Chaantalay Hotel — Hotel in Ko Tao

I don’t typically go into such details but I felt compelled to do so to share our experience with Chaantalay Hotel, their service and their staff. I do not recommend anyone book and don't be fooled with the pictures. It's not worth the hassle.

To begin we booked our hotel on Agoda whereby we chose a Superior Fan Room, which was considered an upgrade with an increased rate. When we arrived the room was like a sauna. So we asked the bellboy to call the front desk to turn on the AC. There was not one place on the Agoda or Chaantalay website did it say that our room did not get AC. To make it better, the man at the front tried to up-sell us AC for a 30% increase in our nightly rate. I asked to speak to their manager; he called their manager, and then said the AC would actually cost 40% more per night…

To make it worse, we were only given 1 (one) key after our 500 THB deposit, which means when you come back from a long day out – you’re sleeping in Sauna.

Of course, after a long day we decided to take a shower, in the bathroom instead of a sign saying “please don’t dispose of paper in the toilet”, there was a threatening note in red saying you’ll get a 2000THB fine if there is any issue with the toilet.

We turn the shower on, but there were no shower curtains or door so all of the water ended up all over the bathroom. I almost slipped, so I decided to sacrifice one of our towels to soak up the ocean of water, only to find out later that they don’t do room service everyday and wouldn’t provide another towel.

They also only clean the rooms every 2 days, also not noted anywhere on the website. This meant we had dirty towels and garbage for multiple days!

Because there was no AC, the moisture from the shower turned our room from a dry sauna, to a steam room.

After this saga, we decided to finally try to rest. Unfortunately, we plopped on what we thought was a bed to find a literal slab of metal. This was the hardest, most uncomfortable bed I’ve ever been on.

By the bedside instead of a note saying welcome to our hotel, there was a threatening message listing all of the items in the room and specific fines if any of them go mission.

The next day we asked them to clean the water in the bathroom. When we came back after the end of the day there was no change, still wet and dirty.

Also on our first night there was also a lizard in the bathroom that we had to trap and bring outside.

The next day my wife wanted breakfast, which opens at 8am. We went down and nothing was open, not even reception which they also close everyday at 8pm so if you need anything after that your on our own.

During our 5-day stay our room was constantly hot, wet and smelly.

We couldn't really open the balcony door because there were many mosquitos and no nets on the windows or balcony doors so good luck with fresh air unless you want insects.

Another day, the water in the bathroom was so bad (the toilet was leaking) that we had to use one of our face towels to soak the water in our bathroom floor so we didn’t fall. After much negotiation, the young man at the reception angrily said we can have another towel but they will only be exchanging 3 towels the next day instead of 4. He was very cheap and uncaring.

They also don’t replace any toiletries during your stay, so enjoy two tiny tubes of shower gel and shampoo.

Also, the walls are paper thin, so I guess the best part of the stay was listening to the couple making love next door.

Lastly when they clean be prepared to see everyone else’s garbage lying around in your hallways as per the photos below for the entire day.

Just stay...

We had a horrible experience in this hotel. When we arived they made us pay an extra fee of 500 tbh that was not listed anywhere to have a key for our bedroom. And they refused to give us an extra key (not even paying for it) to prevent us from leaving our phones charging in the room while we where not there, as the electricity would power down as soon as we would leave the room regardless of what we do (there was no way to trick the detector with a credit card or ID different from the room key). After lots of complaints, the explanation they gave us for this behavior was that a fire may start in the room if the devices were plugged but fire detectors were nowhere to be seen, and they would rather have us sleeping in the room while charging.

We got to the room and it was very very small, way smaller than the one they where advertising on their pictures. It does not even have a wardrobe or any place to store our clothes and belongings.

The ceiling of the room its very low and we hit our heads with the fan all the time. They switch off the power of the air conditionings during the night to save on their light bill. The location of the hotel is another inconvenience if you don’t rent scooters. Although in google maps says its 10 minutes away from the beach, that is in the middle of the island, and its on the top of a high hill and every time we need to go to the hotel we have to climb a steep uphill. Another big barrier we had with the staff of the hotel is language, they only speak Thai, and they wont understand the easiest requests. The breakfast of the hotel is very little, we only get a bowl of cereal with yogurt and to choose between either a coffee or a small shot of orange juice, so every day we have to go buy ourselves another breakfast after the one included in the hotel.

After 22:00 and before 9:00 am there is no staff in the hotel, everything is closed, no one in the reception and the light shut down (without the possibility of turning them on) we had to use torches to go to our dive center every morning.

We are very disappointed with our hotel choice, and it is a pity the way this hotel is managed and handled as it could be a really nice one with a...

Myself and my partner have been travelling across South East Asia for the last 6 months and I have to say this is the best hotel we have stayed in during that time. Of course there are better hotels but these are at a much higher price so for our price range it was perfect. If anyone is thinking it is too far from the beach it is not, it is easy to walk to Sairee beach and village from the hotel (this is where most of the nightlife is) and a 24 hour shop is conveniently located close by. I would reccomend a bike if you are doing a scuba course however.

We originally planned to stay for 6 nights but ended up staying for 11. The hotel and all of its facilities were spotless.

The cleaning staff were excellent and the onsite groundskeeper/gardener was working everyday from early morning to evening painting walls and planting beautiful shrubs and flowers. The front staff were always so helpful and always had a smile from us.

We enjoyed breakfast there each morning as the food was always delicious and varied. I especially enjoyed their iced coffees.

Scooters/bikes were offered by the hotel at a reduced rate compared to the rest of the island, unfortunately they were all rented when we arrived.

One last item I would like to address is the negative reviews from the past. After my stay in Chaantalay I find them extremely hard to believe. There was never a time when I felt staff were rude or that rooms did not match the description. I find it especially disrespectful for a guest to expect to be allowed to leave the electricity or AC on in their room when they are out for the day if it is just to have it cold for their return or to charge a phone which takes no more than an hour or two especially in a time where energy conservation is so important. These kind of requests do not constitute to a 1 star review.

Overall I would not hesitate to reccomend this hotel to anyone who is thinking of visiting Koh Tao. We have fond memories and hope to return again some day...