The Marina Phuket Hotel — Attraction in Patong

Stayed here for a week. I would overall rate this 1 but some of the receptionists were really helpful. TL:DR is that the hotel is in a great location, only 1 km from the beach and party road. At night you can't hear any of the bar noises only car and motorcycles driving by. Below is an indepth story of what happened on our trip.

Story As the week went on, our stay went downhill. The first 3 days were great, check-in was efficient and we were shown to our room and the room average (Deluxe Double Room). The bathroom design is a bit weird and also hard to explain (the shower with bathtub has a shower door but also a curtain and the water that splashes between the shower wall and bathtub is drained outside of the rub, resulting in the bathmat becoming soaked (unless you place the mat a bit further away from the entrance of the shower door)). We were still happy in the room as we'd just be sleeping in there and mostly will be out during the day. We had a few issues where 2 of the days where housekeeping visited, they took 2 towels we used but only left us with 1 new. We had to notify reception twice to get another towel sent up. We also had a random moment where a member of staff decided to visit our room (no knock or anything, just opened the door with their key before realizing we were just sitting on the bed surprised)

On our 4th day, we came back at night to discover a cockroach roaming around the floor. We killed it and notified staff immediately. We were moved to another room straight away, however the room we were put into was a Deluxe twin bed room with the twin beds put together to form a double bed. This resulted in our room being much smaller, and there were no lights near the bed head resulting in a much darker room. This made the room feel more of a downgrade than a switch. I notified staff and was upgraded to a Premium Deluxe room.

The premium deluxe room was bigger but with no bathtub, overall a great room (however some pet peeves would be that the shower has no light inside the cubicle which results in a darker shower). No complaints for the room, however in the middle of the night (1:30am) after unpacking another cockroach was spotted on our bedside lampshade. We killed it and decided to just sleep and let them know in the morning as we were so tired. First thing in the morning (before the breakfast buffet) I notified staff that there is a cockroach in our room. They notified housekeeping but didn't offer us to switch rooms. I didn't think much of it as I don't really want to pack again and wanted to take a nap again right after breakfast due to the late night situation. After breakfast, we went to our room to discover that they were in the middle of cleaning it. We decided to just wait by the pool for the next hr till complete. We returned to our room with the cockroach in the exact same position we left it. Again, decided not to notify staff as we really needed to take a nap. In the evening we were going to fantasea so i told staff again before we left. Upon returning after the show (11:30 PM) the cockroach is still there. I had enough and complained an ended up in their Grand Deluxe room for the rest of the trip. We didn't have any other issues (thank god) moving forward.

Some of the receptionists at The Marina Phuket went above and beyond to help us after they heard about of issues, there was 2 receptionists that do the evening shift (2 women) and they were really helpful and empathetic towards us. 1 gave us a souvenir for all the issues we faced). Bryan also upgrade us to Grand Deluxe in an instant and personally checked the room everywhere for any cockroaches. Kudos to those 3.

Overall I unfortunately won't be staying at the Marina Phuket again due to the issues we faced. Too many small things adding up over the week to the point where we weren't able to really enjoy the last couple days in Phuket. The last thing you want to do after being out all day is to come back and have to pack your bags and move...

The hotel is located on the way to Patong beach and is a 50 min drive from the airport.. we travelled as a group of 5 adults and 2 children and booked 3 rooms. upon arrival from bkk, we were greeted by very pleasant staff who ran from the reception to gather our bags at the entrance of the hotel. the reception staff were very helpful and quick while checking in to the hotel. they took the time to explain all the rules of the hotel in a kind manner. when we inquired about where we could get a cake for my son's birthday, they gave us directions to the nearest mall (jungceyleon). the restaurant closes at 10.30pm every night and although we arrived at 10.15pm to celebrate our son's birthday they were kind enough to wait for us to finish cutting the cake and finish our meal (which took us around 1.5 hrs). in the morning the breakfast was sufficient enough and even though i had first time travellers with me, they were very happy with the buffet offered to us. there was a live noodle station and egg station. in the buffet section there was an Indian curry along with nan/roti, sausages/chicken ham and a few thai dishes. there was cereal and bread/french toast available everyday along with a good selection of thai fruits which were delicious.. the rooms were comfortable enough for 2 adults and a child.. the rooms had a small balcony as well.. the balconies face the main road (i think all rooms face the main road) so the noise from the street was disturbing our sleep.. I'm not sure if they offer interconnecting rooms but we were not offered one at check in.. the swimming pool was the best attraction of the hotel.. there is a small kids pool along with a large pool (1.2 meters deep).. the pool has an adjacent bar that is open from 8am - 11.30pm.. the restaurant at the roof is open till 10pm and is a great place to relax in the afternoon.. they have special food and beverage deals which end at 8pm.. patong beach is about a 30 min walk from the hotel (although they tell you that it's only 15 mins) so your best bet is to hire a tuk tuk which will cost you around 200 bht.. there is a pharmacy and a 7/11 just 10 steps away from the hotel entrance which is very convenient.. there is a night market opposite the hotel which is open until 1.30am.. We ordered some room service and it was delivered to us promptly and the food tasted lovely.. the mini bar was stacked with essential drinks and there were sunscreen sprays and after sun gels (chargeable) which came in handy after a day in the pool.. The hotel also arranged a transfer to the airport which was cheaper than the taxi rates offered at the airport (1200 bht for a mini-van.. we paid 1400 bht at the airport).. Overall a lovely hotel and as an Indian tourist I was very to receive the kind treatment from the staff since I've heard some horror stories about how other hotels treat Indian travellers...

Not the best place to stay unfortunately, we booked for 1 week in January 2022 via the sandbox scheme, the hotel was clean and the rooftop pool was nice enough and staff were mostly friendly however when we checked in they said they would have to put us in a room where the Wi-Fi wasn’t working for the first night and will move us the following day, when enquiring about our change of room the next day no one was aware of this and it had to be arranged again taking around an hour to sort.

The next room we were in had a faulty air conditioner system, we informed reception and they sent a member of staff up to see if he could fix it, after about 1:30 hours he decided he could not fix it and we packed up for our third room.

Luckily we spent the remainder of our time in here on this room however replenishment was a bit of an issue we had to phone down a few times to ask for hand towels coffee tea and sugar as they were not replaced.

Now all of the above was a minor annoyance which I could easily overlook however on the night before leaving we booked a taxi at 07:00 with reception staff from our hotel to bus terminal 1 for 900 baht which we didn’t get a receipt for (note to self always get a receipt) as we has a bus to catch at 08:00 and the terminal is around 30minutes away. When we checked out at 06:45 the next morning we waited for a taxi and at 7:10 had to check with reception to see where it was only to find out the gentleman had taken our money and not booked a taxi at all, the hotel staff then booked us a taxi but unfortunately even after repeatedly informing them and the taxi driver that we needed to go to bus terminal 1 we were dropped off at bus terminal 2 at 07:45, a 12 minute taxi away from bus terminal 1 where we had pre paid tickets to go to koh samui. As you can imagine we were not able to make this bus/ferry and as a result lost the money paid and in addition had to pay a further 1600 baht for a ticket from bust terminal 2 to koh samui leaving at 09:30.

Overall the hotel was very poor for the money it warrants and the whole experience was made worse by the incompetence we faced at the end, there and many hotels that look just as good and are situated closer to the beach/bars asking for a lot less to stay if I had my time over I would certainly not be...