This hotel is excellent, it is in a secluded area of the Island, and the grounds are huge. It has its own beach also, however due to the amount of wildlife (loads of small crabs), and crashing waves, the beach is not ideal for sunbathing. However there are three huge pools, and these are really clean and well maintained.

The rooms are starting to show signs of age. They are very comfortable, but will need a refresh before too long. Each room has a small balcony, and there are a few rooms with sea views, but most do not have a sea view.

The service is excellent from the staff. Our only real gripe of this hotel is the food. Breakfast was a bit of an ordeal, as none of the food is covered, and there seems to be not attempt by the catering staff to keep the bugs off the food. I saw a large bug crawl out of the pastry basket one morning, and another go straight towards the cereals! Yuk. There seemed to be lots of wildlife in the food, so you had a good chance of some protein even if you were not planning on it. We therefore ate the few bits of food for breakfast that looked safe-ish. We did complain about it, but they just said that is how it is done. I have been to Thailand three times, and am aware that hygiene is not as good as we are used to, but this was a bit too far!

The only other problem with this hotel, is that it is set away from the main resort of Patong. This may suit you, if you do not want to go there much, as there is entertainment on an evening, and a few basrs to choose from so you do not have to go away from the resort. However we went to Patong most nights, and the tuk tuk drivers will charge you about £2 to £3 to take you to the resort. This soon adds up over a holiday stay. The difficult bit was getting back, as the tuk tuk drivers in the resort will do their best to sting you for a big fare, and will not negotiate much even though they are standing around doing nothing. You have to persevere, and really bargain hard to get a reasonable fare, but it is possible!

Despite this, the hotel itself is good, the facilities are good, the staff are excellent, and if you are only staying for six nights like we did as a stop off as part of a trip, then it is ideal for rest and relaxation.

We happen to be a 40 yr old couple who love to travel and do so extensively we are extremely social including sucking on ciggies as someone so intellectually put it..... We have stayed at the Merlin Resort 3 times being before and after the Tsunami and are heading back there in Oct. To sum up this place it has 3 beautiful and spotlessly maintained pools catering for both families and those without children. The rooms are cleaned daily and the maids will do almost anything you want, there is a choice of restaurants in the resort however they are a little more expensive than in Patong. There is a buffet breakfast that has quite a substantial selection of hot and cold buffet same type of buffet stuff that you experience in most resorts in the world where you have paid for a buffet breakfast. The beach is rocky and not recommended for swimming however the beach itself is still a lovely beach and this is mentioned in lots of info on the resort through various forums including this one so anyone that did not read up on this well what can you say !!! There is also a little beach about 5mins walk out the front of the hotel to the left. You can get massages on the beach around 50baht dearer than in Patong itself and your laundry done you can also get your laundry done at the tuk tuk / taxi rank accross the road from the hotel. The majority of Thai people are lovely people these people will show you the same respect as you show them and no their English is not great however this is Thailand you are in why would anyone be under the impression they all should speak perfect English if you want that service then stay home or go to an English speaking country. The rooms in the resort all either look over one of the pools or the beach yes the furniture is a bit dated and some of the rooms are slightly dark but guess what if you open your curtains hey presto and more to the point why would you be wanting to go to Thailand and spend time in a hotel room. We have met some lovely Australian people during ours stays in Thailand and at this resort, in my opinion everyone goes on holiday to do their own thing, resorts are a mix of people and I'm sure some people would take umberage to being called singlet clad fat aussies ..(we are Irish). The only downside to this resort is that it is not within walking distance to Patong which is why we choose to stay here although we go into Patong every night we can also relax away from the hussle and bustle if we so choose however If you want serenity this resort is probably not for you, but for the facilities / amenties this is definately a get what you pay for resort. I'd be happy if anyone wants any further info.

My partner and I stayed at the MBR from 22 May-31May 2008. We had a sensational time. I do not have one bad word to say about our whole stay there. The checkin was fast and the service throughout our stay was always effiecient and with a smile.

We stayed in a pool access room and this was the best choice. It was wonderful to sit on your own little pool side balcony. The rooms were also good and I do not understand why people have been complaining on this site as there is nothing to complain about.

The breakfast was what you would expect from a hotel breakfast buffet adn we ate at the hotel numerous times throughout our stay at the Italian and Thai restraunts. The food and the service in both of these restaraunts was excellent. Room service was also nice. We also at at the little tiger on the hill and the view while you are eating your lunch/dinner is amazing.

The shuttle bus was good going into Patong in the morning and we just caught a taxi back (200baht). Just say "no thankyou" to the market sellers and they will leave you alone. I found the most aggressive people to be the tailors harrassing you to buy suits.

The best part of the trip was going on a day trip by speed boat to phi phi and khao lok. Truly great day. We also did a 3hr thai cooking course at Pums cooking school in Patong (highly recommend adn dont eat before you go).

Overall we had the best time and the resort is not full of aussie bogans as some reviews have stated. If you go with a happy attitde to enjoy your trip, then you will have a great stay at this hotel..I would recommend this hotel to everyone!!!

I stayed at the Merlin Beach Resort for 5 nights with my partner and another couple in early June 2008, as part of our 14 night holiday in Thailand. We didn't want to stay right in the heart of Patong and most of the 5 star resorts appeared to be too far away from everything so this resort seemed to be a good compromise. The photos on the website made it look enticing and most reviews on this site were very favourable.

The reception area is well presented and checking in went smoothly. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there. Alarm bells started to ring when being shown to our rooms. The corridors looked like something from a public housing estate.

The first rooms (allegedly deluxe) we were shown to were on the ground floor, incredibly dark and dingy and had very uninspiring views. We had a quick conference with our friends, who were equally unimpressed, and decided we would return to reception to see what other rooms were available. For the record, we are not difficult, fussy people - this is only the second time in my life that I have ever requested a room change. We were eventually shown and offered two connecting rooms (also allegedly deluxe) on the second floor in a different section, overlooking the beach. One room was ready and the other was still being cleaned. These two rooms were only marginally brighter but had better views so we decided to accept them and wait for the second room to be cleaned as we figured they would be the best of a bad lot. The rooms are quite small and the decor very dark and dated. The furniture had seen better days and the bathroom needed a thorough scrubbing with mould remover.

The buffet breakfasts were very ordinary. We stuck to the very basic things as some of the other offerings were truly awful.

As mentioned by several reviewers, the restaurant on the hill, the Little Tiger, is very good. It has great food at cheap prices and is run by lovely people.

We ate dinner at the resort once, only because we had forgotten that the Little Tiger was closed on Friday nights. Out of curiosity we checked out the buffet. I believe it was "Euro Central" night, whatever that is supposed to mean. We are glad we chose to look at the food before committing ourselves to eating there, because it looked positively appalling - like some sort of slop that would be served up in prison. We headed over to the Thai restaurant, fully expecting it to be just as bad. To their credit, we were pleasantly surprised. The food was actually quite good and reasonably priced for a resort.

The private beach on which the resort is located is a joke. Some reviewers make mention of it being a little rocky. That is an understatement. It resembles a quarry and is totally unsuitable for swimming. I don't think we saw one person using the beach the whole time we were there. The laundry ladies at the beach did a great job. It is slightly more expensive than having your laundry done in Patong, but a lot more convenient and well worth it to save the hassle of lugging it to and from Patong.

The free shuttle to Patong takes just under 10 minutes. It doesn't run very frequently and the times aren't always convenient, but if you get yourself organised and work around the schedule it shouldn't be a problem. A tuktuk back to the resort isn't expensive, especially if you are part of a group, so that is always an option if the shuttle times aren't convenient to you.

On a positive note, the resort grounds and three large pools are attractive and there were always plenty of sun lounges available when we went to the pool, one of the benefits of staying in the low season, I imagine.

We didn't have any problems with the staff. Sure, their English isn't great, but we are guests in their country and I think they are doing really well to speak a second language at all. Be patient, have some respect and don't use difficult words and you won't have a problem communicating with them. I do think, however, that there wasn't the overall air of professionalism you would expect from an allegedly 4.5 star resort but that had nothing to do with language skills, just lack of proper training.

The resort was full of fat, tattooed, loud, obnoxious, ciggie sucking, singlet-clad Australians (and that was just the women!). It seemed like a bogan jamboree was in full swing. As Australians ourselves, we cringed with embarrassment on numerous occasions.

In summary, there is absolutely no way this place is a 4.5 star resort. It is more like 3.5 stars - the extra half star given only for the pools. I'm sure it caters adequately for a certain lower-end sector of the tourism market, but we are just not part of that market. Perhaps if you go there expecting a 3.5 star resort, you might be impressed. However, if you go expecting 4.5 star facilities and service you will be very disappointed.

There is no way I would return to the Merlin Beach Resort and I would not recommend it to anyone I know.