The Reef Hotel & Studios — Hotel in Ko Lipe

Stayed in March 2024, for 4 nights.

In summary, decent place to stay, great breakfast, but in our opinion, could be more freshened up for the price.

The good: location is close to walking street but not adjacent, so quiet enough and yet easy to get to and from. However, no views or anything from the room. It’s a cute homestay-style location decorated in tropical plants everywhere. breakfast is a-la-carte, and it is beautiful! Very delicious, filling, and aesthetic, with a tropical juice of the day. However, any extra order will cost you extra. We tried to get some extra bacon along with a dish that didn’t have bacon, and it costed 60B for two pieces, felt a bit ridiculous.

To improve: we noticed ants on the bedside headboard and asked the staff if they could help get rid of them. They were kind enough to do it immediately however we continued to have ants crawling on the bed. We understand though, island life, happens, but for the price of the room, I feel they can be more meticulous about this. Rooms have enough space for two and sheets are clean and the room cleaning was done everyday so that was great. However, the rooms are definitely worn down and is time for refurbishment. Bathroom did not have hand towels or handwash, and the drain was quite dirty, but otherwise...

Booked 4 nights in advance based on good reviews. Breakfast was delicious - home made bread in a lovely restaurant. |Unfortunately, the room wasn’t able to get cool enough to enjoy a good nights sleep despite putting the AC on 16deg on the second night. When I told the owner (Matthias) after the first night he suggested I check the AC setting and that maybe the filter needed to be changed. The next day, I told him that I didn’t realize the AC was only at 24deg, but he didn’t proactively change the filter to ensure no issues. |Also, the in-room safe didn’t work, even when they left the key but there was no effort made to change the safe. |I had told Matthias after one night that I might look for another property as I really needed a proper sleep. |Matthias acknowledged this and hoped the room would be sufficiently cold the next night. |Alas, it was not to be. Matthias kindly refunded some money for the 2 nights I canceled - for the breakfast and non use of electricity, but I was surprised he still charged me for a couple of Americanos after my inconvenience and his lack of proactiveness. When I mentioned this to him at checkout, he was almost indignant…. Frankly not a good feeling. |Overall, a nice feel to the place but I’d never go back not recommend...

We enjoyed our week-long stay at The Reef very much. It is more like a cafe with rooms, or a sort of upmarket backpackers place, and non the worse for that. This was reflected in the service levels.|Our room was very large with sufficient storage space, a large fridge and best of all was the very big balcony which gave us views towards the sea. |Breakfast in the cafe was so hearty that we had to share one breakfast between us, but the coffee was very nice.|The location is good, slightly up the hill from the very touristy Walking Street and a short walk to Sunrise Beach from where we regularly took a boat taxi to Adang island for a wonderful escape from the hoards elsewhere. There are many good restaurants nearby.|Sadly, the beautiful island of Koh Lipe is suffering from too many tourists and can hardly cope, witness the rubbish in the sea when you join nearly 100 people being taken to the same snorkelling spot in...