Nice stay - no thrills, no surprises

Name: Nice stay - no thrills, no surprises
Item: Royal Hills Golf Resort and Spa
Rating: 3
Author: SageAdvisor

Review of Royal Hills Golf Resort and Spa

Reviewed July 26, 2012

Overall, a good hotel experience for the price (group discount rate) -- although "resort" might be pushing it... We did not have any of the (negative) issues other reviewers experienced, but managed our expectations based on these helpful insights. I came on a business/group trip along with the family and did *not* play golf, which I imagine is the reason most would ever want to visit this no-thrills part of the world. Did not try the spa either. Family enjoyed the local waterfall (although hotel rental van ~800 baht for ~2 hours -- not cheap). They have a put-put, open-air people mover who can take you down to 7-Eleven (~4 km round trip) for much cheaper. Room was clean, beds were a bit saggy, and aircon was strong/good. We enjoyed having a top floor room in the townhouses across the street from main building, which had a nice outdoor rooftop sitting area big enough to invite friends over for a drink. Restaurant was pretty typical golf club buffet style affair. No thrills. VIP buffet dinner in large exhibition room above spa had tasty food and good service. For sure, the massive pool was a big treat for the kids. Free wifi was reliable and appreciated. Check-out was under 1 minute. Bellboy service with a smile. No complaints here!More

Date of stay: July 2012

See all 73 reviews

Updating list...

More Reviews

Boraven wrote a review Jul 2012
1 contribution
Nice hotel, staff, maintenance lacking
I stayed at the Royal Hills for 3 weeks while working at the CRMA (Military Academy) 30 minutes away. The hotel is in not near anything, Nakhon Nayok is not a happening place.

The hotel is nice and clean. The rooms were large (by Asian standards) and had a balcony. There was only hot water was in the shower, this made shaving in the morning difficult for me. The drain on my shower did not drain quickly, the wireless internet was spotty and unreliable. The air conditioner in the room had a mind of its own, I woke up cold/warm several times through my stay. I lost power in my room a few times, it did not seem weather related. It was restored within 20 minutes of calling the front desk.

The spa staff was very accommodating and professional, a relief from Bangkok where they all want to give you an EXTRA SPECIAL treatment. I received several massages from Suparat, a charming young woman who enjoys her job and was a delight to work with. She was thorough and willing to stretch the massage out beyond the initial hour to ensure satisfaction.

The pool was clean and large, there were ants around several of the chairs but they did not bother me. I did not try any of the pool-side services so I can't speak to that.

The Jasmine Cafe had large menu that was affordable. At times they did not have certain items available. Large groups of people often caused confusion and resulted in food being delivered to the wrong person and paying the bill difficult. Had anyone in our party spoken Thai this would not have been an issue, I can't fault the hotel for me not speaking the language of their country. For breakfast they often had a buffet which was good, after 3 weeks I was ready for something else. It should be noted that depending on the occupancy of the hotel the location of breakfast may change without notification. I usually asked the front desk where breakfast was each morning.

I am not a golfer, so the golf aspect of the hotel did not interest me. The lack of hot water in the sink was a big deal for me, but not a deal breaker. I did not mind my stay at this hotel, the saving factor was the spa and the staff. I believe this resort is catered toward Thais, do not expect everyone to speak English and everything to be like “home,” it isn't home. All-in-all I had a pleasant stay.
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
AndySilverfox7 wrote a review Apr 2012
55 contributions52 helpful votes
Interesting
We had a rat in our room. The manager relocated us to a suite. No further dialogue regarding our rodent. There was rat droppings all over the room
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Jay9818 wrote a review Jan 2012
31 contributions
Nice area, maintenance problems
The hills are nice. The area's lovely. The resort has a nice pool and the rooms are nice and comfortable. Many rooms have problems with their hot water devices however. Once mentioned to service staff near the rooms, they said many rooms had the same problem and we could call the front desk to take care of it. Since Thailand has a lot of problems with electrical devices, we decided not to mess with the water heater too much though we tried to "test" it by resetting. This didn't work. Others in our party in different rooms had the same problem. We took cold showers instead...This time of the year the water actually can be a bit cold. The balconies on the rooms were covered with bird waste which made sitting outside a bit problematic. They entertain a lot of groups at this resort which can make it quite noisy as well. Again, the area is beautiful. The food was decent though not too great. If you like to golf, this might be a good place for you. Make sure everything in your room works, and that your sink "bowl style" doesn't leak at the base. The beds in our bungalow-style house with four rooms were comfortable.
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Tourist1111382 wrote a review Dec 2011
5 contributions4 helpful votes
Fine Hotel
fine hotel, not so good not so bad. Fine rooms bad beds. But other than that, great location
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
andyinbk wrote a review Dec 2011
19 contributions5 helpful votes
Excellent weekend for our large golfing group
On the weekend of 3 & 4 December 2011, our golfing group (50+ players & families) spent a wonderful weekend at this resort. This is the 5th year running we have played our annual club championships here & every year the management & the staff get better & better. The location of the resort is great with views from the hotel and the swimming pool area out over the valley.

In the evening, we had 90+ people for our annual prize-giving presentations outdoors & the hotel excelled themselves with the buffet food & service, with comments from long time expat residents that "The buffet was one of the best I think we have had on an evening event".

If you are planning an event at this course, take the time to engage the management in your requirements, try not to nickel & dime them and they seem very willing to provide high quality services for good value.

We all stayed in the hotel & to my knowledge, no one had any complaints. The breakfast was served in the coffee shop & was typical Thai hotel fare, nothing extraordinary but suitable.

As a group, we will be back again next year.
Read more
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.