Guest reviews Santhiya Koh Yao Yai Resort & Spa

by jamesgG5972CR Birmingham, United Kingdom

Great views, poor service

We stayed here for 6 nights as part of a special birthday. Whilst the resort itself looks lovely and offers wonderful views the service is poor, with the exception of the cleaning staff both in the accommodation and around the resort, and a chap called Kent at the Titan bar who was very good. Prior to check-in, I asked if the hotel could do any special decoration in our room as a surprise and whilst they agreed we didn’t get it. I sent an email to request it again whilst we were staying there- the email has never been replied to. Our private airport transfer which we paid for in advance didn’t turn up on time as promised. We called the hotel and was on hold for some time and was told the driver was at the other terminal (even though they had our flight details). 40 mins later he turned up. No apology from him or the hotel upon check-in. A 15 minute phone call cost us £27. We reserved drinks at the pier for sunset one evening. Waited 15 minutes until someone took our order. Waited another 45 mins, still no drinks so we decided to cancel- again no apology. Upon check out we were not asked how our stay was, instead we were simply presented with a bill, which included a massage that friends had booked and paid online for on our behalf. The hotel disputed this and as it was taking so long to resolve and had transport to catch, we paid for it. We explained to the manager on reception our thoughts about the service and he simply said sorry and moved on. Check out took 30 mins! Then as our transport turned up our luggage had gone “missing”, only to turn up 30 mins later. In summary, it’s a 5-star view but the service is generally poor. We stayed at the lebua in Bangkok which is a 5 star hotel with 5 star service- miles ahead! I wouldn’t stay at this hotel again because of the poor service, but had the service been in line with a 5- star resort I would have stayed again.

by Danielww26101

Beautiful Resort, Terrible Service

We stayed 6 nights in a private pool villa after spending 7 nights in other parts of Thailand, The resort, grounds and our villa were amazing and really set this resort apart for us, as others have mentioned the system of cars to take you around the resort worked well and we never had to wait more than a few minutes, However we were ideally located in the centre of the resort. Unfortunately the thing that really lets this resort down is the terrible service. Right from the start where we waited an hour for our private transfer (an additional cost for anyone wishing to stay here) and had to ring the resort where no one seemed to be able to help, to waiting an hour at bars for drinks, to our bags going missing for 30 mins at checkout causing us to almost miss our boat. There were some staff such as Kent at titan who were great and the cleaners of our villa seemed to be there whenever we left. In the majority the service was very bad, despite complaining during our stay the management were unapologetic about this. Having stayed at cheaper five star hotels at the start of our trip to thailand were the service was impeccable this resort still has a lot to learn.

by diukryssie Singapore, Singapore

RUINED OUR HOLIDAYS WITH TERRIBLE SERVICE AND FOOD PROBLEM

TERRIBLE SERVICE and UNHYGIENIC FOOD are the key reasons for our disappointment. We told the staffs and even wrote email to them during our stay but noone responsed. THEY SIMPLY DON'T CARE. Here are what went wrong since we arrived until left - Arrived resort early without anyone welcomed us at the pier. We had to figured out how to find your check-in reception by ourself. - We waited till 2 p.m. to get a room with PARTIAL ocean view covered by trees which was totally different from what we saw from your photos and what we paid for - Ocean View, not partial one. This is FALSE marketing! - We called front desk for fixing this and took them AN HOUR to change a new room 3304 - the right room type for what we paid. - We received no basic information about our stay such as where to have breakfast, what time, restaurants location, amenities, complimentary activities, etc. - We did not use any thing from mini bar and got the bill for that. Really dishonest mistake from your staff. -There is ANTs in our soup (attached photos) - EXTREMELY DISTURBING on Food Quality To sum up, it was not a friendly welcome from Santhiya at all and certainly not a good start for our stay. However, I had to give the credit to Spa service and Staffs at Titan Grill, and by the Sea restaurants.. The rest is not deserved for 5 stars service at all, especially Resort Staffs - very ignorant It was even more disappointed because we chose to stay at this resort for our wedding anniversary trip. Clearly it is a WRONG choice. Please read all reviews carefull to prevent ruining your special vacation like us.

by VB_maidenhead

Great hotel to recuperate from long flight

We decided to book in for 3 nights to relax after a long flight from London. We did not want to stay on Phuket so decided to move straight to Koh Yao Yai. We took the hotels scheduled transport and all worked well including check in. We were in the farthest suites from the reception and the hotel advised to call for an on site buggy/wooden truck when needed, When we did we never waited more than 5 minutes for the transport to be there. Note that the steps on the wooden trucks are very high so suggest you ask to sit up front if elderly, have movement issues. On-site food was average-good for the price and happy hour cocktails appreciated, We thought the massage services were overpriced compared to a short walk down the beach so didnt bother on the resort. Overall the resort was great for 2 days but think we may have been a little bored any longer..

by Alex C

Seductively beautiful, a dream to look at, but a nightmare close up.

Being in a tropical climate and on the edge of a bush area there are the inevitable mosquitoes. However, the design of these most beautiful villas is flawed with an open air bathroom. It had a roof but no wall on one side, open to the outdoor shower. The repellent in the bathroom has to be lit by tea light, and of course this goes out in the middle of the night. This means you get bitten on the bum by insects if you go to the toilet, especially at night. Additionally, the roof leaked badly during rain and the toilet was not fit for purpose with a sign saying not to flush toilet paper down it (where were we supposed to put it? Oh no - you don't really expect us to put it in the bin, do you? But I had chili in my Thai food last night!). As if that wasn't enough, we had a rat in our room. It gained access through another design flaw, that being hollow pillars. At this point we'd had enough an insisted on being relocated to one of the multi story hotels, which management agreed to. There we discovered we had a cockroach infestation. I killed two and more were running around, even getting into by dressing gown on the sofa. It's a real shame, because the place is so beautiful and (for the most part) the people were so friendly and helpful (I said "for the most part" because my partner was injured by a masseuse from hell). In spite of all we experienced, we would go back if they fixed the villa design flaws. Both the villa and private pool gave us incredible privacy, the views were spectacular, and the architecture is wonderfully exotic. They're onto something very special here, but need to sort out their s_ _t. Our holiday here was in the upper price bracket, we wanted to chill-out, but were stressed much of the time, not knowing what would happen next. Tip: the gym toilets are a place you can relax, being indoors (LOL).