Good Location on Patong Beach. The hotel is not a resort but just another hotel. There is no resort feeling about this place. The staff have very limited English understanding which makes it difficult to sort out problems with room service, check in and out. Ah....the check out; they actually send some to check your room on check out to make sure you haven't taken a towel or anything else that isn't bolted down.
Maybe we just had a bad experience at this "hotel", but it sure puts you off going back to Phuket.

Stayed with family members(all 26 of us) for 3 nights..3 of our rooms were not even made up and cleaned and that's when we returned from sightseeing around 6pm! Expect a long waiting period upon checking out....we were in 8 rooms and only 1 staff is handling check out counter, it's a good thing we were early...

Took a van with other tourists that headed into Patong Beach. Now we thought we were going to be late because flight was delayed at Sydney and we were supposed to arrive to Phuket International Airport by 7:15 which we did so I guess we were on track.

Now I read other posts and also tried to interpret the terms and conditions on the banthai website, but I believe there is a certain time that you need to check-in by or else they can cancel your reservation. Which sounds stupid because if I’m coming late, I should be able to check in anytime I want correct? Well coming to a dodgy country, I was going to expect some stuff like this.

Anyway if you book with Banthai, tell them the time you think you are going to arrive, or even 2 hours after, well depends on what time you arrive anyway. SO luckily by the time we just arrived just after 9 and then we walked into the hotel.

As you can tell from the photos, the main section is open and so don’t expect an air-conditioned hotel. Other-wise it was alright, the bell boys took our bags and said they would deliver to our room. We checked in and another tip, print out your reservation! They should just be able to get your name and put it in the system but we printed out as others have advised just in case and they did ask for this. There is a small room on the right which you get to rest a bit and they give you a cold towel (lol) and some funny drink to drink with. They come in to get your signature etc. They also need your passport to photocopy and your credit card.

After that they gave our room and the bell boy showed us the way. We went pass the main pool to the other building (you still get a pool) and showed us to our room. The first thing I noticed was that next door was some filtration pump or something and it was loud and we were kinda right next to it. I tried to complain to the bell boys but the English barrier is still kinda wonky in hotels so didn’t bother escalating anymore.

Anyway when you get inside the room, oh its so cold! Mainly because when you put the key, the air-con goes full blast to 22 C which is ok. Imagine a hot day and you just want to relax in your room, it was a bonus. Tiped one of the bell boy 20BHT lol.

After that we checked out room. Looked ok so far, was a bit disappointed we didn’t get a flat screen but I’ll list the disadvantages we saw in the room

- The tiles on the floor was a bit dirty: probably from overuse or something
- TV
-- there was some unusual sound intermitting and had to sometimes turn off the tv off although when you put it back on, it was there. Very annoying when you wanted to watch a movie and there this annoying irritating sound. We didn’t escalate to the reception because they probably wouldn’t understand
-- sometimes when watching tv, it would freeze and you had to change channels to fix this
-- when changing channels, it took a while going through each channel. Took about 4-5 seconds until the next channel would appear. Very annoyed by this.
-- Bathroom
-- some molecules on the bath
-- toilet looked average

Apart from the above, everything else was great! House keeping was good when they cleaned our room, would sometimes even fold our clothes around the place, lol. During the night especially because of outside, we would turn our air-con to 25C and it would be enough to block the outside noise so that was alright. Couldn’t hear the outside bands or anything because the hotel is a good 200ms from the street.

Also we didn’t get breakfast included and they have their own breakfast room. We booked via banthai website itself because that was the cheapest rate we could get it and we did the advanced purchased too. For 5 nights it was 788AUD which was ok although we thought Phuket was supposed to be cheaper but I guess because it’s a touristy place then yeah. If you can, maybe try and get breakfast too. I think when we asked the cost it was 550BHT per person and we were like freak! Unfortunately theres not much places you can eat outside for breakfast which was weird, but McDonalds is open with their average breakfast. If I knew how the breakfast room looked like, we would’ve tried to get it as well too but advance purchase doesn’t include this. Compare costs when you book and see how you go.

The pool outside our room was so cool! Don’t bother getting a front pool side view because you don’t get much of a view and big whoop if you have the pool in front of you. Just get out of your room and walk down there geez! Lol, anyway theres lots of seats and we were early enough to put our towels although if your late, then you’ll have to wait! Hehe. We also swam during the night because the lights were on and it was pretty cool too!

Also we ate at the pool bar too, if you can drink, then why not have lunch! Lol, only issue I had was that they didn’t include the whole price, they would say the price and then add their tax later so knowing the total price was hard because we paid in cash although I think you can charge it to your room though.

Apart from that, we were glad to come to banthai for our Thailand trip and will most likely stay here again (although Holiday Inn looked good too > but that’s another review .. lol )

Also forgot to mention, not sure if its in other hotels but the shower was a bit funny. It had a section where you couldn’t close so if you have a shower, the water can go out through that way. My photo is a bit blurry sorry.

My boyfriend & I stayed at the Banthai Beach Resort & Spa for 5 nights in March 2008. It was our first time to travel to Thailand so we didn't know what to expect.

When we got dropped off at the entrance via shuttle from the airport (for 150 BAHT each). We were amazed of how big the lobby was and it looked quite sofisticated. We were greeted with smiles and they had us wait in the waiting room where got served a cold towelette and a drink while we wait for the paperwork for check-in.

We were escorted to our room 2214 on the second floor (of one of the buildings). The room is pretty clean except if you really look closely, the tiles and the bathtub need to be scrubbed more in a few areas but that didn't really bother us too much. It had the usual hotel amenities like shampoo & conditioner, a kettle, a safe etc. They also provide you with a small collection of fruits on your first day, complimentary bottles of water, yellow towels for the beach/pool and fresh flowers daily on your bed. The balconies all look out to the pool and the apartments on the other side.

I was a little worried about security but I had no trouble at all! I left money in the safe as well as in our luggages just in case one gets broken into but that wasn't necessary. The maids are great at refreshing the room, they even fold your clothes for you if they are lying around.

The pool was the highlight of our stay. Banthai had more than one (not sure whether there was 3 or 4) but we only used the one closest to us. Btw, we didn't think the pool rooms were worth the extra money. All you are really paying for is direct access to the pool and a few of them just facing a wall of the Villa Suite.

Each pool also had it's own pool bar/restaurant where we enjoyed eating and being refreshed by the many choices of drinks. My favourite was the fresh coconut juice.... yumm. Their pad thai is also good but it's a little small for the price. The same drinks can also be ordered at the 2 Banthai bars out front and the outdoor restaurant serves the same food as well. The restaurant has a live band every night which didn't bother us even though our room was one of the closest to the restaurant.

We booked the advanced purchase room rates over their website which didn't include the daily breakfast. We kind of regretted it when we saw the breakfast room! Yes, they have their very own breakfast room! It was a buffet and there was heaps of people each morning. There was even a buggie to transport from the front of the hotel to the breakfast room which isn't even the slightest far (only about 20 steps away).

The location of this hotel is fantastic. The very busy Patong beach is right across the street. There are many street vendors around that sell everything from fruits to soulveniers, massages on the beach, henna tattoos, beach chairs (you pay 100 BAHT to rent one for a whole day) etc. There is a chemist, money exchange, a spa salon, soulvenir shop, tailor and ice creamery right at the front of the hotel. McDonalds is a few steps away and also Burger King and a large choice of restaurants and the Post office is closeby. Bang la road (street famous for bars and lady men) is only a short stroll away and so is the Jungceylon shopping centre on Rat U thit Road.

Also, take note of the free shuttle the hotel offers to get to the Central shopping centre at Phuket town. It takes about half an hour from Patong Beach and it costs 500 BAHT (I think it's one way) to get there by tuk tuk so it's worth considering. The shopping center itself is pretty big and there are a few designer clothing stores. A lot of people said that Phuket town is not worth seeing but you'll find that there are better bargains on their streets than Patong! Because Patong is so touristy, the prices are sky high! You really have to bargain 80% before you get a reasonable price and sometimes they get really annoying and pushy.

One more thing, I recommend Mr Sam to take you around. He's really nice and would go out of his way to help you. He took us on a day tour around Phuket and elephant trekking, we had a blast. He could also do any small trips like to get to the airport or to go shopping.

Anyways I hope my review has helped.

mhyalene