We came from Koh Phangan and needed to stay until the next day to take a bus.
The place is clean and it's a basic hotel but better than a guesthouse or a backpackers place.
Not expensive, with ac and free wifi. Close to the city center.
Agoda
Expedia.com
Priceline
We have just spent one night at Tapee on our way to Koh Tao. The hotel is ideally located for the pier with the boats to the islands.
We paid 550B (£11) for a double room with good A/C. The bed was clean and the shower was warm. We were also given access to free wifi in the lobby which worked well. We had a fridge/freezer in the room too. The 'bell boys' were friendly and helpful and the reception staff were friendly too.
Although the bed was clean, there were nail clippings in the bathroom. There was also a dinner plate with left over food on it left outside the room opposite from 4pm when we checked in until 8am when we checked out, even though the staff had walked past twice to show us to our room. I think it's this attention to detail which prevents this hotel from a better rating.
We would not recommend eating in the hotel 'restaurant' as half way through my meal I found two small maggots in my rice. I did not get ill from this but it was still very off-putting!
Long and short of it - if you have to stay in Suratthani (which I would avoid if at all possible) then this is a fine place just to spend a night - but with the complete lack of anywhere to eat I would go to 7/11 and stock up on dried food!
We spent one night here (550 baht) so we could catch the train the next morning. Surat Thani itself doesn't have much to offer tourists and I think most people only stay one night or two max. Rooms are clean and spacious, only gripe is that wifi is only in the lobby, but at least it was working there with good signal. Staff were helpful at check in. Night market is worth strolling through and is about 5 mins away. Orange bus is only 20 baht to/from train station and they run frequently, but not quite so frequently in the weekends. It took us about an hour on a Saturday morning but we did just miss a bus.
Since we were traveling in a group of motorcycles we needed a big hotel. This place has enough rooms for all of us. I rate it as average. The lobby is spacious, however it lacks the charm. Felt very chinese here.
There rooms were big too. But then again it has no vibes at all. Its just good for a night as a stop-over. However if you need a budget room situated within the city, then this is the place. Its a walking distance to the night market, town centre and the pier to Koh samui/Phangan.
Stayed 1 night at Tapee hotel during waiting for a flight early morning from Suratthani to Bangkok. The deluxe room that hotel offered was good as it cheap for 550 Baht only! And the room was big and clean, around hotel has many restaurant during the night as well. The taxi (which reception called for us) from hotel to Airport at 500 baht takes time around 20 minutes.
After researching the internet for Thai holidays, knowing that our train from Bangkok to Surat Thani would be packed if it was a holiday, I did not see any on the 8th when I wanted to get tickets for my wife and myself. After getting to the train station I was informed that it was a major Buddah holiday and that the 8:05 train I wanted was full, so we had to book the 2:45 train. It was late when we got to Surat Thani and was only going to get about 3-4 hours of sleep before leaving for Samui. When we showed up at Tapee I put a copy of the email reservation I received on the counter and asked for my room, at that time I was informed that there were no rooms available. After trying to explain that I had a reservation, I just gave up and our tuktuk driver said he knew another hotel. Fortunately the driver was very polite and took us to the Bandon Hotel, it was about the same price for an aircon room (+- 10 Bhat) and they had availability. So, Terrible is based on reliability, I cannot speak to any other features.
