I wasn't expecting 5 star but gee if I really wanted a trekking holiday, with no electricity and cold water I would be out in the mountains in new zealand some where. Our welcome to our room was poor, the staff didn't even bother checking if the lighting and airconditioning worked, only to realise once he left and trying to turn the air conditioner open to cool down that it wasn't working. getting there at 9am it took 3 hours to get it fixed, and hot water? what hot water?
I still don't quite understand the pricey compulsory nye dinner. Nearly reaching $100 AUD per person for a basic buffet with little dessert and drinks not included?
To top it off, checking out they told us we had to walk to the pier as their boat was not working. Great...

We have just returned from our trip to Thailand a few days ago, where we stayed 5 nights at the Arayaburi Resort on Phi Phi Island. We were very disappointed with the hotel to say the least, because we had paid the most for this one out of all the other places (which were much, much better). Firstly, it was so confusing when we arrived at the Bay View Resort instead and no one explained that it is essentially the same thing.

Secondly, the walk from reception and the beach to our room was ridiculous. We were expecting a little bit of a walk which we were fine with but our room was so so far away and up so many hills it was such an unnecessary effort to even go to reception or the restaurant. And going into town took half an hour which was annoying for us as we wanted to go out every day and night. We did not expect the walk would be that long.
Also, we were told we could get free wifi within 100m of reception which we did get but after 2 days they locked the wifi and we had to pay 100 baht for 60 minutes and it was so slow and often stopped working after 10 minutes.
The room was fine, except after telling them about 10 times that we had 3 people, we finally arrived in our room and there was only one bed. They brought a rollaway some time later, but compared to our other hotels (where their spare rollaway beds were as good as normal beds) this one was so uncomfortable and hard to sleep on, with a tiny mattress. The hot water in the shower also only worked if you had had the air conditioning on 40 minutes prior. (However the air con worked very well at least). We had to ask the staff to make up our room every day because we would often find it got to the late afternoon and our room still had not been made up.
We frequently ran out of toilet paper because they just did not provide enough and we always had to get more from reception. And when we ordered room service, the food wasn't great but it was ok, however when we left our plates on our front porch for staff to collect, they were left sitting there for days and days before anyone collected them which attracted cats and was just not nice! The hotel staff were nice and friendly but barely spoke english so we really struggled when we had to find out info about certain things.

Even though these things are relatively minor, we found they all added up to make our stay at this hotel very disappointing, especially as it was our last stop and we were really looking forward to it. The villas are nice and the view we had was amazing but the points above really made it not worth while and we won't be staying here again.

This aside, Phi Phi is a beautiful place and we still had such an amazing time exploring the Island!!

This place had good and bad points. First off, its right on the beach which is really nice but all the villas are scattered up on the mountain so its really a trek to leave your room and go into the main "town" of phi phi. I'm talking a 20 minute walk. They don't shuttle you up and down which i feel like they should since you're mostly likely going to be wet and sandy since you have to walk down the beach to get to a point where you can cut over to a "sidewalk", then you have to trek uphill back to your room so its a bit exhausting. The staff is minimally helpful but fine. They charge for internet which i think is crappy considering the price of the hotel. Overall its a decent sized, pretty clean room, nice view but beware of the trek uphill to the rooms and that town is a 15-20 minute walk too. It is very pretty and quieter on that side of the beach tho. Oh and not all the rooms have an ocean view. The "garden" view is lame. Definitely ask for ocean view.

My boyfriend (now husband) and I stayed at Arayaburi Resort, Phi Phi Island in December 2009 for 3 nights.

There is nothing wrong with this hotel, so I don’t know what all the complaints are about.
Its not a 5 star main stream resort, so if that’s what you are looking for stay elsewhere.

The villas are quite basic, but they have everything you need in them. Do not expect cute little toiletries provided though, as the shampoo and conditioner come out of a dispenser on the wall.

For the price that you pay, its fine! The service was fine also. Not great, not bad either. We had lots of massages and lots of great food.

It is a lengthy walk to get anywhere, but nothing to complain about. The scenery is beautiful also, I cant believe people complain about this.

On our first night there, our safe would not open and my boyfriend freaked out (little did I know that my engagement ring was hiding in there) but maintenance came and opened the safe within 5 minutes for us.

I honestly did not even see a pool there, so don’t know if they have one. We swam in the ocean every day which was stunning. We also chartered a private boat and went around to all the other islands. We loved monkey island!! They are so cute, but be careful as they are prone to stealing your coconut/beer/food.

The service was great, and the Phi Phi islands are beautiful.

I wouldn’t hesitate to stay here again, and neither should you!