I booked the hotel roughly 3-4 weeks prior to arrival, and when I arrived, as a moderately late check-in (around 6pm), I was provided with my room key and the porter brought my bags to my room.
Despite my in advance booking, the room was poor. No window, quite small by the hotels claimed "high-standards", and in addition the bathroom was only barely clean. The shower mat was dirty, having not been cleaned. There was also mould in the corners of the shower, and the underside of the toilet seat (always a good test of cleanliness) was disgusting. I don't think it had seen a cloth or bleach in several months if not more.
Consequently, I visited reception and asked if I could be moved to a room with a window at least. I was informed that the hotel was fully booked and there were no further rooms. I expressed my dissatisfaction, but no attempt was made to pacify me in other ways.
Then to make matters worse, in the morning when I went for breakfast, the food was layed out in a buffet style on an upper floor in an open air environment. Consequently, there were several flies hovering around the food. Also when I went to pick a table, the first one I went to went too had food on the floor around the seats which clearly hadn't been attended to since the night before.
Unfortunately, Sorong has a poor selection of hotels by international standards. I am told from other people I was diving with that the Swiss Belhotel is the sole hotel that is closer to international standards.
