ATK Garden Hills

We’ve stayed here more than five times, but this was our last visit. The location is strategic, off the main road, and having a 7-11 opposite is handy. Still, compared with other branches, many things were unavailable this time. The spacious room looked clean, but cockroaches kept appearing every day, more than one at a time, even when the bin was empty and after we’d been out. Soundproofing was poor too. We were on the third floor facing the pool, and could hear people screaming there early in the morning as well as people talking as they passed by. The water pressure kept changing. The hot water would sometimes get extremely hot, then suddenly cut off. After we got back to our country, we also realized some of the things we bought were missing. We’d packed the night before the last day and didn’t notice until we got home. We’re not sure if housekeeping or other guests took them. There was no housekeeping on the final day, but we had gone out for two hours that morning before checkout.

The room smelled musty and damp, and a baby cockroach ran across my bedside table. The toilet cover smelled as if it hadn’t been cleaned in years, like strangers hadn’t been able to wash up in a very long time. It was deeply yellow-stained too. If it were cleaned every time someone checked out, I don’t see how the cover could get this dirty. Housekeeping here is clearly abysmal. If you can afford to, I don’t recommend spending your money on a stay here.

After staying at ATK garden hills five times, my family and I won’t be coming back. The problems this time were unforgivable. There were some good things. The hotel is opposite 7-eleven, breakfast was decent for a quick bite, and the front desk could speak broken but understandable Malay/Indon. Breakfast had white rice, porridge, noodles, one protein option, fish or chicken, sausage, fried egg, bread, fruit jam, cereal, coffee powder, ovaltine powder, milk, one juice, and plain water. But we had to kill cockroaches for three nights: two babies on the first night, two on the second, and one huge adult on the third. Pest control seems nonexistent. We complained and nothing was done. Shopping items also went missing from two different rooms. We took photos of our things on the third night, so knew we’d brought them all back. After another shopping trip on the morning of the fourth and last day, we returned to the hotel and checked out, sure we hadn’t left anything behind, but our newly bought wallet, shoes, and junk food were gone. The soundproofing was worth a negative star. People talked and walked in the corridor until 3am, so expect not to sleep. I’m not a light sleeper, and the groups of neighbors were different all three nights. Then people shouted at the swimming pool from 7am. From the third floor, I saw people standing fully in that tiny pool, with no crowd control. I could have put up with one night, but three nights was too much. The shower took forever to heat up, then switched between hot and cold every three minutes. Really disturbing. Compared with my past four trips, they no longer provided toothbrushes, combs, room slippers, face towels, laundry bags, or teabags. The only shampoo provided was for both hair and face. This isn’t a one-star hotel or a motel. If they want to cut costs, they should drop their stars too. Room make-up just meant flattening the blanket, without smoothing it or tucking it into the mattress. The carelessness is beyond words. None of the good points is worth the risk of staying somewhere where theft happens. There are 7e stores everywhere, so you don’t need to stay opposite one, and you don’t really need hotel breakfast either. There’s no room option without breakfast. You only need the front desk to check in and out. For a tuktuk, you can use grab, which is cheaper too.

The breakfast rule was the worst part for us. My kids are under 10 and don't eat much, but the staff charged 120 baht for each of them because they were taller than 80 cm. They even measured the children with a height scale before letting them into the breakfast area. I've stayed at plenty of hotels and never come across a rule like that. When we checked out, staff said a spoon was missing and blamed us. They returned our deposit only after we checked and explained what happened.