I totally agree with those saying that Costa Lanta experience is not so idyllic as one may expect from a design hotel like this.
Resort is really nice itself and rooms cubic design is actually one the best we have experienced so far. However, maintenance and cleaning are two aspects that do not apply for Costa Lanta resort. There are quite a lot of materials that need urgent repairs (broken woods, metal stuff full of corrosion…), pool is dirty and no-one from the staff seems to care about any service given to customers, ie. we had to tell them about cleaning our sunbeds at the pool since they were completely dirty and they did not care.
Staff cannot communicate in English at all, which is actually quite annoying and none of them are neither friendly nor nice with customers (you walk around and do not expect to hear a simple “Good morning” or “Good evening” from any employees you may cross by). Personnel at the restaurant are also quite incompetent, sometimes even rude. On our first night we arrived 45 minutes before the kitchen was supposed to close and even though we were the only guests having dinner, they delivered the dessert to our table before finishing our main dish, just because they wanted to close the restaurant. This would never happen in a real design hotel !!
After all these real warnings, if you still want to experience Costa Lanta once in your life, I will recommend you to stay not longer than a weekend and avoid meals at the hotel, unless you want to be really exasperated with the terrible service and long waiting times. There is a new resort nearby called “Cha-Da Beach” which not only looks very nice but also their staff is really nice, friendly and efficient. After our first dinner experience, we had all our successive meals there, food was very tasty and prices very reasonable.
Moreover, iIf you can afford it, go to any other gorgeous resorts at Koh Lanta, ie. Pimalai Resort, where you will find exquisite service and superb accommodation.
