Sairee Center Guesthouse — Hotel in Ko Tao

BE WARNED! YELLED AT AND POLICE THREAT, BROUGHT TO TEARS!

I am a solo 26 yr old female backpacker, never in my life or my 5 months of travelling have I been treated so awfully by someone and brought to tears, especially hostel owners.

I booked in person and paid upfront for 4 nights in a private room with a fan while I was doing my diving course. The FIRST night at around 2am I am woken up by sounds of cracking and sounded like something breaking - I go over to the fan and try changing the speed setting, the buttons get stuck… so I try and adjust the fan head thinking the noise may stop and the WHOLE fan head collapses in my arms, screws come lose and fall out and a plastic covering fell off! So I had to sleep the rest of the night sweating. In the morning before going to my class I politely inform the Lady who runs the place of the situation and give her the key to my room to get the fan sorted. When I return that evening after diving the Lady immediately demands that I pay for the cost of a new fan. When I calmly try and reason with her that it was not my fault at all the fan broke she starts arguing back and raising her voice continuing to demand I pay her 1500baht for the fan and saying ‘I think you broke it like this’ completely not believing what I was telling her. Her husband (I assume) starts calling me a liar saying stuff in Thai and actually shoved my arm at one point. They both start threatening to call the police if I don’t pay or either get the fan fixed?! I was terrified of being alone and having two Thai people yelling at me. At one point she slams her hands on the desk and yells in my face ‘I WANT A NEW FAN’. I’m stood there crying explaining I can’t pay as I had no money after paying for my flight home. A girl also staying there sees the situation and tries to help me but they wouldn’t back down. They are BULLIES. And just wanted money.

In order to not deal with the ‘police’ (I don’t believe there’s any police on Koh tao so was scared of who would come) I got bullied into paying half the money for the fan.

I agreed with her that the next day I would check out and get a refund for the next 2 nights as I was scared to stay there any longer. When I go to check out the next morning she went back up to my room to ‘check the room’ I followed her and filmed it. She started checking the toilet flush, the bum gun spray, that the sink works and the shower works?!!! It was incredible what she was checking in case I had ‘damaged it’ and she could get MORE MONEY from me.

I would never want any other solo person to experience this, it was...

We rented a bike from this place so the review is based solely on this. We took the first scooter which after putting in fuel in it the scooter did not start. We returned to her where she gave us a different scooter which was good, but she only replaced half the fuel that we paid for. If you rent a scooter from them, be very careful and take A VERY DETAILED AND SLOW VIDEO. Staff member took a video and marked all the pre-existing scratches and bumps on paper. We rented a scooter for 2 days, upon return staff member walked to the front of the scooter and pointed at a pre-existing scratch and said “new scratch” without hesitating. The video that we took saved us, even still she was asking for proof when the video was taken, zooming in on my phone and checking her own papers. The fines were crazy for any damage. Just be aware and cover yourself, TAKE THE VIDEO!

The response say that we were given a discount on our rent which is not true. If you have been in Thailand for a while, you know that no scooter places will offer you a discount, if anything they will rip you off. The replaced fuel was only a half what we paid, the staff member knew exactly what she was doing when pointing at that scratch, she chose the wrong people to scam, we are more than capable of standing our ground. Just avoid the place at all costs, plenty other places nearby to rent a scooter at a...

Don't rent a scooter here ! After 2 days using the scooter the battery was off so we went to the shop so they can fix it. They accused us of leaving the key on the scooter the hole night which we didnt. The key was in our room. We told them several time but they kept accusing us almost agressively that it's our fault. We then had to go to the garage and... pay for the repair ! It happend to me another time in Thailand and they just charge the battery but didnt make me pay for it... Anyway it was not expensive so it's not about the money but its the way of accusing people and the fact that they pay their business fees on the back of their customers ! I guess so they never have to pay for any repair on their scooters ! This is dishonest and not acceptable. Also the gaz was completely down when we took the scooter and so we were forced to buy them 50 bath gasoline (for less than 1L) if we didn't want to ran off gaz till the nearest station. So again it's another way to earn money on the back of tourist as no one will ever give a scooter back with empty gaz or leave without any gaz... And they know it. We wanted to extend but the deposit was 5 000 bath and after this episode we had zero trust in these people. Really don't go to this place because I am sure they are able to find any excuse to take more...