The Privilege Hotel Ezra — Hotel in Ko Samui

I don’t usually write such long reviews, but I think this hotel needs a detailed review.||Let me make this clear, this hotel is by no stretch of the imagination a 5. I have stayed in far nicer 3 hotels. This is a party hotel, for those wanting constant music and noise. DO NOT BOOK FOR RELAXING! ||Location - The hotel is situated on an extremely busy main road, dusty, potholed road that is near impossible to cross. There are no shops nearby other than seedy looking massage places and seven elevens. The hotel exterior is ugly and the hotel right next door is undergoing building work all day. ||Room - The room i was given stank of mildew due to the state of the bathroom (please see photos), the safe was broken so i could not secure my passport or cards. The shower was rubbish, burning you one minute and freezing the next. I asked to move rooms the next day and i was moved to the room next door which was in an identical state. I complained to the manager and he said it is due to the humidity of the climate. Both nights i was kept awake until 4am by guests carrying on their parties by the pool area. I rang reception to ask them to do something and no answer, clearly it is not a 24 hr reception. The following morning, exhausted and upset that i had paid so much for this hotel i asked to check out. I would not be entitled to a refund because i booked through booking.com, but i had to leave. The reservations manager overheard and offered to move me to a villa room at no extra cost, which i accepted because i honestly could not have afforded another hotel, aswell as this one, would probably just have brought my flight forward. I have been happy enough with the villa room, although they had two pool parties a meter from my room and there are no curtains, so no privacy and more noise. There is just a thin voil and the lights from outside shine into the room which mades it hard to sleep until you get used to it.||Breakfast - The breakfast is in a building across the street, it has 9 tables of 2 and there are 25 rooms in the main hotel and 5 villas, so after 8:30am you have to wait on the road for a table, as everybody wants breakfast after this time, totally ridiculous. The breakfast is very basic indeed. Fills a hole, but don’t expect anything wonderful!! ||The staff - the reception staff were very helpful and kind. The breakfast staff are miserable and the “manager of catering” rude. He kept pushing me to book the hotel fireshow, I didn’t want to book it because i don’t rate the hotel or what it provides and he ignored me the rest of my holiday for not booking it. ||The beaches are generally filthy with rubbish all over them and i would not swim in that. There are no beach loungers either. ||I have complained to booking.com because this hotel is totally mis-advertised. It is neither luxury or a place to relax or on a useable beach. The photos they have advertised with have been heavily edited. This is very misleading. ||If you have booked this and it is too late to back out like me, I can suggest you hang out at Tembo next door. One of the best beach clubs on the island. Minimum spend is 500 baht which is reasonable and you would have to buy food and drinks at the hotel anyway. The hotel is so run down and tatty that i did not spend a single day there. Just slept in it. The elephant sanctuary trip and Koh Tao trips were great. Would probably give the island tour and the pig island tour a miss, was not really worth the money. The restaurants along the road are good. I can recommend Green Leaf, Sengalese, Blind Tiger and Secret Garden. The little place next to the Lotus supermarket is cheap and lovely (opposite Tembo) homemade Thai food. Fisherman’s village has a night market Monday, Wednesday and Friday where you can eat and shop. Cocotams fire show is amazing and free, you just have to buy one drink whilst watching, it is on every night at 7:30pm and...

First time in Koh Samui with my partner, we decided to stay at The Privilege bungalows for the first 3 nights and we did not regret our decision, infact it was more than what we expected and we both agreed that the decor / vibe and the layout of this hotel is highly unique and you most likely wont come across something like it! Due to reading some reviews by other travellers on other sites or on their sister hotel page (The Privilege Beach Club), we didn't agree with any of the negative reviews that were said. There were plenty of staff everywhere at all times keeping the place clean, both on this side of the hotel (Royal Garden / Bungalow) and the Beach Club Side (which I believe some guests had mistakenly booked the Bungalows in the past thinking that it was the beach club rooms and when they were shown the Bungalows, they realised they made a mistake with their own booking and decided to leave a bad review - READ AND GO THROUGH THE PICTURES BEFORE YOU BOOK! and it's not the hotel's fault if you made a mistake when booking). However, I'm sure the beach club rooms were amazing and fancy, but in my opinion to experience the Bungalows which was quiet, CLEAN, and had our own pool which was cleaned daily by staff and always so quiet was just incredible. The decor of the bungalows were just so unique and different from any other hotels and you could tell they put alot of thought into renovating / designing the place. The pool was in the centre surrounded by all the bungalows, and the bungalows were like little cottages - all seperately built. Yes it's called a "bungalow" but that's just a name - you still get a 4-5 star service and amenities. They had 1-2 security guards at all hours of the day to help you cross a small but fairly busy road, they were always smiley and very friendly, big thumbs up to them for keeping us safe crossing the busy Thailand roads! Breakfast was simple but definitely enough. Guests can use the facilities on both sides of the hotel - the pool on the beach club side is literally right by the beach, very nice and more guests used this pool. The pool at the bungalows was quiet and very relaxing too, a complete different vibe and I loved chilling here after sunset as the trees all lit up with lights - gorgeous. The location is 4-5mins walk from the Big Buddha Pier which is extremely convenient if you're heading to Koh Phangan - we did that on the first day and walked back on the beach from Pier to Hotel which was even quicker and much nicer than walking on the road! For the price we paid and the quality of this stay, it is definitely in our list of TOP 3 boutique hotels,...

Generally, a good place to stay in Koh Samui, but you’re not really close to any attractions, especially when getting around the island is expensive as compared to other parts of Southeast Asia. You’re basically paying US prices for Grab to get to any attraction, which is about 10-15 mins.

The pool is nice. We got one of the rooms with a private infinity pool, so that was a good touch having that options. Although, unnecessarily deep for a shorter person like me (5’2”).

What annoyed me the most was the mandatory resort fee. Not that we had to pay it because we expected to pay it, but that the hotel did not honor a lot of the perks of the resort fee, as advertised on Expedia and at reception. Therefore, I’m not sure what we are paying for. Plus, the staff was not even apologetic when they were unable to honor certain things. For example, we wanted to get on a shuttle one day, which was advertised being available four times a day at specific times, only to find out that it was ‘unavailable’. Not sure what that meant... Another example was that my bf wanted to use the laundry service, but they weren’t able to accommodate same day service, which is odd because how long does it take to wash a pound of clothes? They wouldn’t be able to turn in around until the next morning, but our flight was in the morning, so that wouldn’t work for us. If there is a specific time when we needed to drop off the laundry for same day service, they should specify that. Another thing that irked me was that we asked housekeeping to come back 30 mins later as we were getting ready for the pool, but they never came and no one made our bed or cleaned our room. The only redeeming factor of the resort fee was probably the drink tickets (one per day per person), but could’ve have just as easily bought alcohol across the street at 7-11 for much cheaper than the resort fees.

Therefore, I think they should stop charging the resort fees, otherwise, make every effort to honor the perks to make it ‘worth it’ for the paying guests. Also - they should better advertise the limitations of the perks, and the shuttle service should extend to later in the night from Chaweng. Who is coming back to the hotel at 5:30? Probably better places to stay for cheaper, or go all out for a much...