We booked this hotel for one night as a stop over before heading to Koh Lipe, and we are so glad it was just one night.
We arrived before 10am and although we understood that check in was at 3pm, we had noted from the booking confirmation that we could check in early if the room was available. This didn't seem to be an option. We were however permitted to leave our bags at reception while we did a bit of sightseeing. We made a quick stop at the hotel toilet, and really hoped that the toilet in the room was cleaner....
We returned to the hotel at around 3pm and were taken in a "minibus", which was more like a repurposed rusty truck with seats and open sides, to our room. We didn't feel safe at all on this truck, given the steep incline up to the room and lack of seatbelts/sides.
The room we were initially put into (room 1258) had two queen beds, which is what we requested as our 3 year old daughter was with us.
We were shocked at how run down and absolutely filthy the room was. We have attached pictures - they are self explanatory. There were ants crawling on the beds, sockets hanging off the walls, dirty splash marks on walls, dust everywhere, sticky surfaces everywhere, scratched flooring, paint chipping, the phone didn't work, the t.v. had poor reception and only had 3 channels available, the wooden "dressing" chair had a 1cm crack right down the back of it, the toilet didn't flush properly and the cistern sounded like it was constantly filling. There was also a 1 inch gap under the front door (for any creepy crawlies to join us). The room was nothing like the pictures we had seen when we booked (unfortunately we didn't look at any reviews before we booked, we just thought '4 stars, that will be fine for a one night stop over').
We tried to call reception to ask if they could move us to a different room but discovered that the phone wasn't working. We walked to reception and the receptionist took note of our comments and advised that housekeeping would come to take a look. He also told us that there had been a storm the night before which was why the tv and phones were not working (but we have now seen other reviews and this issue seems like a common occurence...!) We waited for ages in the room but nobody came. We tried phoning reception again and this time the phone worked, but we got cut off. When housekeeping eventually came, they asked if we wanted our bed sheets changed. We had to explain again that we were wondering if we could change room and were eventually taken to another room (room 1212). It was better - slightly. Still not clean but less run down than the first room, and by this point, we decided just to make do and go for a swim.
Well...there was no way we were going in the pool. The water was a murky green colour! Our daughter was so disappointed as we had promised her that we would go swimming.
Instead, we opted for a drink at the pool side. The tables were sticky and dirty and the decking was so worn, we were worried for splinters. Nevertheless, we looked at the menu and asked if we could have a corona, mai tai and orange juice. We were told there were no coronas, but my husband pointed out that he could see them in the fridge. We waited 25 minutes for our drinks, by which time it was happy hour. We asked if we could get the benefit of happy hour with the drinks we had ordered since it was after 5pm we had received them and we were told beers were not included in happy hour....yet the board at the bar said they were included. (Cocktails were not included in happy hour.) Incidentally, the mai tai didn't have dark rum in it, as it should, and as detailed on the menu and a slice of orange was squeezed into the corona instead of the normal lime.
The beach at the pool is tiny, but our daughter was delighted to be able to have a swim in the warm water (which we are sure was cleaner than the swimming pool water).
By this point, we had read reviews online and decided it was safer not to eat at the hotel, so we went out.
On our return at around 8.30pm, we walked into room which was like a sauna. The air conditioning was clearly not working. We contacted reception and were informed that someone would come to take a look. We waited over an hour (even after calling reception again) before housekeeping came at 9.45pm, to be informed that yes, the air conditioning was broken. We were asked if we wanted to move rooms. By this point we were livid. Our daughter was sound asleep but we were uncomfortably hot and wouldn't have been able to sleep in the heat. We were moved to a room downstairs (room 1205), which again, was run down, dirty and definitely not 4 star quality. It also had a king bed and not two queen, which was not ideal for us, but we had had enough.
We went to bed feeling pretty deflated. It was my 30th birthday the morning after and we were just so disgusted at the hotel that it put a real downer on the excitement of the day.
We had also been in three of the rooms and none of them were clean. They were all run down and not 4 star quality. Furthermore, there seemed to be nobody at the hotel so it makes us wonder why we didn't get to check in early.
The breakfast was equally poor. The selection was limited and unappetising and while walking down to breakfast through reception, we noticed dead (and alive) cockroaches and other bugs everywhere. (We also saw a snake the day before near the pool.)
A manager did apologise to us in the morning about the condition of first room. We told him that we were not prepared to pay for the room and drinks after all the problems we had. Having booked it through expedia, we were told we would have to try to sort things regarding the refund for room with them. The hotel did try to charge us for the drinks but on making further comment about all the issues we had, the receptionist (after contacting someone by phone) confirmed that no charge was to be made.
We would absolutely recommend NOT booking this hotel. It is so run down, dated and filthy - we just cannot understand how it has a 4 star rating.
