1. Booked a pickup with them off the late Cathay arrival. They never showed, weren't apologetic. Took a taxi. It's a surprisingly long distance from the airport.
2. We'd booked and prepaid a triple well in advance. Not available on arrival. Put us into a small room and after a long wait (past midnight by now) we got a rollaway.
3. Room nothing to brag about. Sterile cube, wobbly ceiling fan on its last legs. Lots of mosquitos for the entymologysts in the group to study.
4. Breakfast was mediocre but not terrible. Evening meals were actually quite good.
5. No complaints with staff (other than apparent general incompetence as noted above) but we didn't bring out the "friendly" in them.
6. In August, the beach was dirty and dismal looking. I don't remember the pool.

The above is partly a matter of expectations - I had read somewhere that Sri Lanka was the "new Bali". Bali (and especially the Balinese) are favorites of mine, and it takes no effort to obtain palatial accommodations there for USD100 or so. Browns got significantly more than that out of us.