Great hotel

this hotel is a hidden gem!! pretty new and very modern good location with all amenities you'd expect from good hotel. staff efficient and very helpfull. rooms spacious and beds comfy. breakfast great and resturant joined to hotel very reasonable and food excellent, especially seafood.

Bad Vibes From Employees

My family decided to stay at this hotel because of a previous stay on Kata Beach at Kata Resort which is just around the corner. This hotel looked great from the outside so we decided to give it a try this year. Upon arrival we checked in without a problem. On our way back from the beach I noticed three hotel staff standing near the taxi drop-off area at the hotel and it appeared they were laughing and pointing fingers at my wife. This did not feel good at all! The next day on our way to lunch we walked past one of the same men from the other day, we both swore we heard him saying "fu#%ing americans". Thank God we were checking out the next morning, we put bags against our door at night just to be safe.

Disappointing service

This hotel disappointed us in so many ways - mostly on customer service. Here are our experiences when we stayed for 3 nights in December 2006.

1. Airport Pickup - I arranged this directly through the hotel by phone AND email. We arrived at the airport at 10.30pm to find that the hotel had FORGOTTEN about the Airport Transfer. Instead we waited for an hour to take the airport limousine service. Despite highlighting this lack of service we received NO apology from the hotel.

2. Reservation - we booked a double room, only to find they had given us a twin room - judging from other reviews it seems like they do this a lot. The hotel was fully booked on the first night, so we couldn't change rooms and had to sleep in single beds. The following morning they still had no double rooms in our price category, so we had to PAY for an upgrade to a double room.

3. Water - The hotel failed to supply free drinking water in our room on the first night, and when we enquired as to which water we should use the reception told us to use the bottled water in the mini bar (Minere brand). Upon checking out, we were charged for using the Minere water at 15 baht per bottle, even though we were told it was ok to use that water, since there was no free drinking water in the room. It's not the cost that concerned us, but the conduct of the hotel.

4. Breakfast - yuck - the jam is left in the open air and there were flies crawling on it. The juice was like drinking pure cordial - we had to dilute it with water. The egg station was the best bet as all the other breakfast options were very very average, limited range and poor quality of food.

5. Rooms - nicely presented, and a good size, but on closer inspection they have been renovated on the cheap. A few times the water would be off without any notice to the guests. Try to get a room away from the street as it's quite noisy with motorbikes and shops setting up. Housekeeping didn't come around until late afternoon.

6. Overall Service - I found the service at this hotel disgraceful. The reception staff were very inefficient, hardly communicated, and the manager on duty (a lady) was very rude.

The good thing about this hotel is the location, a 5 minute walk to the beach, and the nice restaurants in the Kata area.

Great Loctaion & value

Great accommodation for the price and the location is prob the best for the area with the exception of Kata beach resort and Kata Thani and the other top end accommodation. It is only about 100mtr to the beach.

Breakfast is a lil ordinary, although you can get a fresh eggs any style, but there are other options in the area for breakfast and dinner.

Rooms are great, more hotel style... ocean and mountain views from balcony in a deluxe room. I got this room for 4 nights at the price of 3 through (asia web direct) for total price of 7200bt.

Great value.

One thing re Kata, it is prob the best beach to stay in the busier area of the island. Water is clean and none of the noise like patong. I was very surprised, this area was better than pp and krabi for it diversity.

get a bike - 200bt and ride around the island, easy for a novice..

Great value for the price

Stayed there for 3 nights in November 2006. Thought it was a great value for the price (about $80/night for a fifth floor room, "deluxe" pool view room). Hotel is only a couple years old, everything was modern and clean. Small bathtub, but nice standing shower (nice tile walls in shower) in the bathroom. Pool was very nice, not many lounges, but the hotel was never crowded while we were there. Very convenient location with nice restaurants and $7 Thai massages available right down the street from the hotel, and a 1 block (about 200 yards) walk to the beach. The breakfast was a good variety and filling, a variety of western and eastern dishes available (toast, cereal, bacon, pancakes to rice, pad thai, curry dishes, etc). I thought the juices were okay, no complaints. The fresh fruits were pretty good, watermelon, papaya, pineapple every morning. The spa offered 50% off 3 hour packages while we were there, so we got a great package for two of us for about $150 US total while overlooking the pool area. The wireless service is available for about $3/hour, but it's pretty spotty from the rooms; I had to go down to the pool area to use my laptop, but they also have PC's available for internet access near the pool. All in all I though it was a good value for the money. Certainly you can find cheaper places, and nicer places in Thailand, but this was very nice for the price.

Avoid this hotel. Terrible service and substandard rooms

Stayed here for 3 nights and 4 days in late Nov 06. We were given a twin bed room on the second floor, overlooking the reception area. The noise from the reception was annoying as well as the construction work that was happening on the same floor. This was not told to us before hand by reception. On one of the mornings the water in the bathrooms stopped working for at least 2 hours. The management was very unsympathetic and only after enquiring afew times were we given a separate room for showering whilst the water was being fixed. The breakfast was very substandard with diluted, sweetened juice, low quality bread and poor choice of food. The rooms are actually clean but the water pressure on the second floor apartments were very low. The service was very poor with staff unable to understand English at times. I would strongly deter potential guests from this hotel. If you don't get a quiet room, on the ground floor and with no issues then it maybe passable.

Great Modern Hotel

Fantastic bedroom - very modern and innovative.

Great location - few minutes walk to the beach, plenty of bars and restaurants nearby but didn't have any problem with noise at night.

Good breakfast.

Swimming pool good, but not many sunbeds.

Above expectation

We stayed here from the 11th to 14th October, a father and Son.

We had a pool access room, number 1108 the best and quietest room on the premises, as no-one need come to the end of the passage or pool.

The Room was moderately sized but more than adequate and the bathroom was great with nice attention to detail and being able to lie in the bath and watching the t.v. was a treat. The aircon was great and the decor was very modern but with a hint of the Thai touch.

The Breakfasts were a little below average in terms of choice and we had to ask for some bacon to be prepared. Considering the lavish breakfast we had at the Seaview Patong, we were a bit disappointed. Nevertheless it was more than adequate and filling.

The staff were superb, really friendly and the day security officer was very attentive to help us get our Jeep in and out the parking area.

The BEST thing of all was that the Bar fridge prices were only slightly higher than at the 7/11 2 minutes walk away. What a pleasure. I wonder when other Hotels might do the same.

The only negative was them charging us 70 Baht for a simple glass that we broke. The nett cost of the glass is probably 10 baht.

The location is superb, 3 minutes walk to the beach and a minute to the shops. It has the best location in Kata excepting for the Kata Beach or Club Med resorts

We will definitely stay here again

Pool-access rooms superb!

We booked a pool-access room at this hotel and it was amazing, the balcony is level with the pool and you just have to open a little gate in the railing and jump in!!! There is also a big jacuzzi in the swimming pool. Downside was that, although you are not supposed to use the pool during night hours, we were woken up one night around 2 am by a group of people partying in the pool at that hour.

The price we found on the hotel website was incredibly cheap and we even got breakfast included. The breakfast wasn't anything to write home about, though, except at the weekend when they had a traditional Thai breakfast as well to choose from.

The room was nice and big and quite tastefully decorated. The bathroom had both a new shower cubicle and a bathtub with a sliding window onto the bedroom!

The hotel provides wireless internet access very cheaply and the coffee shop on the corner gives you 15 min free on their computers or wireless with every purchase!

The hotel is set away from the main road, about 3 min from the beach and is surrounded by restaurants and massage parlours. It's quite easy to stop taxis and tuk tuks to get you into the main part of town at night.

The beach is very nice and quite huge although we went in June during the monsoon season and, although the water was lovely and warm, the waves were very high, in fact the beach was mostly populated by surfers. Loungers and umbrellas can be had cheaply from the kiosks.

Sugar Palm Resort, Phuket

We stayed in Sugar Palm Resort from 21 to 29 August 2006. We booked it through Asia Web Direct (web site: ---). The price for the package was very good.

When we arrived to the resort we were not disappointed with our choice. It is very nice, very modern with a bit of oriental influence. It's almost new. The location is pretty good: 2 min. walk to the beach and it's surrounded by restaurants, shops and massage rooms.

In general, we are very happy with the hotel and service. However there was very frustrating incident involving Reception Manager which spoilt our otherwise very good experience. We asked her assistance to call local tour company. After she did, she asked us to pay 20 Baht for the phone call. It's not the money that matters (however 20 Baht for the local phone call is quite a lot) but the fact itself. The hotel reception is there to assist guest with their needs, to help them and make them welcome. Flight and tour confirmations, help with reservations of all kinds is supposed to be part of their service. This is even for 2-star hotels. That's why it was really frustrating to be treated as described above especially by Reception Manager and in the 4-star resort.

Otherwise, the rest of the hotel staff was very friendly. The hotel rooms are very nice and modern, so is the swimming pool. Good location - close to the sea, restaurants and shops. One suggestion to the hotel: fit some shelves in the wardrobe (for some reason there are none) and a rail for the face towels. The staff should also improve their English as we had few instances of misunderstanding especially at the restaurant.

B.M.

Sydney, Australia