We arrived at this hotel at 4pm, and it appeared that the front desk staff had no record of our booking. Fortunately I had a print out from the Wotif.com website, otherwise Im sure that they would have turned us away. Throughout the 40minutes that it took them to resolve what room that they were going to put us in, (changed keys 3 times), not once did they explain what they were doing, or apologise for keeping us waiting. There was a lot of conversation between the 3 of them, but they did not let us know what was going on.
We booked, and paid for an ocean view room. We were placed in a room that was newly renovated, but not finished, with what I wouldnt classify as an ocean view. You could see the ocean if you looked really hard, but it was not what I was expecting. I guess maybe they had given our room to someone else. T
The room was a nightmare. Not yet finished, and very sparsley decorarated. The TV had two chanels only, no toiletries were provided and the towel rack fell off the wall as soon as we hung a towel on it. But.... the worse thing was the shower/toilet (combined like most hotels). There was no shower screen at all, and the water sprayed everywhere. THere were two drains , but none of the water drained through them. The water just filled the corner of the room, leaving the toilet sitting in approx 5 cm of water. The drains were not only blocked, they were not placed in the correct location for the water flow. Needless to say we requested another room.
The next room was much better, on the ground floor with the balcony that leads into the pool. Not what we booked, but better than the previous room. The only complaint I have about this room was the housekeeping. I dont like to normally complain about housekeeping, as some guests are really feral and Im sure that their jobs are not easy. However our housekeeper was shocking. On three separate occasions she forgot to give us towels. She would remove the dirty ones and just not give us replacements. Bin was often forgotten as well as ashtray on balcony. Toiletries were rarely replaced and sink, vanity top etc were never wiped down. Maybe it wouldnt have been so frustrating if the front desk actually cared when you let them know that you had no towels etc. On one occasion it took two phone calls and a personal visit to lobby area to get towels for the room. It appears that it just wasnt a priority to them.
Restaurant staff are excellent as well as the staff at breakfast. They really lift the overall experience of this hotel. The Front Desk staff are all rude, arrogant and require training in customer service skills, or they need to be fired. It really is that bad!
Check out unfortunately was nearly as bad as check in. If you are checking out at around noon, get there at 11.30am. The whole process is unorganised, unprofessional and again, no one actually communicates with you to let you know what is going on. It took us 35 minutes to check out of this hotel.
All of this was a shame, as I feel as when the hotel is finished it will have real potential to be great. But only if they train or replace those front desk staff members. This was our 3rd trip to Patong Beach, and although we still had a great time, the hotel experience was not nearly as good as others. I would reccommend the Horizon Beach Resort or Patong Merlin over Baan Laimai.
- Baan Laimai Beach Hotel
- Baan Laimai Beach Patong
