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SALA Samui Resort and Spa - Koh Samui, Thailand | Resort Review

Disappointing Koh Samui Resort

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SALA Samui Resort and Spa - Koh Samui, Thailand: A mere five minute drive from the Samui Airport, SALA Samui Resort and Spa is an easy choice for first-time travelers to Koh Samui. Located right on Cheong Mon Beach, it is also just 10 minutes away from commercial centers and the nightlife. 53 of the 69 villas in this resort have private pools while the rest have spacious verandas for relaxing and lazing around all day. Supposedly a resort and spa designed for utmost relaxation, our stay at the SALA Samui provided us the opposite.

First Impression/Lobby: A casually uniformed young Thai employed by the resort greeted and picked us up at the Koh Samui airport, quickly loading our bags into the waiting Toyota Forerunner. Because of horrendous traffic, it took us about 15 minutes to get to the SALA Resort; on a good day it should take only 5. As we pulled into the driveway I was a bit disappointed how close the resort was to “town.” I was expecting something more remote as was suggested in their brochure. Instead, it felt like we were pulling up at a commercial hotel chain off a main highway.

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Once we got to the entrance, however, I was happy to see that the resort was set back a little to the beachfront but I was not overly impressed with the open-air, lackluster lobby or the location of the neighboring buildings right next to the resort.

Reception: Our welcome at SALA Resort in Koh Samui was as efficient and as dull as flying economy—here you are, there you go, nothing more, nothing less, and this was at a supposedly five-star luxury resort. I’ve received far better service at a hot dog stand.

The Suite: Our room was a One Bedroom Pool Villa Suite. As villa suites go, it had to be one of the smallest luxury villa suites I have ever seen.

Divided by a sliding glass door, the room had a tiny living room, which I’m not sure could even be called that (more like an entry way with a built in couch on one side and a TV on the other), and a small bedroom with barely anything there—just a large bed in the middle of the room and a hutch in one corner. Fortunately, both sides of the bedroom walls had glass doors with one side opening to a small strip of garden confined by tall cement walls. While the walls gave us privacy, it added to the closed in feeling of the room, but at least the light from outdoors flooded in; otherwise the small room would have felt even tinier.

Behind the bed and through another sliding glass door was the outdoor bathroom. Normally, I am keen to this type of set up but the trapped in feeling of the room was amplified in the bathroom. The light did not flood in here and the tall cement walls gave it a dungeon feeling certainly not that of a five-star resort.

Out in front of the villa near the entrance was the courtyard and private pool. While our pool villa suite with its fortress walled pool area was most definitely private, again, the tall walls made it feel boxed in. The end walls did open up, however, to reveal a partial but nonetheless lovely view of the main pool and the ocean.

While the view was lovely, the open doors welcomed glances and quick peeks from other guests passing by. I’m not sure which was worse, the closed in feeling or being a spectacle for everyone to checkout.

Room Service: The room service menu consisted of the traditional five-star menu items; soups, salads, sandwiches and a nice selection of Thai dishes. Placing our order was fast and easy. Their room service delivery was on time and up to par with any other five-star resort. While it lacked in presentation, the setup was acceptable enough to garner a score of adequate.

Housekeeping: We only stayed one night at five-star luxury resort SALA Samui but it was enough to know that their housekeeping was anything but five-star. After a long dinner on the beach we headed back to our room round 11:30 p.m. only to find that turn down service was never done. We had been out of the room for almost three hours yet they failed to provide this one, very standard service.

I called to find out why our suite was not serviced but no one answered the phone so I trekked down to the front desk only to find that it too was unmanned. After a few minutes of waiting, I found someone from the hotel and inquired about the housekeeping. The person looked for the front desk attendant until finally a young man from housekeeping was sent to come down and service our room.

To my astonishment, the housekeeping guy was full of attitude and lacked any professionalism or service that one would expect at a five-star resort such as SALA.

While he serviced the room quite dispassionately, I wondered, what would have happened if this had been an emergency and I couldn’t find anyone to help? Not only was this horrible service, it could even be very dangerous had there been an emergency.

Concierge: Since we were only there for a very short stay (thankfully), I did not have experience with the concierge service while on location but I did book a private island tour and a private romantic dinner via e-mail prior to our arrival and found their follow up and follow through to be quite impressive.

Restaurant: SALA Samui has two restaurants: SALA Samui Restaurant, which offers Thai cuisine, and Pangea Restaurant and Bar, which features international and local cuisine. We tried both restaurants and did not have a favorable experience in both. Sala Samui restaurant is reviewed here separately.

Pool/Spa/Activities: Besides the private villa pool, SALA Samui luxury resort also offers two beachfront swimming pools, one, a fun pool and the other, a lap pool. The Mandara Spa offers the latest in Asian spa treatments as well as classic international techniques and therapies.

Overall Impression From the unimpressive welcome to the uninspiring pool suite and from the mediocre private dinner (which we had to pay a premium for) to the dispassionate housekeeping, my stay at the SALA Samui Resort and Spa was a complete disappointment. This hotel needs to work on their service among other things if they truly want to compete in the emerging five-star/luxury resort market in Koh Samui. With the addition of at least three new five star properties slated to open in the next year or two, SALA better iron out their staff and improve their design if they have any hope of being a serious competitor. My rating, Not Bombastic.

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