to be honest I don’t even remember the last time I was treated this way. Their staff is top notch in all aspects. They care not only about you having a comfortable stay but an INCREDIBLE stay. Yasmin was on top of everything, this woman worked so so hard on giving us a memorable experience. She worked behind the scenes with my partner on his engagement proposal (that I obviously knew nothing about). She put in so much thought and hard work on it being a perfect day for me and it was so much beyond that. Another person that made a huge impact on us was Sam. He was so amazing to us, his hospitality is one of those that you truly don’t see anywhere nowadays and I can’t stop praising him since we left. We also took a helicopter ride with Pete as our pilot to Whitehaven beach and I’m so grateful for his kindness through it all. His knowledge too, because he taught us so much about the Whitsundays that I would never have learned outside of that ride. All this to say the staff of the Intercontinental at Hayman Island holds this place to the highest standard, they are absolutely incredible and I hope they get a chance to read this because they made sure I had the best 4 days of my life these past few days!!!

This is not a 5-star resort. We’ve stayed at places for less $$ and had a far better experience..! Save your money & book elsewhere. It’s not one main issue that stood out for us, instead a culminating list of issues we experienced nearly everyday of our trip that left us feeling frustrated and disappointed. Our stay was 7-nights in a 2-bedroom Hayman suite. Upon arrival, the check-in process was impersonal and felt more like a school excursion tour. Guests were bunched together (14+ people) for an induction conversation and then left to find our own rooms. We travelled with our 2 year old daughter and had issues from the very first day to try book dinner reservations before 8:30pm. No warning was given prior to our arrival that these booked out weeks in advance. It took my husband 3-4 separate conversations with concierge staff to try follow this up. There was no iron in our room. We tried calling housekeeping, they said someone would be up to replace this. No one came despite multiple follow ups. The next morning we went to boil the kettle to make coffee in our room.. we found a dead rotting cockroach inside and also had to ring housekeeping to request a new one. This also did not get replaced until 48hrs later (which was also followed up 4-5 times whenever our calls didn’t ring out). The iron we were eventually given was faulty and short-circuited all of the electrics in our bedroom. None of our curtains would therefore close and housekeeping never answered our calls to have this rectified before going to sleep. The plug in our bath didn’t pop back up so we couldn’t bathe our daughter. The fix was a plastic plug (larger than the bath hole) that my husband had to stomp on repeatedly to try get it to stay in place. Room service food was average. On one occasion we waited 1hr 40mins for food that was originally estimated to arrive in 30 mins. Items we ordered were missing and after waiting for so long we gave up on the idea of contacting staff to rectify. Despite the resort advertising ‘kids under 4 eat free’, we were charged $25 for our daughters lunch & dinner everyday - this resulted in having to make frequent trips to concierge to have this rectified. On one occasion the male concierge staff told us ‘to remind the staff it doesn’t need to be charged’ - like as if it was our responsibility to ensure staff were adequately trained. Drinks service was always slow, nearly every morning we’d finish breakfast before our coffee came to the table (approx. 30-40 min wait). Staff seemed flat and showed no passion to deliver good customer service. Tables were always sticky. Both pool locations rarely had towels stocked. One day it took until 9:45am for a trolley to first come out. Another day we walked down to the other pool for change of scenery. There were already 20+ people poolside with towels so we safely assumed there were towels stocked in the trolley nearby. Our daughter wanted to swim straight away so we all jumped in after ordering lunch. Once getting out, we realised there were no towels and when I politely asked staff about more, one snapped back ‘more is coming’ before walking off. Our 2-year old daughter’s lips were turning blue (it was a very windy day) and we drip dried ourselves while eating lunch poolside (as that’s all we could do for options other than room service which was useless). Nanny service was poor (FYI it’s actually non-dedicated staff ‘filling in’ and treating them like overtime shifts - could be a gardener one day, a barista the next). One nanny we booked didn’t show up for her shift starting at 8:15am. Security had to reach her and she eventually showed at 9am saying she ‘slept in and was feeling unwell the day before’. There were clear rules of no sick kids being watched by staff but sick Nanny’s were exempt? We also got charged for 3hrs of nanny service that day despite the nanny turning up an hour late. Front desk only offered a $50 credit to our account once I personally had to follow this up the next day. Our room felt unkept (bedroom furniture had exposed foam, balcony chairs were disintegrating in corners and covered with cigarette burn holes, there were bird poo stains everywhere so it wasn’t even an area we wanted to use). The Lagoon right outside our room was full of algae and left for cleaning once extremely overgrown. The only walkway we could use to reach the pool was also lined with buckets full of algae that staff were attempting to clean. Nothing got us more excited to sit poolside with cocktails after listening to the ‘slop’ of algae getting tipped into buckets and ofc the lovely smells that followed. To no surprise, upon checking out there were no questions asked about our stay or an opportunity to provide face to face feedback. Staff always seemed rushed and couldn’t care less on improving your stay. The only staff member that stood out for us was ‘Melanie’ who regularly covered the Bam Bam & Pacific restaurants, she was quick to take orders and lovely to deal with. Overall a very average family holiday and $18.5k (accommodation, flights & experiences) that could have been better spent elsewhere.