NH Boat Lagoon Phuket Resort — Hotel in Ko Kaeo

Review of Boat Lagoon Hotel

TL;DR: Don’t book this hotel unless you have a very specific reason to stay here. It would have been 1 star if not for the banana bread. Rooms

I stayed during peak season (early February). My first night was in a room near the yacht docks, which was covered in spiderwebs and dust. As soon as I turned on the AC, bugs started raining from the ceiling directly onto the bed.

We requested a room change, but everything was fully booked. Accepting our fate in this unexpected battle against insect warfare, we called for assistance. A cleaning staff member arrived, armed with nothing but a broom and insect spray. Since we didn’t want to inhale the chemicals all night, we asked him to use only the broom and bring us a fan (as the AC kept pushing out more insects). He agreed and vanished into the night.

After waiting 20 minutes with no sign of the fan, I called the front desk. Thirty minutes later, still nothing. Eventually, I called room service, and 20 minutes later, the fan finally arrived. I spent the entire night on high alert.

The next morning, we were given a much better room inside the main hotel building. It was clean, insect-free, and spacious, allowing us to finally get some rest.

Breakfast

I’m not sure if they deliberately sabotage the kitchen or just don’t care, but the breakfast was one of the worst I’ve ever had. The food was bland, stale, and of the lowest quality. The selection was minimal, and it seemed like no one in the kitchen had ever tasted their own cooking.

The only saving grace? The banana bread. That was decent.

Staff & Service

The staff’s attitude can be summed up as complete indifference toward both their duties and the guests. No one seemed to care about food quality, cleanliness, or overall service.

By day three, a manager showed up at breakfast, sweating profusely and desperately trying to make up for the terrible experience by being overly polite and attentive. While the effort was appreciated, it was far too little, far too late.

Location & Accessibility

One of the biggest downsides is the location. Phuket has virtually no reliable public transportation, aside from a handful of unpredictable buses with no fixed schedule.

If you stay here, your only options for getting around are: Hitchhiking (not ideal) Overpriced taxis (painfully expensive)

While the hotel is technically near the water, don’t be fooled—it’s not near any actual beaches. If you’re visiting Phuket for beach access and convenience, stay elsewhere.

A few nights ago the fire alarm set off at 2 am , then the hotel requested all guests to leave their rooms . It turned out to be a false alarm later on. They left an apology later next day .

Final Verdict

I booked this hotel for one week, expecting a five-star experience. Instead, I got a nightmare first night, awful food, apathetic staff, and a frustratingly inconvenient location.

Don’t make the same mistake I did. Skip this place and book a hotel that’s actually...

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the warm welcome we received during our stay at your hotel from December 27, 2024, to January 1, 2025. We had the pleasure of staying in two rooms for our family during the New Year’s Eve festivities.

I specifically requested rooms located in the building right next to the restaurant, and I was delighted to wake up each morning to breathtaking views of the hotel’s beautiful atmosphere. While the rooms were unexpectedly full during the Christmas-New Year period, I had planned to visit your hotel because I prefer the tranquility of Patong compared to the chaos of the area. Renting a car was convenient for exploring Phuket, and I had the pleasure of speaking with the friendly staff member named Chompu.

Chompu provided valuable advice and detailed information about the different room types available at the hotel. I was traveling from Australia and promised Chompu that I would bring souvenirs from my trip as a token of my appreciation for her assistance. During our conversation, she suggested that I contact the hotel manager to inquire about upgrading to a more spacious room.

The next day, I received a message from the hotel manager, informing me that an upgrade was available for an additional 5,000 baht per room for a single night. Since I had booked two rooms for a total of around 50,000 baht, I decided against the upgrade due to the additional cost. However, I must admit that the hotel room rates during the festive season were significantly higher than usual.

Despite not upgrading, I was fortunate enough to have one of our rooms upgraded to a spacious large room on the day of our check-in. It was an incredible experience, and I couldn’t thank you enough for taking such excellent care of our family during our stay.

We thoroughly enjoyed our five-day stay at your hotel and made the most of our time in Thailand. Your hospitality and attention to detail made our experience even more memorable. I sincerely apologize for not being able to fulfill my promise to bring souvenirs from Australia. It was an oversight on my part, and I assure you that I will make sure to keep my promise next time I visit.

I have already made plans to return to your hotel next year and will not hesitate to book another stay. I will definitely recommend your hotel to others seeking a peaceful and enjoyable vacation in Phuket. Thank you to the lovely staff who took such great care of me during my stay. The room was spotlessly clean, the bed was incredibly soft, and the air conditioning was refreshing. The breakfast was delicious, and there was even a supermarket conveniently located within the hotel grounds. Additionally, they provided a golf cart that could take us anywhere we needed to go, making my stay even more convenient and enjoyable. I absolutely love this...

We booked this hotel for 5 nights as the review for the property seems pretty good after reading them on agoda and google review. Boy, was I wrong.

As someone who has stayed in different Hotels in Phuket, this is one of the worst experiences I ever had and I never write a bad reviews until it’s BAD.

What happened was when we checked in the hotel, my partner started to sneeze. This set of a chain reaction of a bad allergy and we realise it was the flowers at the resort. My partner has always had bad hay fever and the resort was fully open concept so everything is exposed to the air around the resort except the hotel room itself. His allergies gotten worst over the 30 minutes I was away to run some errands and we made a decision to change hotel as this will be a horrible experience for him to stay on.

So while he waited in the room, I explained the situation to the hotel because there is a No Cancellation policy on the booking we made. As this was a medical issue, I would have guessed the hotel will be a lot more understanding about it and offer maybe to return half the payment back to us. They offered to change room, same area compound. One room facing the hotel roof (which was a cheaper room choice as we paid more for a better view and another room above our current room which still faces the pool and garden with the flowers (all room has balcony). I explained that it’s not possible to just change room as we will want to use the pool access and not be confined in just our rooms. So we waited for them to check with their management.

After 15 minutes they called and ask me to cancel on Agoda instead so I made a 20 mins IDD call to agoda for help. After going back and forth and we just checked out so we can get out of the places asap, the hotel staff wanted me to wait for 20 minutes as their management does not want to do any refund and I had to make my plea again.

I couldn’t wait since my partner was not feeling so well so I left them my contact details and dropped them the whole explanation on agoda chatline with NH resort. After 3 hours, no one from the hotel contacted me or on the chatline and Agoda emailed me back that they will only refund me less than 1 night room rate. I was so disappointed with the whole situation. Currently I’m still speaking to Agoda for help and I had to book an even more expensive accommodation just so that my partner can rest and sleep off his allergies.

NH team, I am very disappointed with your service and your knowledge on the severity of allergies. I really felt that the team has no concern of guest health and well being but is only worried about not being able to get a profit from their guest. Needless to say, I would never return to your property or recommend your hotel to any of my...