I stayed at the Kala with my gf around 10-15 Nov this year, the experience was quite enjoyable at times, but there are some serious issues that need to be addressed.
I'll start with the Good:
- The Room/View, as you can see from most pics posted for the Kala, the view is fantastic. However if you go for a standard room, the sea view from some rooms are obstructed by trees, make this the first thing to confirm when you check in. We stayed in a standard room and there were no problems apart from the first night, which i'll get to later.
- The Bar/Restaurant Staff, they are simply excellent. Always smiling and happy to assist with our catering needs, they even organized Krathongs for us during the annual Loy Krathong festival.
- Breakfast, I thought breakfast was great as it was simple and nice. Best of all, there is no time constraints as to when you need to have your breakfast, which is perfect for us as our stay was of a laid back nature and sleep-in's seemed almost compulsory. One day we went on a day trip to Koh Nangyuan from 7am to 5pm and didn't get to eat in the morning, when we came back we were so exhausted and hungry i asked whether we could have breakfast then and they were more than happy to organise it. lol to having the breakfast menu at 5:30pm though :P
The not so good:
- Check in staff, the first night we checked in we noticed a smell we were not familiar with as soon as we stepped into the room. We were told by the check in staff that the room always have that smell when the air con haven't been switched on, and that it would go away after a little while. We didn't change rooms that night thinking that the smell would go away, and also because the room had a great view. The smell though, did not go away, and we had a horrible sleep that night. We eventually worked out what the smell was, it was kind of a sewage smell from the bathroom plumbing, and that was disturbing. Not happy with the check in staff in this regard, she seems to be in a bit of a hurry at the time too. We changed rooms the following day at our request.
- Security staff, thinking back about this particular incident, it still fumes me with anger. It was after we've checked out on the final day, we decided against taking the hotel mini-bus to the airport because it would cost 600 baht, quite expensive as the airport was about 20-25 minutes by car. We were advised that the security staff would help us get a taxi. The gentleman in uniform that day had a tag that read "Chief Security", and he called a cab for us on his mobile, telling us the driver is coming from Lamai (about 10 minutes away) and the fare quoted is 500 baht, still expensive but we needed to get to the airport straight away as we did not have much time. It became even more frustrating as about 3 cabs went past and were all waved on by the Chief Security. He kept ensuring us that the driver is just a few minutes away, by this time we had already waited for 15 minutes. The young lady from reception (the same one that checked us in) was with us and seemed to have noticed our concern, and waved in the 4th taxi going past, she then spoke to the driver in Thai before we got it, telling us it's also 500 baht for the trip. After we got in the cab we noticed our driver slipping the Chief Security some cash. If we were still not sure what was happening this confirmed it. The Chief Security gets commission from the cab drivers, he has a few buddies on his mobile contact list that he has an understanding with. The taxi driver which took us to the airport was not a buddy of his, but the reception staff made sure that he understood the deal before we got into the cab.
I'm not sure if the hotel management knows about this or approve of this, or is even involved in this (Security and Reception are definitely both in on this), it doesn't matter, this incident reflects the image of the hotel as a whole and should not have taken place at a hotel that advertises itself as a 5 star establishment. Think about it from the guest's perspective, the hotel is basically making it so that they make money out of you regardless, you can take the 600 baht hotel mini-bus, or the 500 baht taxi ride, you are over paying either way. It infuriates me as they had no concern for our departure time and kept us waiting for his taxi buddy, what if I had an international connection and missed all my flights? This kind of practice is simply unacceptable.
In conclusion:
I had the pleasure of meeting Maria, the sales manager of the hotel, and it is quite clear that management have this vision for the hotel as a 5-star resort. I recognise the fact that the hotel has great potentials, but currently, it still has a long way to go.
