We stayed in the Zara Beach for more than a week and could therefore look behind the scenes. The hotel is usually very nice and calm except when the manager’s friends from Israel are among the guests. Then it’s time for party, excessive alcohol and special female Thai guests. Complaint useless - the manager is kingpin.
Welcome at reception was quite short – no drink, no information, just shown to the room. Getting information or explaining problems was difficult as staffs’ knowledge of English was quite poor. Be careful when settling payment: the hotel tried to charge us a credit card handling fee of 3% (..which we refused to pay...).
The bungalow (we had villa no. 5) was very nice and spacious. Plunge pool was nice, but not really of use as the water was too cold. At the beginning there was only one sunbed on the terrace, we had to ask for a second one. Shower was almost cold, in exchange fridge was too warm.
Room service was done with a minimum of effort: rough cleaning of the room, bedclothes were changed after we had thrown them on the floor on the 6th day…
Breakfast was either served at the pool or in the newly opened restaurant (finally after 10 months it was finished) and really was ok (croissants, toast, fruit, thai dishes, juice etc). Staff was very friendly.
The river in front of the hotel did not smell at all, but anyway the view from the hotel to the beach was not scenic due to rubbish and old sandbags lying everywhere around. The beach itself is one of the best at Lamai Beach. Be aware that there are no exclusive sunbeds for hotel guests; every other guest of the beach bar can take them – first come, first serve.
Staying there for two or three nights is ok, but not for longer. With all the laxness it is not worth the money. The hotel could be a gem on Lamai beach by simply changing management and caring about the pretended unimportant drams.
