Meliá Koh Samui — Hotel in Ko Samui

It’s a decent hotel, but I’m not sure it’s really a proper 5 star. We had a great time here, mainly due to its location, but wish we’d booked one of the other 5 stars along the same stretch of beach in Choeng Mon.

It’s a kid friendly hotel for sure. If you’ve got under 10’s, go here. There are loads of young kids so if you’re a couple or have older kids you may be disappointed with the noise and masses of kids in the pool. I was hoping to swim lengths at some point but couldn’t, even at the very start and end of the day due to all the younger kids.

The layout of the hotel is ok. The gardens are amazing and hats off to the grounds staff. Our two teenage kids used the gym and snooker room a few times which were both good.

The rooms are ok at best. We had 2 connecting garden view deluxe rooms on the middle floor of three. The furniture is looking a bit dated but overall the room presentation is ok. We had a lovely welcoming 20th anniversary message with flowers etc on arrival which was a really nice touch. The disappointing thing was the walls and ceilings being paper thin. We could practically hear the conversations going on next door when laying in bed and then half way into our 9 days a family moved into the room above us. We could hear everything going on, so when anything was being moved around or when the kids were running about, we could hear it all. This was a real let down for a 5 star. Don’t even get that level of sound transmission in a Premier Inn at home. I see others have made the same comments so it’s clearly an issue outside of just the two rooms we had. We did make a complaint about a large truck that kept parking outside our room several times a day that was pumping water into the hotel next door. Whenever it was pumping it had its engine running flat out making a right old racket, once at 2am. The staff were fabulous about this and sent us an apology letter with a bottle of wine which was nice, but would have been good not to have a couple of days with the noise in the first place. The truck parked elsewhere after we complained which fixed that.

That brings me onto the staff. I feel bad in a way rating the hotel as 4 starts as all the staff are amazing. The friendliest most helpful people I think we’ve ever had in a holiday hotel. Lovely folks. If it weren’t for the staff, I think I’d be giving the hotel itself only 3.

The location is fantastic, Choeng Mon being possibly the best location on the island. A great beach, nice and clean. Some fabulous beachside bars and restaurants to visit if you don’t want to eat in the hotel, and it’s easy to get into town to eat on the main road. We were somewhat disappointed with Melia’s sun bed arrangements. 3 of the 9 days we were there we had to go get sun beds on the beach elsewhere due to them all being full (or rather beach towels out on the beds without anyone actually sitting on them). We didn’t actually mind this too much as the Melia beds on the beach are rammed in really close together so it felt cramped when on a bed there. We found a lovely little beach bar further down the beach that had better beds and bean bags, more spaced out and much quieter (and cheaper food and drinks).

I’m not sure why there are comments on here about lack of selection at breakfast. It’s a really good spread with several cooking stations to take your own unique orders, and again the staff and the cooks were fab.

We went on from Melia Koh Samui to Phuket and then later to Bangkok where we stayed in the Anantara hotels at both locations. These were real 5 star hotels, a good step above the Melia. But a touch more expensive…

So all in all, a touch disappointed, but nothing awful. If we go again to Choeng Mon, which is likely, we’d book the hotel next door or Sala which is further down the beach. Both looked nicer inside and neither seemed to have any young kids anywhere. Both had much better beach bed set ups and the hotel next door had a cosy little beach bar that was much nicer than Melia’s, so we spent nearly every night there having our end of...

We spent our honeymoon here and stayed a total of 7 nights at the Meliã Koh Samui, in a premium double room with private pool access. The hotel complex is beautiful and can rightly be called paradise. We were really overwhelmed when we arrived here and marveled at this dreamlike environment. The front desk service staff are some of the friendliest and most helpful hotel staff we have encountered over the years of our travels. We informed the hotel in advance that we were only a few days married and on a honeymoon trip when we arrived. Our room was beautifully decorated with congratulations and there was even a little greeting from the kitchen. It even brought tears of joy to our eyes. Thank you very much! The hotel's trademark is the Loop Pool, a beautiful pool set in the hotel's tropical gardens. A beautiful idyll where you can also enjoy peace and quiet. However, keep in mind that the Meliã is a popular family hotel, so there are a lot of children on site. There are great and extensive offers for the children, even a separate boathouse for childcare, and two slides in the loop pool. A slide ends right at the pool bar. You have to reckon with children's noise here, but it's not bad. The main pool is designed as an oval just in front of the beach and offers a lot of space to cool off. There are enough loungers, bean bags and swimming bags. Unfortunately there was construction work going on at the pool during our stay. However, these have to be carried out at some point, so you can't be angry. If necessary, simply move further away. In terms of sand, the beach is the most beautiful we have found on Koh Samui. Very soft and very easy to go in because it slopes flat and has a sandbank in front. All around there are numerous restaurants and massage parlors with competent staff.

Now for the minuses: From the penultimate day of our stay there were suddenly no more towels at the pool. When we asked, we were told that they had to be taken out of the room. However, if you have already used the ones from the room and given them to the laundry, you suddenly find yourself without a towel. This led to great astonishment and anger among many guests. The scenario repeated itself the next day. This is simply not worthy of a 5* hotel and absolutely must not happen!

In addition, on the penultimate day, the water bottles provided daily in our room were not brought up later. Of course it can happen, mistakes are human, but I don't expect that in a 5* hotel either!

Once we needed the reception and called them from the room, which was also said several times that you should only dial "0" and someone would answer immediately. After four failed attempts with the phone ringing for minutes, we gave up in exasperation. We have already experienced better things here, even in 3* hotels, please improve in this regard!

The breakfast was varied every day, sufficient and tasted absolutely great. There is definitely nothing to complain about here, it was absolutely great!

We were offered a “late check out” until 2:00 p.m. free of charge, which we thought was great. In the longer term it would cost 3000 baht right away as the room cannot be allocated. So understandable. However, the fact that an airport shuttle from the hotel to the airport, which is 4 km away, costs 900 baht, we find it a rip off. We ended up going with a local supplier for well under half the hotel price!

Due to the previously described points on our penultimate day, our impression of the hotel was unfortunately a bit clouded. Nevertheless, we spent a wonderful dream holiday here, which, despite the minus points, will always remain in our hearts with beautiful memories.

We can warmly recommend the Meliã Koh Samui to everyone, you feel very comfortable here. Mistakes can happen and we are sure that the staff will correct them because everyone is very dedicated and extremely competent.

Personally, we would give the Meliã 90 out of 100 points, hence a star deduction in the rating. We would book this hotel again...

I really loved spending time here at the resort with my partner and 7 month old. We stayed in the deluxe room for 4 nights and then paid for an upgrade for the last 2 nights to a pool access room which also gave us access to the Level. There were a lot of positives to note but unfortunately there are some negatives that the hotel should try to take on board as it seems to coincide with some of the other reviews that have been made.

Positives: the pool and the pool maze that runs around the resort was amazing! We stayed by the main pool most of the time but when it got too hot, we would swim to the adjoining pool. My baby loved going around the maze and seeing the water features. The pool water was also cooler than the main pool as there is a lot of shade. The hotel buffet breakfast was great. Lots of variety and had some nice Thai dishes. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast more than the Level breakfast. The Level breakfast had an a la carte menu as well as a small buffet. You also get sparkling wine at the Level.

The deluxe room and the pool access room are quite similar. Spacious and comfortable bed.

The Level access had some benefits. We were provided with non-alcoholic drinks, fruit and nuts during the day. From 5:30-7:30pm, we were provided with unlimited cocktails, wine, beer and other drinks as well as nibblies. This was a nice touch. The staff here are also very friendly.

The hotel has some great activities that you can participate in like yoga and kick boxing and the children’s area has really fun activities for the kids. We paid to attend their Thai night where we were provided with a buffet and seafood bbq on the beach. The food was delicious and the entertainment was great. We had unlimited mango stick rice - who could say no to that?!

Negative: the hotel is very busy. We were there during Easter and it was booked out. All the sun beds were taken up everyday. There is not much shade and some sun beds had no umbrellas. This was a problem for people who arrived at the pool after breakfast. They had no where to sit! The beach was also busy. Aesthetically, the pool looks nice with the fancy sun beds around it, but really, it’s a big problem when there is lack of umbrellas, shade and chairs for your guests.The pool water was so warm. You’d expect to cool down after jumping into the water, but no, it felt like the pool was heated.

It also seemed like they were a bit understaffed. We were told that our room would be ready at 3 when we upgraded but when we went to reception at 3:45, they had only only finished servicing it. The bed sheets looked really messy and when we went to bed, we noticed that the sheets had sand and some dirt on it. It wasn’t the best feeling, especially when we had just paid extra for the upgrade.

Twice, we came to our room and found that it was serviced but we had no towels! My partner and baby had just showered and they were soaking wet while we waited for the towels to arrive. Not ideal at all.

Unfortunately, I have to note another negative which really dampened things for me. When we were in the deluxe room, there were ants on the basin in the bathroom as well as the coffee area. Tiny ants that I wouldn’t expect to find at a 5 star resort. And to my disgust, in the morning on our second day there, I found a huge cockroach in the shower. Look, we have been travelling for over three weeks by this point, staying in one resort before this and several hotels in Vietnam and Bangkok. This was the first and only cockroach I came across and it wasn’t a great thing to see after having high hopes for Melia.

Overall, we enjoyed our time at Melia. My baby loved crawling in the shallow pool. One of the pool guys, Tum was really nice and provided amazing service. If we were to return, we would try to get a better room or the pool access although the price is quite steep for...