Idyllic Concept Resort — Hotel in Ko Lipe

Communication prior to Arrival 100/100

+contacted proactively by the resort to arrange the free transport. Upon arrival, we were awaited by hotel staff.

Location 100/100

++Located in the calmer part of Koh Lipe Next to beautiful beaches. +Walking street and restaurants in a 5-15 minute walking distance.

Facilities / overall resort 70/100

++Huge gym - one of the largest hotel gyms I’ve ever seen. +Nice beachside pool -didn’t like the pool inside of the resort since I felt like a sitting duck there -There were not enough sunbeds near the pool and at the beach. At 8am, all sunbeds are reserved while most of them stay unused! I talked to the receptionist / manager about this, and this seems to be acceptable for the hotel. Plenty of other guests complained about this situation, as well as many reviews online. The hotel should take action on this and prohibit reservations with towels. -Resort itself felt quite cramped, most of the rooms have little to no privacy on their balcony. -Many stairs to climb down to the beach from entry of resort and back.

Room 20/100

-rooms are generally in a pretty rundown-down state, especially the bathrooms. Water taps and shower heads crusted, even fixed with rusty screws - incredible! I felt like in a 2 star bathroom at best. Shower drain in the first room was clogged and flooded the room after 3 minutes of showering. -Talking about first room this is the biggest issue I see with the rooms: We booked a garden view Appartement 11 months in advance, because it looked so good on the pictures and there was no reason for us to book another category. Upon arrival, we were given one of the worst rooms in the entire hotel. It was dark, damp and nothing as advertised on the hotels website. No garden view but view on the reception and tuk tuk parking. Noise the entire evening as the coming and going tuk tuks sound their horn due to a dangerous corner next to the hotel. Noise of people gathering at the reception. Noise in the morning by tuk tuks again. It is clear that some difference exists between the views from different rooms. But the differences here, which I summarized in a picture, are completely unacceptable and these rooms near the reception should be classified differently. That being said, upon discussion with the reception we were allowed a room change on the second day. It was night and day difference to the first room. The staff managed the situation as good as it was possible - thanks! To the hotel management: Room 804 is unacceptable for 6000+ Bht a night if booked 11 months ahead.

Breakfast 50/100

+Large choice of warm meals, that were tasty. oBread was only “okay” even if it is home made. -No cheese, small choice of cold cuts. -Service was not good - even though staff was quite nice, empty plates were not cleared and empty tables were not consistently set up new. You had to get new cutlery and napkins yourself. You also had to organize your babychair yourself, no help from the staff. -Breakfast room was quite small so you had to squeeze by close other guests eating. -due to the no shoe policy, you would occasionally step into food dropped on the floor. -Breakfast only until 10:00 - this was the shortest breakfast in our fifth hotel in Thailand.

Service 60/100

+Staff on-site tried their best if you approached them. They managed the complaint about our room good even though the resort was fully booked according to them. -Otherwise quite passive behavior. -Some of the staff did not seem to be very motivated or happy, some did.

Pricing 70/100 (can range depending on your luck with the room!)

+Transfer to and from the resort included, nice! +Rooms are, for what the resort offers and for Koh Lipe standards, rather affordable. -However, there are some rooms as mentioned earlier that are totally overpriced for what they offer. -The Starbucks serving coffee at the beach is completely overpriced, charging 170-180 baht for a rather small iced cappuccino. Restaurant for lunch and dinner rather expensive.

Overall...

This review will be a bit of a rollercoaster but it has a happy ending. We booked a junior suite with a pool view for our family of four (kids aged 2.5 and 6 months old). ||Firstly I would say that had I seen the hotel prior to booking and its particular layout I’d say it’s not the most suitable for babies; this is due to the fact that it’s absolutely not pram friendly and there isn’t a heap of shade for them (there are shady spots though). It’s also not super easy to walk into Walking Street with them (heat, sun and lack of pram access). In retrospect we could’ve just got a cheap taxi into the town but was honestly just a bit hot for our kids and front packing too.||In saying all of this I’m absolutely glad we came though as Idyllic Concept Resort ended up being the highlight of our 3.5 SE Asia trip and I’d love to come back and take full advantage of the island and resort with kids about 5+.||Onto the review however, we initially booked room 404 as above. We then requested to move as there were just too many stairs to negotiate with a toddler and a front packed baby and it was too far from the beach and restaurants, this was a great decision and absolutely worth the additional cost per room. ||We moved to room 222 which was above the restaurant with a deck and the layout worked well with the baby in a shut off wardrobe in her cot. Our son was on a mattress on the floor and had his own zone. Both slept really well and I wish we’d been able to enjoy this room from the beginning of the trip (it was booked). ||The real highlight of the trip were the amazing beach that the hotel sits on and the hotel team.||At first I was a bit dismayed by all the long tail boats but actually Idyllic has one of the most uninterrupted spots as does the next door resort Ten Moons where we had a drink one evening. The water was clear, so warm and exactly what I imagined a Thailand beach to be. I know a lot of people complain about the rubbish on Koh Lipe beaches but this was one was very well kept and maintained.||Moreso than that though were the staff. Ploy, Aon, the bar man with glasses (him and his team made such great cocktails) as well as all the bar and restaurant waitresses were so warm, funny and welcoming-they create the best atmosphere. Above all my husband and I were touched at how genuinely interested and caring they were with our kids; drawing with them, playing with them, taking them to feed the cats. They absolutely made our stay.||Lastly, as I’m always interested in the food. The restaurant did great Thai food (especially the mango sticky rice, papaya salad, the fried rice which somehow was particularly delicious) and a good club sandwich. The breakfast was great, exactly what you need with lots of fresh fruit and veg and a very good made to order egg cook. Also loved the filter coffee.||Lastly definitely do a beach bbq ||Coming from New Zealand we found the whole experience very good value-particularly tbe 4-7pm happy hour. Am sure there are lots of cheaper places on the island but with our young kids we didn’t have access to them and were very happy to have a pina colada on tbe beach before they packed in. ||Thank you again...

I had high hopes for this hotel, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to expectations, especially considering its price point. The rooms were decent, and the beach was lovely, but that’s about where the positive aspects end. The breakfast buffet was incredibly underwhelming, offering very limited variety and missing basic items like cheeses and nuts, which are standard in many lower-tier hotels. However, what truly disappointed me was the hotel’s approach to hygiene. As a frequent traveler, I've stayed in hotels across all categories, but I’ve never encountered something like this before. I asked if i could take the straw hats that where provided in the room; after wearing them and having my seat on them and they said i can't take them because they reuse them, which sounded disgusting where people don't use random people's used hats and those definitely cannot be washed. Upon checkout, there was an unexpected commotion in the lobby, which turned out to be related to a missing pair of disposable slippers. While those slippers cost no more than a few cents, they were being treated as they were a significant issue. Those slippers, which cost maybe 40 cents, were something I had used and taken, assuming they were a standard disposable item. When I returned them, I was told that they reuse them!! Reusing slippers that have been worn by other guests, potentially harboring bacteria and fungus, is not only unhygienic but completely unacceptable, especially for a 4-star hotel. These slippers can't be washed because they'll be ruined. I work in hotel amenities supply and i know that for a fact. Yuck!.. For a four-star hotel charging $300 a night, it is deeply troubling that such a commotion would arise over a a 40 cent disposable item, especially given the potential health risks involved. This lack of basic hygiene is inexcusable. Additionally, there was an issue with billing, where I was mistakenly charged 9,000 Baht instead of the actual amount of 1,000 Baht for dining and other services. Fortunately, I noticed the error and received a refund, but this incident highlights a need for better attention to detail in their services. It’s a real shame because the hotel has potential, but these practices tarnish the entire experience. On top of that, the breakfast preparation was poor. poached eggs were left out in the open until cold, only to be reheated poorly when ordered, and boiled eggs were served at room temperature, making them far from appetizing. Given these issues, I can’t help but feel deeply disappointed. For a hotel that markets itself as a high-end property, the service, attention to detail, and overall professionalism were lacking in every way. This experience does not reflect what I would expect from a 4-star hotel, and I honestly cannot recommend it. I’m rating it 1 star, as I truly...