Baan Suay Hotel Resort

Fine if you're backpacking, but I found it disappointing. The place is clean and tidy, with a small pool, little bar and sofa area. At the back of Baan Suay there are six chalets, each basically one room with a small wet room and toilet. They're always in the shade, so sunbathing outside is impossible. The pool only gets sun across half of it in the morning. Local taxis never seemed to know where the place was, which caused problems again and again. Maybe it's because it appears to have two names, Karon beach pool hotel and The Baan Suay, making it hard to find.

We chose Baan Suay Karon Beach after reading good reviews and seeing the beautiful pictures on the hotel's website. My sister and I had already paid by credit card as instructed, but at check-in the staff said we hadn't paid at all. We were tired and didn't want a long argument, so we paid again in cash. Then we found three cockroaches coming out of corners in room Number 3. We were extremely disappointed. It took two requests before the staff finally moved us, and Number 204 was poorly maintained and had a stain on the bed. We were angry about the way we'd been treated and wanted to speak to the owner. The staff people described as “nice” wouldn't give us the owner's phone number and tried to pass another staff member off as the owner. They kept saying “I Don't Know” and couldn't help. We showed the credit card receipt proving we'd paid twice, but they insisted no payment had come through and had no proof. Their only explanation was that they'd called the bank and been told no payment was received, which we couldn't just take on trust. The real owner eventually promised to check and send us evidence either way. Four days later, we'd received nothing. We feel this was wrong and that the owner owes us an apology.

I loved this cafe. It has excellent wifi and is a lovely place to get some laptop work done. The coffee is good, and the smoothies are even better, all natural and not too sweet. It had only just reopened after COVID, so I don't have much else to add. Apparently they have rooms too.

The eco-friendly approach and care for sustainability really stood out. Along with the comfortable rooms, we appreciated the effort to reduce the environmental impact. A guilt-free stay in a beautiful setting!