Golden Beach Resort

My stays depended a lot on which bungalow I was in. The first was amazing, right in front of the beach. The second was a cheaper wooden one with a sea view, but its many holes and gaps let insects in more easily. I’d recommend the concrete-walled bungalows, trust me haha. Even so, it was one of my best stays, with the sea view and sunset, and a short walk along the beach led to tiny spots where you could tan in peace.

It’s listed as a three-star resort, but what I found was a small, run-down bungalow complex in Ban Tai. The rooms are worn, and housekeeping seemed nonexistent, judging by the overflowing rubbish bins in the photos. Ant trails ran through the rooms, and the mattress was the worst I’ve had in Thailand over the last 20 years. There is a pool, but it only had rainwater or brackish water in it.

The place was nothing like its Booking.com description: dirty, with rubbish around, barely any beach, and plywood houses packed close together. Ants and lizards ran over the room walls. The rooms were old, filthy, and smelly, and the very old, hard mattress still had its plastic cover on. Disgusting. The owner refused to bring a mattress topper. When he eventually did, it was a very old, smelly foam mattress that was still hard. He then offered a refund but said I had to pay 1,600 baht in cash for the first night before he would cancel the rest of the booking, claiming he couldn't rent it again that night. He refused to let me pay Booking.com for that night. But he quickly put it back on Booking.com, and it was unavailable later that evening when I checked. He charged me twice and refused to return my 1,600 baht.

I hate leaving a bad accommodation review, but my Agoda booking clearly said the room had AC. When I arrived, the woman told me there was no AC. I pointed out what the website said, but they said it wasn’t their fault and made me spend over an hour on the phone with Agoda. They didn’t help or speak any English, and offered neither a refund nor an upgrade. The woman at the desk seemed friendly but wasn’t helpful, while the owner came across as rude and uninterested. Don’t trust the booking sites when they say the rooms have AC, since some don’t even though they’re listed that way. I wasted two hours of my trip sorting it out with Agoda myself.