I stayed 16 nights on my first visit to Thailand. The room felt like 1960's Cuba and the restaurant was brilliant. Fantastic staff and tremendous pricing! Nothing beats it for value, people watching potential and ambience ! It's close to all the action, and really gay in its culture. Loved it! One word of warning! ... all the nightclubs - and there are lots ramp up competing music from 10 pm to 3 am. I booked a top of the range room with double glass glazing and doors. However, the boom boom noice of the bass only in music got through ! Impossible to sleep! Hard work until I just slept from 6-10 pm ... Enjoyed people watching in restaurant 10-3 am and then back to bed 3 am to 11.30 am! Well worth changing your routine to stay at Connect! Location and restaurant can't be beaten.

Hi All,

Having booked the Connect Guesthouse for a stay after the Christmas period.. we couldn't argue at the reasonable price of £200 (GBP) for an 8 night stay..

Having booked the holiday in the June of 2011 i had lost my original email confirmation of the room booking/details (as anyone could do..) I emailed the Guesthouse to re-confirm my booking/price/room etc before our arrival date... and i swear it took me about 2 weeks of constant emailing to finally get any sort of response.. which was quite worrying as i thought they might not have our booking and we would arrive in Phuket with no room to stay in.
I understand the language barrier and also the time difference, so i just put it down to that?

We arrived.. They had arranged a fab transfer from the airport to the guesthouse directly..saving us the hassle of bartering a taxi price (not knowing the currency properly)
The taxi driver was there with a sign waiting for us when we had collected our baggage from the airport.. so far so good...

nice and easy taxi ride..

When the taxi driver had dropped us off at the guesthouse... they seemed to have a problem finding our reservation (considering i had booked in June and asked for a confirmation email..) this worried me on the spot as again i thought "what do we do now if we have no room over the bust new year period"

After some arguments between staff they produced a room key and took us to our room...
Now i am sure (although i lost the original booking) that i had booked one of the main rooms at the guesthouse, one of the newly refurbished rooms (again all excited to drop the cases off and get out to explore the Patong area)

So it was quite a surprise to say the least..when the receptionist walked us out the guesthouse.. round a back side street and walked us completely round the corner to a laundry...
We were then ushered through the laundry to a wooden door.. opening the wooden door led us to a flight of stairs and (3 levels high) with around 5 rooms off the3 floors.
It seemed that we were to stay in what they call the "annex"....

now i know what an annex is.. and this was not connected to the main guesthouse at all.. we were in a completely different street above a laundry

We laughed a little but thought "we're here now.. just go with it.."

The view from the room was awful, we looked directly on to another hotel/sauna/guesthouse and with the lights on could see all the goings on of the hotel...we had no balcony, the window was 1 pane thick so we heard every noise imaginable, the constant shouting of
"massage.. you want a massage"
from the sauna's below (until 5am every morning)

Now i know we we're staying in the gay area, with all the bars etc.. but OMG the noise was unreal.. boom boom boom for hours and hours... PLUS we we're above the laundry (24hrs i might add) so every time a washing machine was in use (a lot..) the water pipes were whistling, the machines were vibrating when on spin.. it was as if we were staying in faulty towers (British Comedy Programme for you non-UK readers)

HERE"S THE PLUS SIDE

The room was cleaned everyday, fresh towels etc
breakfast was free every morning (not a massive breakfast but enough..)
and it was a FAB location for the bars/clubs/bangala road and Patong Beach only 5mins away

we never seen any french/swedish owners.. always a Thai working the computer or bar area?

but as previous guests have commented.. a 3 night stay maybe.. but no longer than that..

After nearly fourteen years this 'Swedish owned and managed guesthouse' has been sold; it is now a 'French owned and managed guesthouse'.

I've been a frequent guest of the place for years, often as much as three visits a year, and have watched it grow to more than just a place to rest my head. It became a place to meet and spend time over drinks or a meal with friends from all over the world, and to often meet new friends.

Have things changed? It is too soon to tell, but on a recent stay over the end of November it is decidedly more empty.

Perhaps this might have been due to the flooding in Bangkok which gave visitors pause on whether they could get to Phuket; however Phuket has an international airport with direct flights from both Europe, Australasia, and Asia. Or perhaps the continuing uptick on reported violence or crimes against tourists has winter sunseekers looking for friendlier receptions in Bali or other sunshine destinations. Or perhaps in general international travel is taking a hit from the downswing in the economies worldwide.

I don't know, but for what should have been the beginning of the 'high season', Connect was empty. No guests in the rooms, and few if any folks in its usually bustling café; no host roaming the restaurant stopping to welcome those who stopped by for a drink or meal.

The staff remains their usual gracious and helpful selves. The meals were still of good quality and great value. I did note new bed linens in the rooms, though the heavier duvets did make me want to turn the aircon to 16°C rather than the energy-saving 22°C. The free internet connection has been boosted to fibre, which is incredibly good for such a remote location.

Patong has changed. The quality of the beach at Patong continues to spiral downward with its murky brown water, and plethora of touts onshore. If you have some transport, the beaches south of Patong, such as Karon or Kata, are still blazingly white and the waters crystal clear. However public transportation continues to be a problem, especially compared to Bangkok.

Patong's nightlife is increasingly loud, and the louts and sex tourists continue to wash ashore unabated. So if peace and quiet is difficult if that is what you're looking for. Violence against visitors is more reported.

But let's give Connect a chance. Let us see if the new management can make a go of what has been a reliably excellent yet economical independent guesthouse. Only time will tell.