Very beautiful location, nice hotel quite new. We stayed in one of the villas, it was advertised as having a private pool, when we arrived we noticed that it was not actually a pool it was only a jacuzzi on the balcony...which i may add stopped working on 2 occassions and was very dirty.
The food is terrible, we had breakfast one time which was of 2 star standard, the room service we ordered was disgusting mush, the food we had in the restaurant was much the same. In the end we ate outside the hotel.
The aircon was so noisy one night that we could not sleep, the following day it stopped working, the staff came to repair the unit, however after that the temperature was not cool enough.
Despite the fact we set our staus to 'do not disturb' the House keeping staff disturbed us on 2 occassions, however when we requested House Keeping to come they did not arrive.
The water for the bath, shower and taps is salt water, something that you would expect from a 2 star hotel not a 5 star villa.
The free wifi did not work in the villa and could not be fixed.
The welcome fruit bowl consisted of 2 red apples.
I met with the Manager to express my dissappointment, the hotel offered an extra night free which due to our schedule we coudl not accept, in any case we would not have as we wanted to leave the hotel asap. We were then told that they would give us a free upgrade, however there was a problem with the other villa, we were told they would contact us with an update on the repairs which they did not so we never received the upgrade.
We were also offered a free meal in the restaurant, however as the food was so bad we declined the offer.
Due to our problems i was expecting the Manager to see us upon check out, however there was nobody present which was very disappointing.
On the plus side, the staff were very helpful during our stay and we forgot some items in our villa which the hotel kindly sent them to us at the Marriott the same day.
Overall the south Sea is a huge disappointment and very over priced, something that you wold not expect from this kind of property. It could be such an amazing resort but it lacks the attention to detail in so many areas. There are so many other resorts in the area.

A fabulous location on the best family beach in Kao Lak ...good rooms...nice pool, but the big downside was the food. The restaurant food is way overpriced , and extremely un-appealing. The room rate does not include breakfast, which was of very poor standard ...stale pastries, hot food that was cold, not enough variety and little local fruit .. it amazed me they have the nerve to charge for it.
The lack of english speaking staff also spoil the experience alittle , as it is difficult to get anyone to understand requests.
This should be a great place to stay as the beach is wonderfully uncrowded and pristine ...and it could be with a bit more focus on value for money ..and a new chef!