This hotel is good, but could be so much better. If you like Dongtan Beach, the location is superb. Two minutes out the front gate and you're on the beach. If you like swimming - it has three big, lovely pools. One for kids and two deeper ones. Sadly, there is hardly any seating around the pools, and very, very little shade though. The rooms are quite spacious and modern. Not exactly what you would call stunning decor, but clean and nice. Comfy bed, good sized bathroom. Everything in my room worked well. I was on the 5th floor. Each room has a good sized balcony, and mine had a nice sea view. The hotel is designed in a U shape - Reception being at the round end of the U, and the two 'arms' pointing towards the beach. It's quite a big hotel, with 6 floors at the highest parts, and the arms extend some 22 rooms in length. Stupidly, there is only ONE lift per arm - located near Reception. So if you come in from the beach and you have a room towards the beach end, as I did, you have to walk all the way back up to Reception, then walk all the way back down to your room. Stupid. Breakfast had a large range of hot food - all of which was "warm" at very best, due to inadequate food heaters. The egg station was...This hotel is good, but could be so much better.
If you like Dongtan Beach, the location is superb. Two minutes out the front gate and you're on the beach. If you like swimming - it has three big, lovely pools. One for kids and two deeper ones.
Sadly, there is hardly any seating around the pools, and very, very little shade though.
The rooms are quite spacious and modern. Not exactly what you would call stunning decor, but clean and nice. Comfy bed, good sized bathroom. Everything in my room worked well.
I was on the 5th floor. Each room has a good sized balcony, and mine had a nice sea view.
The hotel is designed in a U shape - Reception being at the round end of the U, and the two 'arms' pointing towards the beach. It's quite a big hotel, with 6 floors at the highest parts, and the arms extend some 22 rooms in length.
Stupidly, there is only ONE lift per arm - located near Reception. So if you come in from the beach and you have a room towards the beach end, as I did, you have to walk all the way back up to Reception, then walk all the way back down to your room. Stupid.
Breakfast had a large range of hot food - all of which was "warm" at very best, due to inadequate food heaters. The egg station was manned by a surly woman who busily cooked small omelettes and fried eggs and lined them up. If you wanted one, you took one already sitting there that she had cooked previously.
Staff at the large breakfast room were not friendly - there was not a smile to be seen amongst the lot of them. One guy busily and efficiently cleaned up used plates etc, but otherwise there was no "service". The coffee was un-drinkable (my assessment and my friend's), and the large tea pot had just 2 tea bags dangling in it - so the tea was very weak. Both tea and coffee was tepid.
Overall, as I said, the breakfast selection was extensive - but the service was basically non-existent, the staff seemed unhappy and were not friendly, and the food and drink quality was at best, average. If you love barely warm food, this buffet is for you.
When we checked in, using our Agoda booking, all went smoothly - though again, without any warmth or friendliness. The bizarre thing was that they demanded 3,000 baht IN CASH as a 'security deposit', for each room. They would not accept what every other hotel in the world seems to do - a credit card "deposit", which they keep for your stay, then return and it's ripped up (assuming you have caused no damage etc). When we asked to speak to the Manager about this, she explained in a most complex and unsatisfactory way, that she would actually accept a credit card temporary deposit, but that money would be returned to us in 3 or 4 weeks. This made absolutely no sense at all - so rather than risk the hotel keeping a credit card imprint for 3 or 4 weeks, we paid the 3,000 baht. Weird and inconvenient.
All up - a nice hotel with some design handicaps. Unsmiling and generally unfriendly staff and poorly managed and served breakfast.More