Amari Buriram United

I stay here every year, and the comfortable rooms, closeness to the stadium, and lovely restaurant staff keep bringing me back. The waiters and waitresses are nice, and the chef is friendly. But my last attempt to order room service took an hour, and it was a frustrating mess. I got in around 7 pm after a long ride and was hungry. BU staff were having dinner at the restaurant, so I tried to order food for the room. There were no menu QR codes in the room, only an app QR. The TV was off, and when I turned it on, it showed TV channels. The app only had general restaurant information. I spotted a “pair to room” option, but it required a code from reception. I called and asked several times, then they said someone would come up. At the room, I showed the reception person the pairing screen. She called people and kept saying “prepare to room” and “I've never encountered this before”. I waited by the door, was asked to connect to wifi, and nothing worked. I explained I just wanted in-room dining. She called someone again and came back talking about a premier league package I didn’t have. My Thai girlfriend finally clarified that we wanted the restaurant menu, and the staff member had an “ah moment.” She asked for a small paper from check-in, but it only had the app QR. Then she turned on the TV, where the hotel screen was hidden under the “chromecast” menu, which isn’t a guest-friendly name. A screen with QR codes appeared, and she said they were for the food menu before leaving. When I checked, the codes were for chromecast. I tried anyway, but the wifi using my room number didn’t let me enable it, and it asked me to log in with Onyx membership. Forgetting the network didn’t clear the authentication. Luckily, I had another phone. Once I got chromecast working, it only streamed Youtube to the TV. I went down to the restaurant and ordered without any problem. Reception staff need better training. Asking about room dining shouldn’t cause this much confusion. The reception lady insisted on speaking English the whole time. I’m not a native English speaker, and I’m sure my limited Thai would have made for easier communication than that very confident English and complete misunderstanding.

I’ve stayed at Amari Buriram and Bric box hotel for the weekend at the same time each year, and the service and food are always wonderful. This time was a very busy weekend, but the team looked after me so well from check-in through checkout. It wouldn’t be fair to pick out one person, since everyone did a great job.

The hotel cancelled my two poolside rooms on November 11, eight months after I booked them, saying renovation work was the reason. Now I can book those same rooms again at a higher rate. It looks like they cancelled to make more money. That’s disgraceful for any hotel, and unbelievable from a major chain like Onyx.

The staff were attentive, the restaurant was good, and the hotel was perfectly placed for the football stadium. Still, we had cockroaches in the bathroom every night, which cost a star, and two nights were noisy for some reason. The gym looked great but was closed from 9 to 5. When we went to check it out, two staff members came over and quietly told us to leave.