Santiburi Koh Samui — Hotel in Ko Samui

We have just returned from a 2 week vacation at the Santiburi, staying in a Grand Delux Pool Villa. We had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday in the resort and would recommend the hotel to families or couples staying in Koh Samui.||The location is good. Far enough away from the airport to avoid aircraft noise but not too far to travel after a long flight. Mae Nam is less chaotic outside than other Koh Samui destinations nearby, which we preferred. But everything is still easy to get to from the the Santiburi and it still has easily accessible restaurants and shops a short walking distance from the hotel reception.||Our pool villa was large and spacious with plenty of room for the three of us. If you are a family of 4 you would also have plenty of space. There was lots of storage and plenty of room and privacy in our garden and pool area. The villa was very well presented and clean. As a precaution I requested a mattress topper in advance as I struggle with my back on harder mattresses and I found the bed to be very comfortable and I slept well. The pillows and linens were beautiful also and supported a relaxing and enjoyable sleep. We did experience an issue with the pool on arrival when we noticed it seemed cloudy and not as clear as it should be. The hotel apologised that this had not been picked up in advance of our arrival and were very quick to rectify the issue and ensured the water was filtered and cleaned so we had a beautifully clear pool in no time at all. Similarly, when we had experienced noise from some nearby machinery, which we were advised was from a neighbouring property, they were quick to address the issue.||The facilities at the hotel are excellent. My husband and son enjoyed playing tennis each day and there was a large and well equipped gym. Access to a fuss ball table and table tennis was nice too. We also enjoyed using the billiards table occasionally. In addition to pools in some of the villas, the hotel has a very large communal pool. There was always plenty of available loungers for everyone and it was a peaceful and relaxing place to be. The beach at Santiburi is lovely. Lots of space for everyone and it never feels over crowded. There is lots of shade if you want it under the palm trees and hammocks to doze in. We loved that the beach was so peaceful. There was no noise pollution from jet skies and speed boats which we have found to be a problem on other holidays elsewhere recently.||The hotel offers one restaurant which opens specifically for the breakfast service. The pool house opens for food and drinks throughout the day and closes in the evening. The Beach house offers daytime dining and evening dining. There is a one other restaurant, the Sala Thai that opens in the evening. So that means 2 daytime options and 2 evening options.||Breakfast was lovely. Very good quality buffet with a large selection of food options for all tastes and palates. The restaurant itself is beautifully presented and relaxing. Service is excellent.||We enjoyed lunches at the pool house as it provided more relaxed and less substantial food options for lunch, with a wide selection of healthy salads and Poke bowls through to pizzas, sandwiches. Happy hour between 12 and 2pm was welcome for beverages. A big thank you to Toom who looked after us so well. She always brings a smile and is so much fun! It would be remiss of me not to also thank Neem, Charlene and Mai for looking after us there too.||We ate a few times in the evening at both the beach house and Thai restaurant. The service was excellent in both. Whilst the food in both restaurants was ok, we were a little disappointed. We actually had consistently better food, at much cheaper prices, outside of the hotel in the evening. We found some amazing local restaurants and I would recommend eating out at night. ||One evening we attended the surf and turf BBQ buffet at the Beach House. The Wagu beef was lovely, but otherwise, it was a little under whelming and not worth the cost per head. The entertainment was good but the same every time, twice a week. I think the hotel could do more to offer a variety of entertainment that differs throughout the week, for the benefit of guests that stay more than a few days. Some local Thai dancers / cultural entertainers would be a nice addition. ||If you're a wine drinker then the beverage options at the Santiburi are disappointing for a 5 star hotel. You can purchase a bottle of wine in the evening in the Sala Thai or at the Beach House restaurant but if you only want a glass at a time, then there's not anything listed in the drinks menu at all. If you ask for a glass of wine you are offered a choice of 2 (white wines) a Pinot Grigio or Chardonnay and that's all. Its not advertised though and prices are not listed. The wine is also expensive in the hotel. Outside of the hotel you can get a fairly good glass of wine much cheaper but bottles are still expensive. You can also get a glass of prosecco at the hotel - if you ask for it but again, not listed and price not displayed and it's even more expensive than the wine. I would suggest the hotel offer more options and include wines by the glass in their beverage menus with prices displayed.||I would also recommend that hotel do not charge guests for Singha still water in the bars and restaurants. This is complimentary in the room and more is available to your room on request if you run out. (Tap water is not save to drink) But strangely, if you want some whilst dining, they charge you for it on your bill!! ||The lobby lounge is beautiful and offers a wonderful environment for enjoying a drink or afternoon tea. We often enjoyed drinks in the evening and there is another happy hour here, from 5 - 7pm. The only issue with the lounge bar in the evening is the service. We often found it was very slow and saw people on many occasions giving up and walking out. Most of the time there is only one bar person who is also preparing and taking up drinks to the Thai restaurant. The hotel should ensure there is more staff for the bar who are trained to prepare the cocktails. One evening, someone came to help out as there was a long wait but twice, made a cocktail incorrectly (made with Soda water and not prosecco). This was corrected and we were not charged, but it shouldn't have happened. On another evening we waited half an hour for our drinks and then when we wanted a second as part of the happy hour offer, were told we'd missed it and it had finished. Obviously if we'd not waited so long that wouldn't have been the case. ||If you are looking to book some trips I recommend visiting Beer in reception to help you. We organised 2 lovely days out.||Finally, the staff at the hotel are all incredibly polite, helpful and friendly. Many thanks to Ant in reception who checked us in on arrival and continued to help us...

After an initial hiccup the end result was a very comfortable and enjoyable stay.

We initially booked one of their modern Grand Reserve Pool Villa, but close to the arrival date we received several offers including for a room upgrade to a “Grand Deluxe Pool Villa” for a small premium per night per night. We asked about differences - told it was more traditional but much bigger 285m2 vs 215m2 with a bigger pool and extra lounge area outside but still a king bed. When we arrived all seemed well and enjoyed a swim in the large pool. At the end of the evening we sat on the bed - to find it was rock hard like nothing I’d felt before, not just firm but actually solid. Tried to get used to it, as we had a firm bed at home, but it felt like sleeping on the floor. The next morning I talked to the manager and she apologized and immediately arranged for us to check out the original Grand Reserve Pool Villa. The bed there was normal, firm but very comfortable - so she arranged an immediate transfer for us there and refund of the upgrade price. It is night and day.

The Grand Reserve Villas are the future of Santiburi - lovely spacious modern design, great lighting, large private pool with waterfall feature, loungers with huge canopy, much quieter area than 60x numbered traditional villas (which are also near the kids activity center), very comfortable living rooms with a very large flat screen TV with high quality picture (unusual in a resort or hotel) and Yamaha soundbar. There is also a large TV in the bedroom. There is an HDMI socket in the wall to plug in your iPad or computer, and you can also connect to the soundbar via Bluetooth to enjoy great sound quality too.

The other highlight was breakfast. Lovely breakfast area with terrific food. They don’t ask your room number, everything for breakfast is included and top notch.

The on site Thai restaurant Sala Thai was superb - both the food and the genuinely friendly and professional service.

The spa is also excellent - beautiful inside - I recommend the Posture 90 minute for guys with lower back problems.

The Beach House offers great service and good food (Thai but also great burgers) and cocktails (good Martini) with options to sit at a table in the sand, or under a modern canopy for more shade.

Areas for improvement would be to move the gym building to a much more central location - it’s really a bit of a hike under the sun to get there.

Also the beach furniture could be a lot nicer and grander. There are plenty of standard sunbeds, but only a larger loungers they group very close together in one area (unnecesssrily since there were areas of beach not used - maybe more convenient for the staff) and they only have one curtained bed which you have to rent for a whole day together with a large set amount of alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks. That is not an optimized way to run a 5 star beach area - I’d suggest they take a look at Belmond Naphasai Koh Samui nearby to see a great beach experience with a long row of curtained beach loungers which are free to reserve, with waiter service.

I’d suggest they bulldoze the older 60x numbered large villas and build more in the style of the Grand Reserve villas - so so much nicer, it really is their differentiator (while Belmond Naphasai do their beach area better, they should look at Santiburi Reserve lodgings, since Belmond’s sea view lodgings are not aging well at all).

Then it would...

Having stayed here with my family (2 adults and 2 children) for 6 days I would give our stay 6/10. |This hotel requires improvements in all areas.|We stayed in a one bedroom garden villa with plunge pool. We found the room dated and lacking in luxury. We couldn’t use the plunge pool as it was dated and tiles need refurbishing. |Where improvements could be made;||1)Towels need replacing by the pool. They look 10 years old and lack luxury feel. (Comparing these to the quality at Banyan tree and Melia).|2) The pool is big and lovely and warm but again needs sprucing up. Water bottles should be handed out to guests and maybe fresh fruit skewers served with cold flannels. |3) There needs to be more entertainment and liveliness in the lobby and bar. On an evening there is no atmosphere in the bar - there needs to be live music playing, entertaining cocktail makers. Its every quiet with very few guests around. (A soulless feeling.) Also the pool / beach bar should be open for evening drinks. ||Considering it is Easter you would not know .. Where are the decorations? Why is there no Easter bunny at breakfast time or by the pool entertaining the children? Why no egg hunt around the hotel? Where is the kids entertainment? ||4) Breakfast is buffet style and only available in one location. As this is a beach resort we would have liked the option for breakfast at the beach bar. As this is a beautiful location. A small a la carte menu would be nice. |5) There are lots of mosquitoes around, which is obviously uncontrollable but the rooms could do with having a bottle of homemade repellent oil/lotion. (This is what we had at a different hotel). There needs wider spraying of repellent around the resort. There is lots of stagnant water which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. My understanding is repellent is sprayed weekly which is unacceptable. |6) We didn’t feel special here like we did at the Banyan Tree, Bangkok and Melia, Chiang Mai. I understand it’s a larger hotel but I felt the staff were so occupied serving that there was no time for conversation. |7) Complimentary afternoon tea was served but was poor. One very small sandwich and a small piece of cake. No variety. ||Overall we had an enjoyable stay but we felt the Instagram page made it look a lot better than it is. ||The beach is beautiful and sea so warm. So if you want a lovely stretch of beach then Maenam is excellent. We did find that there is very little outside of the hotel in terms of restaurants so had to get a taxi to fisherman’s village to eat in the evenings. The hotel has a Michelin guided restaurant but again you wouldn’t know as it’s tucked away and no staff talking about it and showing you where it is or promoting what produce is on offer. A suggestion would be some canapé samples in the lobby area. |Our feedback was conveyed to Tanya in Guest Relations - who took on board our feedback and was generally excellent, showed keen interest and provided some options for outside the...