I stayed in Padang Padang camp for ten days and although the waves and surf instructors were brilliant the camp seems to be lacking in basic customer service and security which with better management would significantly improve the overall experience.
Surfing – the instructors are all fantastic surfers, provide an amazing welcome to newcomers and seem to have a genuine zest for life and meeting new people. I felt my surfing did improve quickly particularly with paid lessons from Harry and Bobby who are both superb coaches and bring a lot of energy to the days – if I could rate those two alone I would have given them 5 stars!
However, other staff should be conscious of appropriate behaviour around female guests when at times I felt the ‘flirting’ was border-line and could have made people feel uncomfortable.
Photos & Analysis – In the 8 days I surfed with the camp there was no video footage captured of myself and only one video analysis session which had limited footage – an area which should be vastly improved as per the advertisements on the website when booking.
Additionally, the photographer didn’t have equipment which was working correctly and therefore when photos were attempted to be taken (not often) were out of focus and only available to view when the photographer and the laptop were in the camp (not sure why a shared link couldn’t be used so both camps can see all photos at the end of a day) – note, you have to pay extra for the photos.
Food – overall the food was good and I never went hungry as you could order multiple times at breakfast and usually seconds were provided at dinner. However, dietary requirements are often ‘managed’ not necessarily supplemented reducing options available e.g. no gluten free bread or pancakes which should be an area which is improved.
Service – overall poor for the relatively expensive price of rooms due to the fact as majority of staff are unpaid interns and seem to act as guests themselves as opposed to attempting to provide proactive customer service. A selection of examples below which I am sure with better training and management supervision could be improved:
1. On my first night I arrived from the airport at around 8.30pm I wasn’t offered any food despite the fact the team knew well in advance I was arriving at that time and that was included in the cost of my booking.
2. Apparently there was a what’s app group for camp (I only found out a few day’s into my stay) but it seemed to be selective on who was invited to the group and who wasn’t – not sure why this isn’t consistently provided as an option to all guests if it is going to be used?
3. Despite asking via the what’s app number for the camp information for laundry services nearby I was simply told “there are loads available just use google maps”, despite the fact I had already searched nearby on foot for any laundry service and not been successful and then asking for a recommendation of a place I still didn’t get any useful information and ended up washing in the sink.
4. At one point one of the staff was asking me who guests names were as those individuals “were never in camp” and they “hadn’t spoken to them at all” – I would expect as a minimum for staff to make an effort to know guests names considering there was less than ten of us.
5. One evening we were all given what we thought was an ice cream for dessert only for it to turn out the next day we were in fact being charged 30,000 despite not being told! Note – a five minute walk to the shop and you could buy the same ice cream for 7,000!
Camp – my biggest issue was with the security of the camp. I was surprised at first when I asked for a key to my room and was told “we don’t lock anything here as we never have anything taken.” However, after one day I had money taken from my room and following this two further guests had money taken. There was a clear pattern that it was new guests and not all their money was being taken from wallets.
Despite informing the manager he effectively told me I was wrong, didn’t apologise and said this probably happened in the van when we were surfing as they do not lock and are always broken into (pictures attached). I am not sure this has been followed up on at all as regardless of whether the van or the room as it is still rapture property and responsibility, however, the approach seemed to be that there was nothing which could be done.
This is completely unacceptable and sadly clouded the whole experience negatively and I strongly recommend that rapture review their security and approach to dealing with customer issues.
Overall, I found the camp to be overpriced and a lot of “extras” which seemed to be purely based on trying to extract as much money as possible from guests e.g. rapture use their own exchange rate for the final bill and add a 5% service charge onto everything purchased at camp – not sure what additional service is provided when paying for board insurance, renting a board or having a surf lesson!
In summary – if you are happy to stay in a camp where you will need to sacrifice basic service by chasing everything yourself for the sake of great waves and instructors then I would recommend rapture. If not, I would suggest you look elsewhere for a better all around experience.
