Went in early December, which was the start of high season with many tourists coming in for the hot weather (albeit thunderstorms daily at around 4-5pm). The hotel is situated in the Laguna area, where there is free shuttle / boat service to other hotels (e.g. Dusit Thani, Banyan Tree, Angsana, etc.) within the Laguna.
We arrived at around noon, but the earliest time we could check-in was 3pm. So, we left our luggage at the storage room and visited the Canal Village Shopping Center, which was just across the street. Many shops were closed or empty, and the restaurants inside were quite pricey by Thai standards. Apart from that, there was a money exchange and a convenience store that seemed to attract the most people. We had lunch at the restaurant just outside the Shopping Center, but it was still quite pricey, and the quality was average.
Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to check-in, and had to wait for over 5 minutes at the reception before we were attended to. After we got our keys and went to the room, we realized that it was a loft room on the ground floor which faced the swimming pool and had a constant stream of people walking past. The interior also looked dated and had stains on the sofa. This was an unpleasant surprise, as we initially booked the lagoon room and requested a high floor. We immediately went back to the reception and waited for another 10 mins to inquire about our booking, in which the staff’s response was that we were supposedly upgraded. Nevertheless, we were not satisfied and ultimately requested them to change us back to a lagoon room on a high floor. The second room we got was better quality and had a good view of the lagoon. However, there was still some minor issues, such as the soap dispenser not working and the shower gel not yet refilled. We had to call the housekeeping and waited for over 30 mins before these issues were resolved.
After the long and tiring check-in process, we took a nap before heading out to the Friday night market situated at Boat Avenue. Although there is a free hotel shuttle at scheduled times, it only goes to the entrance of Laguna, and you had to walk another 10 mins before reaching Boat Avenue. We instead took the taxi from hotel which was only a 5 min ride and cost THB200 (Grab was THB410, and in general always seems more expensive than taxi in Phuket). The night market had a variety of stalls selling apparel and souvenirs, as well as food stalls selling fruits, skewers, noodles, and other authentic Thai food. Overall, we felt that the night market was clean and had decent quality food at a very good price. As the night market closes at 10pm and there was not much else to do, we decided to walk back to the hotel which took around 25-30mins.
In terms of breakfast, the food was average and there was not much change in variety from day to day. It was also sometimes hard to find seats during peak hours between 9 – 10 am. We ordered takeaway for dinner once, which we thought the food was better quality compared to breakfast. However, they packed the takeaway food in plastic boxes, which was surprising as the hotel’s promotional videos made a lot of emphasis on reducing waste and being more environmentally friendly.
Overall, although the lagoon room turned out to be quite comfortable and cozy, we felt the room quality is inconsistent and some of the areas require some refurbishment. Furthermore, many of the hotel guests seemed to be from Mainland China, Russia or Eastern Europe, so it could get quite loud and rude at times. We also felt that being a member of the Banyan Tree, some of the staff needs to be more professional and not have guests wait for a long time before attending to them.