Katathani Phuket Beach Resort — Hotel in Karon

We booked three rooms for a total of 50 nights and also celebrated our wedding on-site with a package, for a total amount exceeding 500,000 THB. Unfortunately, our experience was far from the expected standards of a 5-star hotel, especially with the front office.

Complicated Communication: The reservation was made via email under a single name for all three rooms. Joan, who spoke perfect English, facilitated the exchanges without any issues. However, when Ms. T and Ms. J took over, communication became extremely complicated, as they clearly did not understand English. A simple request for a quote to extend one of the rooms for three nights resulted in changes to the reservation of all three rooms. Despite numerous exchanges and even a call from my wife (who is Thai) to clarify the request, we received a confirmation with incorrect dates. After several corrections, we ultimately accepted the new dates, without the initial request for a quote ever being understood by the team.

Billing Errors: Mr. T made a billing error, which led to an omission of 7,000 THB. We received a note under our room door requesting us to pay this amount, which we did again by credit card, incurring additional bank fees.

Room Issues and Unfulfilled Requests : Upon our arrival at the hotel, we were surprised to find two single beds in the bridal suite. Common sense would suggest providing at least a double bed for the newlyweds. Two of the three rooms temporarily checked out for three nights in the middle of our stay before returning. During checkout, Mr. T assured us that we would get the same rooms upon our return. We were surprised to discover that we were now on the ground floor, despite explicitly requesting upper floors when booking seven months earlier.

Another issue: We had one room for three people (two adults, one child) and two rooms for two people. Upon check-in, we found two rooms with a sofa bed set up as a bed. We requested that one of the sofas be restored to its lounge setup, but the request was never fulfilled.

Reservation Name Confusion: Our reservation was under my name, but after a few days, we started receiving emails under another name. Despite our requests for correction, the hotel ended up using the name of another family member, again different from the original reservation name. We eventually gave up on trying to correct it.

Other Issues bis • Morning call to the wrong room: A package for my wife was announced via a call at 9 AM, but it was made to our parents’ room, waking them up unnecessarily. • Inconsistent housekeeping: The number of towels varied daily—sometimes two, sometimes three—and pool towels were also inconsistent, sometimes missing altogether. • Intrusion into the room: Three times during our stay, a hotel employee entered without knocking. • Paid sunbeds: Contrary to expectations, the sunbeds on the beach are chargeable, even for hotel guests (we may have missed this information on the hotel’s website when booking, but the disappointment was real).

Wedding Organization: : Last-Minute Changes Although the organization process was clear, we found out the day before the wedding that the original band we had chosen was no longer working with the hotel. A new band was imposed on us without prior notice or any samples of their work. We had to choose new music and arrange for an MC at the last minute, which caused unnecessary stress.

The Positives: The rooms were clean. The breakfast was excellent. The staff handling luggage and welcoming guests at the hotel entrance were very pleasant. A member of the wedding team, Trainee 3 (his name was not on his badge), was exceptional. The hotel itself is beautiful and has good facilities.

Final Verdict: We are very disappointed with this hotel, especially with the front office. The service does not meet 5-star standards. My wife, who has worked in luxury hospitality for years, was particularly frustrated by the service quality. As for us, we will not be returning. We hope this review helps you improve and meet the luxury standards that should...

First, the pros:

the location which is really the main plus of this place. It's located on Kata Noi Beach, where the hotel is located is really stunning with blue waters, soft sandy beach.

housekeeping was very good on the second night. They left new pillows for us after we mentioned that the ones the room came with were too soft.

We also got our laundry back all in one piece and on time, which was honestly unexpected given the general calibre and feel of this entire operation. However, this is where the positives unfortunately end.

Now, the regrettable list of why I would not recommend this hotel or ever choose to return myself:

started with check in- we asked for local restaurant recommendations from the staff, who responded that she could only recommend restaurants within the hotel (this hotel is massive with several restaurants). This being our first time to Thailand, it would have been nice to get a few suggestions from locals. Not a great start.

we got a supposed upgrade to a beachfront suite which was nice, but unfortunately not the new and renovated rooms as our original booking was. It was located in a fairly old building in dire need of some upgrading.

speaking of needs upgrading, the rooms. Nice upon very first glance but unfortunately the initial impression doesn't last long. It felt like was zero sound insulation or that from the outdoor weather and humidity. We heard all neighbours- both from adjacent rooms and those passing from the outside corridors. Balcony door was so old and creaky that a small gap remained every time we tried to close it or lock it- took us three or four attempts to get it to close each time we went outside.

Pillows, bedding, mattress all felt like they were on their last leg with zero filling left from so much use. Mattress sagging slightly in certain areas and not at all plushy or comfortable. The fan was also too loud that you noticed it when trying to sleep.

the room became so humid that we woke up with the sheets feeling slightly damp each morning. The only solution to this provided by this resort was to leave us with a disposable dehumidifier (see pic) which I'm not sure who was expecting to actually solve the issue.

They try to sell you things at every turn. From the on-the-lawn massages (the ones at the parlours just outside were much better than the hotel ones). The "night market" spread on the lawn each evening.

Room service- speed was okay, but food was really terrible especially the beef/steak. My steak sandwich was tasteless. Even the cutlery felt cheap- the glasses were not real glass, kind of a plasticky one which just felt flimsy and like I was at a kegger at college again.

The beach- while it was very nice, upon stepping on the beach for a morning dip, we were approached by a guy who asked us to pay 200 baht each to sit on some sweat-stained, beat-up, and dirty lawn chairs. We felt it was super tacky that this was supposedly a 5-star, beachfront resort and that we were being nickled and dimed this way.

Room service would not come unless we called them multiple times. We left for a whole day boating trip until 4 pm one day and returned tired and ready to relax, with our room the way we left it- no clean towels , bed unmade.

minor- some staff spoke very little English so difficult to get questions answered directly. Too crowded and feels like spring break college party vibes. Even though we were beachfront, people took chairs and planted themselves directly in front of our balcony and view each day. Breakfast felt like a cheap cruise.

Overall, the room felt a bit like putting lipstick and a dress on a pig, or trying to cover fire using pieces of paper. There were some very superficial attempts to conceal the age- new paint, wood accents, tiling etc. However, no amount of makeup was enough to hide the old, outdated and overall musty and cheap feeling of the place- both in terms of the physical place and the experiences we had at this hotel. Do...

Beautiful Family resort, quite big with nice green area, pools, restaurants, caffes and different attractions for the kids, playroom, pool for the kids like a small aquapark, opened playground, snooker, table tennis, big chess on the grass, mini golf. You'll enjoy and you'll always find what to do there with your little ones and elder kids there. There is a gym as well in the resort.

The location is excellent, there are many shops, and restaurants around, 7Eleven, massages with normal prices 300THB for 1hour body massage, laundry services immediately when you exit the resort and its not noisy and crowded at all, as its blind street and there is nothing else after Katathani resort, so basically strangers are not coming there.

The is Beautiful view point and Elefant safari, or where you can feed elephants with your kids, only 5 min driving up from the resort.

The breakfast is very good, but we didn't understand one thing... there are 2 restaurants where breakfast is served, 1 is not good at all, another is excellent, but as we figure it out on the second day, we were happy.

There is a buffet dinner in one of the restaurants, which costs 850THB, it's a perfect choice for us, especially with the kid, when you don't know what he gonna eat. When you go to any of caffes and restaurants around, the minimum you'll spend around is 400THB for something like pasta (which was honestly not good at all, 3 grams of cheese and 20 grams of meat inside), or 350THB for burrito, which my husband need at least 2 of those to get full. You can buy pizza for 350THB, which is also ok, but I don't consider this like a food for dinner or lunch, it's just good thing to share with my husband like a snack to hold until dinner and not to spend few hours for having lunch, better eat and go and to stay longer on the beach, or pool, as its already get dark at 6pm. All the restaurants and bars are facing the sea, which is 50 meters away.

There are few shops in the resort where you can buy snacks and drinks and stuff for the beach.

Everything you can write on your room and pay in the end, or you can pay cash or card as well.

The stuff room service and service around is very good, the stuff is always trying to make your staying comfortable, but the level of English is not perfect aroud the stuff, I mean on the reception when we should solve few things it took us a while as ladies didn't understand us well. I mean at the end the question was solved, but I think for such a resort the receptionist should know English better to make their job faster. But this didn't spoil our impression of the resort, as besides that everything was really amazing.

There is everything you need in the room. Beachtowels and bags for the beach, umbrella are also provided.

The resort is very wide, the beach is stunning and very clean and it goes all the way along the resort. There is also buggies (small cars) which are moving inside of resort and can bring you from one side to another at any time. But the area is so beautiful that actually it's 10 min walking from one side to another and you are enjoying the walk. You can stop by any time next to any of the pools, the sunbeds are all around the resort, near the pool, on the green area under the palms, you can lay down further from the people and feel more private. And at any time you can go down to the beach which is 20 meters away.

There is a spa house in Katathani, but we didn't explore that part, as we were doing massages on the beach, on sunbeds. There are ladies (the stuff from the resort) who are making TOP massages, I just chose the place closer to the sea on the sunbed, further from people and it was a 7 paradise.

Thank you Katathani for having us. Our family is looking forward to come back there again.

PS: we were not lucky with the weather fist 3 days, but I'm not sure if it's usual thing in October or it's just happened this year, better explore the weather on Phuket on...