Haad Yao Bayview — Hotel in Ko Pha Ngan

Unquestionably the WORST experience ever. We stayed at Haad Yao Bayview for one night, primarily to attend the Full Moon party. We booked a round trip transfer to the party at the reception and paid in advance. We were told the exact times at which the van will be present at the designated spot to take guests back to the hotel once we showed them the laminated ticket (proof of booking a round trip transfer). My friends and I took full notice of all this information.

When it was time to head back from the party, in the morning, there was no one to pick us up. We called the reception numerous times but there was no response. Finally, after waiting for nearly 1.5 hours in an unfathomably exhausted state at the designated pick-up spot along with other guests from the same hotel, we decided to pay extra and join a shared ride back to our hotel. Once we reached, we went to the reception and rightly asked for a refund of the one-way transfer cost we incurred due to their driver/van not showing up. Instead of accommodating our request, the receptionist started arguing with us and asserted that we must have been so drunk that we didn’t notice the van. She refused to budge and accept the hotel’s mistake even when other guests who had waited, told the same story and claimed a refund. At some point, she even asked us to “shut up”. Her attitude was downright abysmal. She kept ignoring our request to see the manager or anyone with higher authority and finally declared that she had “all the power and could do anything.”

The entire episode was extremely humiliating and we decided to not push it because we had tried our best to deal with it in a polite and professional way. Even when we were leaving the hotel, we heard some other guests complaining about their money being stolen from their room. We saw the receptionist (the same one who we had to deal with earlier) call one of the guests “a fool”.

And as if all this wasn’t enough, when we reached Phuket, my friends opened their suitcases only to find out that nearly 8000 Thai Baht had been stolen from them too. I guess it was our mistake that we didn’t lock our suitcases but the mere thought of an intruder entering our hotel room and and scrounging through our bags to steal cash and other valuables seemed too far-fetched and ridiculous. So much for expecting your hotel, with enough glistening stars and online reviews, to be AT LEAST, safe.

If you don’t want to spoil your holiday, please don’t stay...

💁🏻‍♀️So you're thinking about staying at at Haad Yao Bayview? Here's a quick quiz ❓to help you figure out if it's the right place to stay.

Number #1❓ Is there anywhere else available? If not, proceed with caution ⚠️

Number #2❓ Are you okay 😐about your room potentially NOT having any working air conditioning 💨 even though there is a unit inside your room? If not, this probably isn't the right place. 🥵

Number #3 Are you okay 😐about renting a more expensive room with a view but then being given a far less expensive totally different room 🫥without an explanation? This happens regularly here.

Number #4❓ Are you okay 😐about potentially being sent to a different hotel 🏨? This Hotel overbooks🤯 during the full moon party 🌕and will send you to a horrendous hotel 🏨 in the city 🌆 without windows and they won't offer a refund upfront. You'll have to fight for it 💪. (This happened to me and 30 other guests)

Next question ❓ Are you okay 😐about having zero 👌internet 📶 and being lied to repeatedly when you ask how’s the internet? “Fast” they’ll say. When It’s actually non-functional. 😬

Next question ❓ Are you okay 😐with renting long term and then being told that they've rented your room because they could make more money 💰 Sorry!

Last question ❓ Are you fine 😐about being publicly yelled at and thrown out of your room 🤬? (I witnessed this happen to a guest)

Should you be upset about any of the aforementioned things? Save yourself the stress on your vacation 🏝️and find anything else. I promise you this isn’t the Hotel for you.

Yes, the pros are they are right on the beach 🏖️, and but for the level of stress on vacation 😥 is that worth it?

If everything is booked and you can deal with them lying 🤥 and potentially giving you a totally different lower quality room than what you paid for or no room at all, then this might be your place. Otherwise, proceed with...

DONT STAY HERE. When we arrived at reception we were ignored for ages by two women who were trying to look busy. We had two nights booked, only to be told that they had overbooked for the first night of our stay. The staff did not seem bothered, and did not try to help us find anywhere else to stay. While they did offer us a bed in the staff dorm for the first night of our stay, we felt uncomfortable sharing such close quarters with strangers. After finding alternative accomodation ourselves, I called to double check that our reservation would still be valid for the second night. The woman who answered the phone sounded high as a kite, just kept saying "yeeeaaahhh..." over and over again, didn't fill me with confidence. The next morning we went back, and luckily the room was ready. It's a good job we are relatively young and able-bodied, as the room was up a very steep hill and lots of stairs, next to what I think is a car park. Lots of very loud motorbike engines early in the morning! Our room was on the end of a row, we had to squeeze past some overgrown plants and the tiling on the floor outside was very cracked and sharp. The walls had a few squashed mosquitoes on them. We had lunch in the hotel, very slow service even by Thailand's relaxed standards. We paid at the bar in the end as all the staff seemed to have disappeared. When we left the next day, we asked reception to book us a taxi to our next destination, they asked for 1250 THB to haad rin, which is expensive compared to other long-ish journeys we had taken. When one of our group quibbled over the price, the woman at the desk said "ok fine no taxi" and turned her back to us. At this point we didn't care, we just wanted to get out of there. Overall,...