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Evelyn S
Melbourne, Australia
4430
Fantastic!
5.0 of 5 bubblesReviewed 26 Sept 2012
Just returned from Phuket and our stay at the Centara Grand resort was absolutely magnificent. The staff are very friendly and helpful and nothing was too much trouble. Every staff member greeted you with a smile. Special mention to Saabi who was wonderful. The buffet breakfast on offer was delicious catering to a wide range of gastrinomical tastes. Thank you to Patty who always had a smile on her face. Our room was luxurious. It was cleaned daily and we were given bottled water and fruit every day. The grounds are beautiful and the views are from the balcony breath taking. We ate at the Italian restaurant on our last night and the food was wonderful - compliments to the chef Matteo. We really enjoyed the Thai cooking class, which included a trip to the fresh food market. Alex the chef was great fun ably assisted by Fon. Went to the spa twice and it was the best facial I have ever had. Only thing to be aware of is that when it rains, the walkways can get slippery. The resort is fantastic and
I highly recommend it. We will return again.
Date of stay: September 2012
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3,819 - 3,824 of 5,228 reviews
Reviewed 26 September 2012

So arriving from beautiful khao lak to karon was always going to need a period of adjustment. The garish pink hotel in front of us we were shown to reception. A little uninspiring and a lengthy check in process. Credit card taken out of sight which I wasn't happy about, but no problems occurred.
Had to sign an agreement for pool towels/cards which stated we had to pay if we lost a card. Really? In a five star hotel? Does that clientele really pinch flat blue towels as a souvenir? they clearly haven't thought about airline baggage allowances! Anyway agreement signed we were shown to our rooms.
To my surprise they were lovely, open plan, spotlessly clean with a wonderful view. Well stocked mini bar area, large storage, really great.
The balcony was a bit small but ok.
Room service / cleaning was efficient, usually done before we arrived back from breakfast.
Breakfast itself was very busy but a very decent choice and quality of food.
The pools were miles away, it is a sprawling hotel , we were in block 2 but at least it was quiet when sat on balcony watching sunset, rather than overlooking main pool, but whilst at the pool a trek back if you'd forgotten something!
Main pool really crowded and sunbeds placed in row upon row. Pool bar good if service a little slow. However 2 of our 3 children were poorly from infections I presume the caught from the pool.
Don't get me wrong about this hotel it's pleasant but had a bit of a package holiday feel about it, to be honest you could have been in Spain !
The beach isn't the best and I don't think Karon gives a rounded view of how beautiful Thailand is. We spoke to a few couples that were there for 14 nights, 4 were enough for us.
Close to patong is you're looking for hustle and bustle, but kata noi is worth a visit, much quieter .
Like I say there's nothing wrong with this hotel its adequate, just a little uninspiring.

Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
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Thank Amanda H
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GMCPBR, General Manager at Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 27 September 2012

Thank you for staying with us.

Yes we are a family resort.

1,500 pool towels were taken as a souvenir from our guests hence the card system which used by all of our competitors in Phuket.

We appreciate the overall positive comments on your stay.

Looking forward to seeing you again.

Warm regards,

Denis

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Reviewed 25 September 2012

My husband and I and another couple just spent 9 wonderful nights at this hotel. The location is perfect as it is right on the beach, a short Tuk Tuk drive to noisy Patong and walking distance to Karon for great restaurants (The Red Onion was our favourite).The staff were super polite and attentive. Special thank you to Saabi who always seemed to be there and helped make our stay varied. Also need to thank Cove staff Patti, Fon and Pla always there on the move, looking after you at breakfast which was always plentiful and covered many tastes. Chef Matteo at the Mare restaurant was very attentive and was even there on hand at breakfast.We did the Thai cooking with chef Alex who was such a sweetheart giving us great experience to talk about. We were in block behind Cove restaurant and had jacuzzi room but didn't use it, pool room could be better but not necessary. Our room near restaurants and adult only pool but we still did enjoy tubing and the slides. TV reception poor but not there much to watch it anyway could be different with children. Spa was splendid, the 4 of us had massages mid stay and the last day the ladies had facials between checkout and transfer. NEGATIVES- should have blinds to close off balcony so could sit outside when raining.Cross over passages are marble floors and very slippery and dangerous when wet need to come up with solution.The only other negative thing is that mattress was very hard and uncomfortable.

Date of stay: September 2012
  • Trip type: Travelled as a couple
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Thank LetsPack_58
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GMCPBR, General Manager at Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 28 September 2012

Thank you for staying with us, your review and above all for your wish to come back.

We particularly appreciated your point of view of our location and the recognition on our super polite and attentive staff.
Saabi, Patti, Fon, Pla and Mateo join me to thank you having mentioned their quality.

We are improving the device on our TV reception system, additional mats to cover the corridors are ordered and I have asked our House Keeper to provide padded liner on the mattress should people ask for it.

We are all looking forward to seeing you on your return.

Warm regards,

Denis

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Reviewed 25 September 2012

Myself and six friends stayed here for 10 nights at the end of August beginning of September. The resort looks great and has soo much potential but it is poorly managed and maintained. We had booked 3 luxury pool suites and 1 deluxe ocean facing room, the latter being for a single female. I had visited in March and had a look at the rooms and selected the 3 luxury pool suites we would prefer as although they are all the same some have absolutely no privacy as the lazy river goes right past the balcony and private pool and some have no views.The deluxe room we just asked if it could be near one of the other 3 room. When we arrived at night we were allocated completely different rooms to those requested, even though when requested there were no bookings for these rooms. After heated discussions there was nothing we could do as the CARE FACTOR from the staff was ZERO. They took us to our rooms with the promise that we could change in 2 days. One of the rooms we were taken to had no power and wires sticking out from the walls so couldn't be used, so this couple had to go back to reception for them to finda another room, our room had single beds and we could have jumped from our "private pool" into the lazy river and the single lady was miles from anybody else. By this time it was 10 o'clock at night ( 1am Sydney) and we had left home at 5.00am. We were told that none of the restaurants were open but we would be able to order room service to the bar. Not possible so we went hungry but had a few drinks at the bar. We were eventually moved a couple of days later to better rooms. Whilst we were there all seven of us got sick, separately, and upon talking to people around the pool so did everyone else staying there, as this was our third trip to Phuket this yearand we weren't sick the othe 2 times it had to be something at the resort. We went to the Steak night at the restaurant as we were assured there would be great steaks, there were only small minute steaks, the same as at the BBQ night, very dissapointing as it was fairly expensive by Thai standards. We tried to get an iron and ironing board which took 5 days as they were all out and then they collected it after a couple of hours and another one could not be got for the rest of the holidays. They have a "call centre" which all phone calls go through and the person in the call centre had much trouble understanding or speaking english which was extremely frustrating. One rooms outdoor shade blinds by the pool broke in a storm and were constatntly banging it took many calls and 6 days for them to be fixed.Generally speaking service was poor, the food ordinary and as it is supposed to be 5 star we would never stay at a Centara resort again.

Room tip: Don't bother
Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Travelled with friends
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1  Thank Debbieandfriends222
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Reviewed 24 September 2012

If you stay at this hotel to accept the service. Own pocket to raise the check-in and check-out. Porter never seen it. Each building has a lot of features that need to drag yourself out of pocket. The clean room is moderate. Just some glass cleaner is mounted tracks. Bathrooms are wet from a shower outside. Premium Rooms are spacious balcony. The first room had building3nd, so let's change room. Swimming pool, a Jacuzzi pool very dense foliage is not clean. I love slider . I went six times. Like the pool because the kids like to swim and slider with. Do not use the spa services. Breakfast includes Thai, Chinese, Indian, European ,roti very very delicious, dinner is not the same in a week. The restaurant staff very attentive. She also recalled that he and I ever had. The hotel is walking distance to the beach. Sun set so beautiful. Walk in the aisles, can not find a shortcut. From the buildings 3nd will go swimming with my very long walk. I walkes to the Aqua zone to get to the swimming pool (4 blocks)

Date of stay: August 2012
  • Trip type: Travelled with family
    • Value
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    • Sleep Quality
    • Rooms
    • Cleanliness
    • Service
Thank nirin
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GMCPBR, General Manager at Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 25 September 2012

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.
I had trouble to identify where the service was that bad especially reading the review mostly highlighting the many positive aspects of your stay.

Warm regards.

Denis

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Reviewed 23 September 2012

We stayed at the Centara Grand for 7 nights. I feel its only fair to be honest and point out the postive and not so positive points about the hotel.

Positives- the staff are lovely, very kind and accomadating. Located in a quiet area if thats what you want. The views of the beach/hills are beautiful. Room service was prompt. The pool/ lazy river and slides are good fun. The food at the hotel restaurants was nice and the breakfast buffet was good too. the hotel drivers looked after you, check out was prompt, very spacious grounds and well behaved hotel guests, rooms were cleaned really well by staff, reasonably prices food, beautifully kept grounds

Negatives- (keep in mind this is a 5 star hotel and i am basing this on having stayed in many) - The internet should be free in rooms, the water was yellow in my room, the smell around some corners of the hotel was not nice, the floors when wet were very very dangerous and we had all family members take a dive one even sprained his ankle. The tv had bad reception, nice spa in room balcony but water was yellow so couldnt use, u had too pay to play tennis which should be free, i feel there was a gastro bug going around we were all sick and it was more then just "travellers tummy" it was a very violent throwing up and diaharrea, i think there should be a small chemist at the hotel for travellers as we had run out of everything to stop us vommiting and crapping, and going to get something in the main drag at 3 in the morn is stupid.

I dont think i would stay again only because i personally like to stay at different hotels each time hence why i have basis for comparison. But i had a lovely time in Phuket and at the hotel. I recommend people to give it a go and make up their own minds :)

Date of stay: September 2012
    • Value
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1  Thank Flying1982
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GMCPBR, General Manager at Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, responded to this reviewResponded 25 September 2012

Thank you for staying with us and for your honest opinion on your experience and above all your kind recommendation for people to stay with us.

As for the not so positive comments, we have the plan to include the internet charge into the room rate next year, As previously wrote we are helping our neighbors to fix their sewage issue, additional Mats are ordered to cover the floor getting too wet during heavy rain day, the TV system is sensitive to strong rain, we are searching for a solution to fix this and a nurse is available daily between 10AM to 6PM.

As previously mentioned, there is no “traveler tummy” in our resort but a virus brought by people easily spread which effect certain immune system. This statement is certified by several highly specialized MDs.

We are now fogging our property with a special product which kills all bacterias and virus and is proofed to be effective.

Warm regards,

Denis

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