Terrific little boutique hotel tucked away on a quiet side street in Surin Beach and a short walk across a park to the most beautiful beach we saw in Thailand. The rooms are spacious, king-size bed, lovely dark wood furniture in a contemporary style and a glass-walled shower. A glass-walled shower! First shower we saw in 2 weeks of traveling that had walls of any kind! LOL! The balcony is small but two people could sit comfortably on stools.
The service was very good, friendly staff who gave us a free upgrade without us even asking, and the breakfast that was included in the rate was very good.
The Twin Palms Hotel, Marriott Courtyard and several other very high-end resorts are on the same street (seems strange to describe a Marriott Courtyard as "high-end" but, in Thailand, they are). The beach, while very beautiful, is packed with row upon row of beach chairs and umbrellas that you have to pay 100 baht to rent but there is no other option and the beach and ocean are worth. Just make sure you get a chair in the front row.

check in was smooth & excellent communication beforehand via email.
service was very polite and never over the top (too much of that goin on these days).
room was clean and pretty simple, but very nice.
bathroom very simply designed and furnished (ie no tiling in parts of the shower, just concrete showing), but had a nice feel to it which reminded you that your near the beach (some rooms are tiled).
there is no lift. The only way to get to the rooms on all 4 levels are up the stairs.
anyone with joint issues may be affected by this (skeletal, herbal, whatever).
there is wifi in the rooms, but the signal strength is very weak sometimes.
a simple request to have the modem reset usually fixes this.
some rooms have a consistently strong signal though.
beds and pillows are a bit harder than usual, but I found them comfortable.
breakfast is pretty basic and doesn't really change.
the best part is surin beach.
you are within 5 minutes walk from the hotel.
surin beach is predominantly populated by g-string clad European tourists (yes, the tomato red ruskies are there too), but by far it's got the clearest waters & best atmosphere on Phuket.
there are plenty of deck chairs, but get in before 11:00am if you want to secure a middle position.
if you do end up in the middle.. BEWARE!
the overly loud frenchies who think everyone wants to hear their conversations tend to gather there. it is a beautiful language to hear , yes frencho's  but NOT for 4 friggin straight hours and loud!
email each other your life stories or give Facebook a whirl.
all the water sports are available and plenty for kids to do (including plastic pier to dive from & see fish from).
the close proximity of this brilliant beach to benyada  lodge gives it a few extra points!
benyada lodge, ide go back (there are plenty of budget & upmarket hotels near by).
surin beach, a DEFINATE MUST!!

8/10
(6/10 without the beach)

Maybe we shouldn't have come after the idyllic Koh Yai Noi...and this isn't the most commercial part of Phuket . First impressions were friendly but a bit shambolic; they were trying to set up for Christmas Eve. The roof terrace was a real non-starter- deserted and windy with half finished lighting draped over the chairs. The "pool" was two very uninviting footbaths [think of the disinfectant dips in public swimming pools]. Our bathroom too turned into a human dip after we both had showers.

Enough wingeing- we went downstairs for delicious cocktails only 80 THB in happy hour. The management gave us a free upgrade to a sea front room with balcony [much needed to dry out stuff]. Breakfast was adequate and curiously muted - it's definitely not a hotel to meet fellow guests [ although some might say this is a good feature!]

The position is good- nice walk through parks to the lovely beach. If you fancy a pool dip it doesn't seem to be a problem going into the Marriott or the Twin Palms next door- no one else was in the water when we went. There is a great choice of restaurants on Surin beach all of which are beachside - the Catch Club is brash and expensive [ think Russian oligarchs] but we particularly enjoyed Twin Brothers ; fresh fish Thai style and charming staff.

Full marks to the hotel for sorting out repatriation of our daughter's iPod !

In the end we really enjoyed Surin and Benyada was friendly and very good value for the resort.

This place is a very good value for overpriced Surin Beach. Maybe it doesn't look nice from outside, but rooms are really OK. Big, very clean, nice beds, friendly people - what else do you need? This hotel is very close to the beach. Their breakfasts are pretty poor, but for us it wasn't a problem.