NH Collection Samui Peace Resort — Hotel in Ko Samui

I am rating the NH Collection Resort with an overall 2 star, as it should be. This is definitely NOT a 5 star establishment. As I am wondering where to begin, with describing our experience, I would start with the fact that the positioning of the villas gives you zero peace and privacy, contrary to the name of the resort. As early as 8 a.m., begins a significant traffic from housekeepers, gardeners and all kinds of hotel staff, circulating around the villas and talking (in some cases shouting) loudly. Forget about sleeping in for a single morning. This brings me to the fact that next our villa, there was a “hub” for maid-carts and gardeners and with the noise aside, you could not sit on the porch to work or chill, as there was constant pressure of someone circulating around you.

The villas were generally outdated and poorly kept, as you could see on the pictures. It seems they did try to do some kind of maintenance, but unsuccessful. The rooms smell strongly of mold and are extremely humid. There is no air flow around the complex, as the villas are so crammed, which does not leave the option to sleep with open windows/door. You would think that you could sleep with air con on, but take another guess. The air con was from another era, old, worn out and extremely noisy. Even when working all day, as soon as you switch it off, the cool air escapes the rooms, through the wooden cracks in the front door. So you just sleep and stew in your our sweat all night. The housekeeping of the rooms is also overall poor, with zero attention to detail. We were given stained towels twice. The staff is very poorly trained, mostly unfriendly and badly mannered.

The hotel breakfast offers a wide variety, however the coffee is just horrible, the overall traffic at breakfast is heavy and the cool room with fruit, vegetable and cold cuts, is no longer cool and fresh two hours into breakfast. The dinner/lunch menu at the restaurant is also not the best. The food extremely tasteless, with no authenticity and character.

I would like to move onto the pool and beach, which are both extremely overcrowded. The pool has like a 100 crammed sunbeds and there is no circulation of air around it. The beach looks nothing like the pictures - there are two roles of 20+ sun beds each. The sand is just horrible and the water is foggy and looks dirty. Forget about the turquoise water and ivory sand you see from the photos of the NH website. SCAM! The bike rental service which the hotel offers sucks and the helmets are extremely dirty. Please note that the hotel is situated on a main road with significant traffic. At night you can hear, motorbikes and sirens from the rooms. I am sure that I am forgetting something from our overall experience at the NH resort, but I will just conclude that these were 9 extremely...

We were very pleasantly surprised with this resort and loved it.||When we arrived, we didn't really know what to expect, but from the first moment we had one pleasant surprise after the other.||Already the arrival was so special. The reception is in an open building that is very nice to see. The reception staff was very welcoming and we enjoyed the short ride in a golf cart to our villa. Not in the least because our luggage arrived that way as well.. Especially because it was 36 C with a high humidity.||The villa was really nice and had everything we needed. The bed was very comfortable and the air-conditioning worked very well, luckily. There was also a work desk and a sofa bed.||The bathroom was split into 3 parts. The largest area was quite spacious. It had the washbasin, a large rod for clothes plus a flat area for the suitcase(s), and a safety deposit box. Altogether a very comfortable size. There was a separate toilet, plus a spacious shower and bath tub. The shower included a rain shower.||We also had a small fridge, plus complimentary coffee, tea, and water.||The balcony provided a nice way to sit and relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings, because the villas were in a very nice garden that was also well maintained.||The swimming pool was quite large and at some parts, about 2m deep. It also had a jacuzzi. A great way to relax on one of the complimentary beds and dip in the pool once in a while. And if you got thirsty or hungry, you just needed to push a button for a waiter to appear and take your orders.||The stunning highlight was the restaurant area though. The breakfast buffet was nothing short of awesome and unlike anything we'd experienced before. What a choice and variety! Just amazing. From cookies for the kids, and those a bit older ;-), to all the fresh made warm dishes, both Asian and Western style, the fruit juices, the fresh fruit, and so much more. There was a walk-in cooled section for those items that needed to be cooled.||Sitting there, overlooking the bay, the ocean, and some of the nearby islands was a sheer joy.||We also went there for dinner a couple of times. Not only the ambiance, but also the variety in the menu made it easy for everyone in the family to find something of their liking. ||And while enjoying your food, you could see the sun set. That is really hard to beat. And yes, you can get lower priced dishes when you go out on the street, but for us, the entire experience was worth the extra money.||Another thing that really struck us was the kindness of the staff. Across the board, they were all so friendly and it was genuine. This is not something that just happens though and I compliment the management for hiring such great people.||We definitely plan to return to Koh Samui and this resort is going to be where...

Hotel Name: Peace resort

Visited on: End of September 2024

Location: 📍 Near Fisherman’s village (few minutes away by bike, 20 mins away walking on main road, around 10 mins if you walk on the beach to the next resort and then there’s a walking road to the village)

Room: 🛏️ Type: Superior Villa with bathtub and shower 🛀 Amenities: Bathtub, shower, minibar, hairdryer, safe 🧼 Cleanliness: The whole resort and the rooms are kept very clean and neat

Facilities: 🏊 Pool: was my least favorite place, quite small and always crowded 🍽️ Breakfast: Buffet was good, from Thai to sweet European and fresh egg bar, everything was there + 🧘‍♂️ Spa/Gym: Cozy spa and massage there was great, and good AC. It’s also possible to get a massage by the pool. There’s a small gym with mostly cardio equipment and dumbbells but it’s clean and empty ☺️ (which for me was a good thing).

Service: 👨‍💼 Staff: Very friendly, good service at the restaurant. Cleaning staff did a great job. Reception helped us booking a taxi and ferry to Phangan and also let us stay in the room 20 minutes after checkout time.

🕒 Check-in/Check-out: was efficient but its outside and only fans are available (no AC), so if you need to wait, the heat quickly gets unbearable.

Price: 💵 Slightly overpriced

Pros: ✅ Clean and modern minimalistic rooms; nice resort territory; has spa, gym, small salon, yoga, cooking classes and water fitness classes and possibility to book romantic dinner by the beach; breakfast is good; clean beach and nice restaurant view; really peaceful atmosphere, very nice coconut smelling shampoo was provided and it made my dry hair silky smooth.

Cons: ❌No complete blackout curtains. Didn’t reply to my initial request of choosing the location of the villa and were placed on the outskirts. Two days out of three they were cutting trees very loudly just next to our villa and that was disturbing + there was a huge bee 🐝 hive in a tree and we weren’t notified and ran into it at night. Found an almost dead big cockroach in the bathroom ones, but they send someone to spray there afterwards. We had issues with closing the safe and had to call several times for someone to come and show us how to use it because the phone instructions were not clear, but I don’t understand why it was so hard to just send someone right away.

Hairdryer is really weak and low quality, you need to use the hottest setting to get the hair at least a bit dry (even fine hair like mine) and you can feel how it gets damaged more than dry. Music in the bar in the evening was not good.

Overall: ⭐ Rating 4 out of 5 Would I...