Firstly, everyone was constantly smiling and greeting the guests. Their staff also seem to be fully Thai so i really feel i got that Thai hospitality experience... compared to some hotels that may hire non thais.. When i arrived they gave a welcome drink.

The room was relatively big with a private balcony, and a mosquito net. Had some hanky panky here, but thats not the purpose of this review. When i first entered the room, i actually saw a couple of large mosquitoes, so i quickly called reception to tell them to do something about it.. They provided me with one of those plug in insect repellants and even gave me insect repellent... Maybe my standards are low but i was so surprised by this attention to detail to both the customer... and the way it was given was always with a smile lol.... and every night i slept here, i sleep better than i do in my home country..

If you guys are planning a trip to Phuket and plan to stay in Patong, i must recommend this hotel. The only con i can say is that if you intend to bring a girl back to your room, some rooms you have to walk through reception, so not exactly discreet, but they are still guest friendly if your room is booked for 2... But what really stands out is the service.. Everyone was greeting me like i was some VIP... I intend to do further research on these burasari resort group of hotels, because the service for this local thai brand has truly impressed me...

My preferences are on the beach, with swimming pool, and around 2,000 Baht if possible. 

donald

The ides of the balcony is good for me as I’m a smoker.

any feedback welcome please 

Appreciate your thoughts and experiences of these two hotels.  

Cost: Booked a superior double room with pool view via agoda.  Around $80 cad per night after taxes and fees. (kinda surprised this is way cheaper than the hotels in BKK.)

Location: As its name suggests, it's located in the Chaweng district, aka the nightlife area. In fact, soi green mango is right across the street, and the infamous ArkBar is several buildings to the east. (ArkBar is closed off for some reason. Maybe renovations? Only their beach bar is open).  Central Samui shopping mall is like 5min walk away.  If you are planning to spend most of time at the resort, I have to point out that hotel is right underneath the flight path of the nearby airport, so you'll see and hear planes overhead during the day.

Room: All of their rooms besides their bungalows are in 2 storey buildings.  I booked superior double room because all their superior rooms are located on the second floor. Staying on the second floor means having to take a flight of stairs every time, but for me this is the better than staying on the ground floor, where there may be privacy concerns unless you keep your curtains closed all the time.  My room is fairly standard, and clean, but some of the furniture are showing some wear and tear.  The bed is on the firm side, which may bother some who prefer softer mattress.

Pools: there are 2 pools. One runs along the superior rooms and has a pool bar at the end. The other is a beach pool located right next to the restaurant.

Breakfast: It's included in the price. Basically a buffet style breakfast serving both western and asian dishes. It was pretty good. I liked that they have several nespresso machines for all your coffee needs.  Being able to enjoy breakfast with a sea view is pretty nice. 

Getting to/from the airport:  All taxis do NOT have meter. Forget about Grab because it's just as expensive due to lack of drivers. Your main form of transportation besides walking are songthaews that run between the main districts on the island.  At the airport you can take a share van for 120b (costs more if going to other areas farther than chaweng) that will drop you off at your hotel.  Getting to the airport, however, I had no choice but to take a taxi.  If traveling in a group, you can rent a songthaew and split the cost. Because I wanted to avoid potential disagreement in pricing with the driver, I had inquired about the price at hotel beforehand and had the hotel book the taxi for me.  This short drive to the airport (not even 10min) costed me 300b. (I had a feeling it would cost more if I just flagged one of taxis on beach road.)

Overall, it's a pretty nice hotel. I get to chill at the beach and just enjoy the nice view of the sea while downing a cold one.  I was lucky that it did not rain at all during my stay.  Nice clear sunny weather everyday. 

https://imgur.com/a/mZClocP

very last minute trip to Phuket arriving tomorrow - any recommendations for a decent guest friendly hotel either right in or very near to the action? 
 

EG

smiles

peter // aussie

Any advice or info very gratefully received.

Tom Tit  :blink:

In alphabetical order:

Banthai Beach Resort.

A really nice place, arrival hall is very impressive to see, staff is very kind. the place itself is very quiet and yet very close to the action.

So far for the good parts, there are also some negative parts on this resort. The negative sides are the relative small rooms, outdated bathrooms and it's a bit overpriced for what you get.

I had a room without pool-entry as this costed way more, it's a cool feature, slide right from your own roombalcony in the pool (only the groundlevel rooms). These rooms are also a bit bigger. However, for the price you pay is way too much.

More info: see: http://www.banthaiphuket.com/

Duangjitt Resort.

Been to this resort 3 times, and 3 times with fun. It's a big resort, well maintained and looking very nice. The rooms are big and clean with a lot of space in them.

You have 3 types of rooms, the standard, the poolview and de luxe garden view. All have seperate layouts.

I liked the garden view most. The pools are very nice, they have 2 seperate pools, one small one, and one huge one, containing several islands in it, a big pool bar and lots of sunchairs.

The big pool is really a huge plus. As with any hotel there are several disadvantages..

The positives are:

- Big Rooms (not all, only the the deluxe

- Pool is huge

- Staff very friendly

- Clean and classy

- Prices are a little above average

The drawbacks:

- Roomsafes cannot hold a laptop

- No elevator, so if your room is at the 5th floor, you walkd the stairs.. ask for a low floor due to medical reasons, that works.

- Wi-fi in room very expensive

- Joinerfee 1000 baht for every 12 hours.

- Very big, lots of rooms, so pe prepared for crowded situations when checking-inn or during breakfast.

- A bit far from the action, walking to bangla is about 20 minutes walking or surrendering to the tuktuk mafia.

- Garden workers start early, so don't look up when you hear the grass being mowed of the trees getting trimmed at 7 AM.

More info: http://www.duangjit.com/

Patong Merlin

This hotel actually is fairly big, has a front entrance 5 mins walk to Christins massage, and the back entrance to beach road, cross the road and you walk up the beach.

This hotel is somehow older and you can see/notice that. It has been worn out and outdated a little bit. Been there once, and only kept it with one time.

The positives:

- the pools, there are 3 pools in the garden which is very nice, the hotel offers a free library where you can take books. And the hotel has a nice look (all dark wood, looks very solid and luxury).

- Budget car-rental is located in the hotel, which comes in handy

- Beach is just across the street.

There are a lot of drawback which I found:

- Outdated, if you take a closer look, you see the hotel is worn out and could use a big renovation.

- Inside hallways, the halls are inside the hotels, with doors on each side, as a result you cannot open the door without having mosquitos in your room as they all seem to wait in the halls for a sucker to open his door.

- Staff was not very friendly compared to other hotels.

- Clean is a big word, they try, but due to the aging it's get harder every time. As a result you get to see spots and marks on the walls, and I found a cochroach in my bathroom at night...

More info: http://www.patongmerlin.com/

Merlin beach resort

This is the sister hotel of the patong merlin which is review above. They have a free shuttle service from one hotel to the other.

The Merlin beach hotel is not actually in Patong, but across the hill, taking a taxi will take 10 mins and will cost extra. You cannot walk, because it's to far. That means you're sort of stuck at the resort. Which afcourse is not the plan when you want to monger around. Therefore the hotel lis excellent for you honeymoon, or for couples with children who like the silence and having a private beach, but for singles who love the action, well you get my point.

Positives:

- Really nice pools, and even a private beach just for the hotel guests named tri trang beach

- free shuttle service to patong merlin (it's sister hotel)

- If you like rest and peace, you definitely will love it there.

Drawbacks:

- Way to far from the action

- Hotel is fully struck by the tsunami back then and since then there are rooms who still suffer from this (mainly the ground level rooms).

- Expensive

- Not very well suited for youngsters and butterflies like ourselves :)

More info: http://www.merlinphuket.com/merlinbeach/index.html

Sunset Beach Resort:

This hotel is also not in Patong, but in Kamala beach. It's website states the beach is just across the road. (technically it's true)...

However, the beach is nothing more then a big collection of rocks, you can hardly lay on it. Crossing the road involves great dangers, as this is the going road to kamala. There are no crossings and running for your live in order to make it across is needed.

The rooms itselves are really big and spacious, really clean and offer much for the money. I believe this hotel offers the most tv channels of all I visited, but that can be a feeling.

In short the positives and drawbacks:

Positives:

- Big and clean rooms

- Nice pool, but a bit small

- Very cheap compared to the other hotels.

Drawbacks:

- To far from the action, you will need to walk 45 minutes to bangla road or take a tuktuk.

- Beach is a fake, it's rocks with see, maybe a little bit sand when the tide is low.

- Joinerfee is asked

- Beware, they have a waterfall which turns on at 9AM, you can forget sleeping in, when that thing starts, you cannot sleep anymore if you have a room close by.

More info: http://www.sunsetphuket.com/

And finally I have a small review about the dutch-inn guesthouse in which I stayes a couple of nights.

This restuarant/bar offers a few rooms available for bed without breakfast, they have small and a big room, with really cheap prices. The place is in a soi on bang-la road, so you walk out the doorstep and you're on bang la road.

This has several advantages and disadvantages.

The real advantages are:

- cheap

- no joiner fee

- clean

- in the middle of the action

There are some dis-advantages also

- bangla road closed for traffic after 18PM, so getting out or in with your car is a pain in the ass, motorbike also, you will have to walk with it.

- too busy, don't try to sleep before 2AM as you can't... way to much noise from the bars around you. Even after that, there are many drunks on the streets screaming, laughing, fighting and fooling around, so forget about sleeping.

More info: http://thedutchinn.thailanddesign.be/

Hope it helps you guys a bit...

Located 15km South of Pattaya, 700 mts from Sukhumvit, on the way to Sattahip (Thai Naval base) and close to Wat Yansangwararam, Nong Nooch Ban Ambhur and Bang Saray beaches and Khao Chee Chan Buddha image. "Mangoes" is a small private Guest house. It is ideally located for those who want to visit the local attractions (with our rental motorcycles or bicycles) but do not want the hassles of staying in Pattaya. Suitable for those on their way to Koh Sumet, Koh Chang and the rest of Rayong Province as well as those with flights to or from U-Tapao Airport going to or from Koh Samui or Phuket.

It is also convenient for those business people who frequently visit Thailand's Eastern

Seaboard on business as we are situated within 30 minutes of major Industrial Estates and the many Golf courses in the area.

I've read what the Whorist has to say, and he sounds like he knows what he is on about

But was hoping for some better accommodation

So i was wondering has anyone stayed there for mongering and what hotel they stayed at

which ones are guest friendly and what the girls are like...

Any information would be appreciated

Take a pass. The basics of a decent hotel are here, but the bait and switch tactics made my stay disappointing.

Bills itself as luxury; at best it's a Budget Inn. I've stayed in 5 hotels in Thailand, this is the only one with a 19 inch cathode ray tube TV. Only one that charges for internet. Only one that the A/C won't cool the room. If you are a non-smoker, this hotel is for you; there are zero smoking allowed rooms, none. The bathrooms come with soap/shampoo--in industrial dispensers, not individual containers.

I studied long and hard on the hotels that I chose for this trip. I know I picked a smoking room, I've smoked for 35 years, it's not like I forgot. I also chose a hotel with free internet. Since I don't have internet, I can't check on what the advertisement said about the TV, but CRT is not luxury, it's 20th century tech. Poor A/C is not luxury. My room is actually warmer now, after sunset, than it was a hour ago. Bed is hard; better than a tile floor, but I've walked on softer carpets. Little bugs appeared on the second day.

I booked online and did a simulated purchase to see the final paperwork. I noticed that although I had chosen 2 adults in the room, that had revertedto 1 because I didn't include a second adult's name. When I wrote "other Traveler" in, a second adult was included.

When I addressed these issues with the front desk, before I'd even finished I got the tired line that I booked though an agency so blame them. The clerk acted like they've had these complaints often. Which indicates to me that they are deliberately delivering incorrect information to their agencies.

The room is decent sized and fairly clean. And I did manage to get a second key to keep the A/C running while I'm out with only a 200 baht deposit (no receipt). Location is good, reasonably close to the beach and nightlife. Plenty of towells, no wash cloths. Seems to cater to Russians. Breakfast buffet is adequate to sparse, looks like lunch, but across the room you'll find eggs, toast, a few fresh fruits, juice and cereal.

If you have low self esteem and disappointment is a vital part of your daily life, choose this hotel. This hotel is OCD about extra charges. My room even included a list of 45 items that would be charged for if damaged or missing.