Savage Hostel Koh Tao — Hotel in Ko Tao

Complete guide, including life, injury, & vomit safety:

First negatives: Vibes lowered by a front desk guy that’s doesn’t SMILE, smiles with no happiness or with maliciousness, & a guy that doesn’t smile at cafe. Why work with public? FIX BROKEN TECH: locker doors, room doors slamming day & night or alarming because of malfunctioning hatches, room shades, room wallet lockers, clean mold off wall in Room A & algae off lounge area walls rather than interact with people. Find extroverts WHO LIKE PEOPLE to work with public to improve friendliness.

Pool cleaners shoot ACID next to people in pool.

Not fault of hostel, many guests (lots from UK and Netherlands) have barely entered adulthood & tend to be RIDING SELVES HARD WITH PARTYING.

Not fault of hostel, be prepared for at least 1-2 people VOMITING EVERY NIGHT from Norovirus, alcohol poisoning, or food poisoning. Those vomiting sit & sleep next to garbage can all night. Ask em if they need anything but don’t get too close. Mostly men who don’t wash their hands. However, why wash hands if turning off faucet and opening doors with bare hands? Norovirus is fecal matter in eyes, nose or mouth. Difficult to know difference between food poisoning & Noro. However, one is contagious weeks after symptoms.

Do not go BAREFOOT, because you are likely to walk through vomit, inadequate sterilization for a virus lasting 12-hour on surfaces, & who knows if vomit is from a virus from prostitution. Asian culture may have staff saying slimy vomit is water while witnesses come out of rooms to confirm vomit.

Must book early, elsewhere first?

ISLAND TRAVEL ALERT. Regarding vomiting on ferries: Check marine forecast before booking ferries. Bring & sell motion sickness meds. Often, EVERYONE ON THE BOAT IS VOMITING due to waves. Boats are negligent in not selling motion meds. They KNOW EVERYONE WILL BE VOMITING. All new to seas are caught off-guard.

SCOOTER DEATH AND INJURY ALERT: You will see lots of injured tourists. More deaths and injuries in this Suratthani province, especially Koh Samui, than elsewhere in Thailand over 10 days of Christmas. How about those bald-tires and lack of seatbelts? How bout 2 second to death at all times in Koh Samui? Dog bites, dogs in middle or road, monkeys in middle of road, high speeds next to others…

Pool hours are not for early morning shade: 9-9.

No railings on stairs. If one falls, may fall from 3rd level to street.

Positives:

This is nicest hostel in area by design. One pays double for ample lounging areas, activities, daytime cleaning, bathroom ventilation, & easy beach access. Activity person who loves his job/people is a gem. Activities include hiking to other side of island on Tuesdays & Thursdays, snorkeling often on Friday, yoga at 7 am a couple days a week on rooftop with Living Juices instructor, & movie nights.

5-side concrete bed walls reduce flu & covid but not if you chat within 10 feet of someone coughing. Use saline nasal cleaner to slow post-nasal drip from hitting vocal cords that cause cough. Be prepared to be sick if staying in hostels. Although, vaccines may reduce the severity. Also, mosquitos have what viruses here?

Pool has good filter, is cool for those burning calories, very shallow but swim-able. Pool is not on the beach as it may appear but on rooftop.

Crowded holiday activities on rooftop have people hogging unused loungers.

Bonus of this location is ample nearby massage places with no happy-endings. Does majority do oil massage? Does face of massagist look kind? State injuries. Anke/spine alert. So many for 300 baht per hour. Are linens...

Let’s be clear: this hostel/hotel is exactly what it says it is on the web site. It’s a stylish boutique property in good condition. We had a private room for THB1900 and it met our expectations. Bed linens were crisp and the room felt very clean. I was happy to find decent shampoo and shower gel and even toothbrushes and ear buds in the bathroom. There are large common areas on each floor for lounging around in. Staff were friendly and as check in was strictly 2pm we left our bags while we went out for lunch across the road on the beach.||At 2pm, check in was fast but almost uniquely in Thailand they do not accept payment with Thai QR codes (and they charge 3% on Visa/MasterCard). This implies they really don’t expect Thailand residents to stay here or to buy food and drink from the restaurant because Thai QR codes are accepted everywhere from the smallest street vendor selling THB99 cocktails. It’s inexplicable and they missed our extensive spend on drinks, food, and breakfast because everywhere else we went on Koh Tao takes this ubiquitous QR code. I had to find a Bangkok Bank ATM to withdraw the THB1900 in cash because we live in Samui and don’t carry much cash any more.||As well as the bathroom supplies, the room has a safe, fridge, and four large towels. I was expecting a kettle and there’s no communal kitchen to boil water so we went without morning coffee (I’d brought an Aeropress). The aircon in the room was strong. Soundproofing is relatively poor with returning partygoers waking us up multiple times during the night. There was a savage stink of sewerage in the bathroom in the morning.||We spent our last morning before 12pm check out on the rooftop pool which is a lovely area. There’s a bar up there that apparently opens in the afternoon but we didn’t try it because of the QR payment issue and had drinks by the beach instead. This is a classy hostel that is ideally located in the middle of the Sairee Beach walking street for all the beachfront bars and restaurants. It’s less rustic and better designed than many of the older cabins and cottages along the beach and I hope they can maintain it in its...

This hostel presents itself to be a higher-end social hostel; this is not the case at all. I stayed here for 3 nights and booked out the 4 bedroom dorm with 2 others people.

Rooms: Very dark, no overhead light and no windows. It felt akin to a jail cell with nicer sheets. The top bunks were impossible to get into if you are on the shorter side like myself. During the day, they turn the air conditioning off so if you need to take a nap or are sick, don’t do it at this hostel - it is super uncomfortable to be sick in a hot, windowless concrete box.

Bathrooms: Probably my least favourite part of the hostel. They were mixed gendered with only 2 girl stalls and 3 boy stalls; the girl stalls were always full so again, if you are a girl and happen to get sick, don’t do it at this hostel. The toilet seats themselves are disgusting and one morning it had a very strange mysterious substance that made me gag. The stalls themselves were again, very dark and VERY hot. Every time I left the stall it was as though I just went for a swim. The uncleanliness was quite odd as there were cleaners constantly getting in your way so one would presume it to be tidy. And PLEASE note (!!!!) you can only exchange your towel every other day, so try to keep it clean (which may be difficult as there is no where logical to hang it in the jail cell rooms).

Service: I found the service to be uncharacteristically poor. I was not greeted kindly but almost ‘shooed’ away each time I would go inquire about something. Though it is important to note that my partner and my friend had lovely experiences with the staff.

Overall: Location was supreme! Can’t express that enough. The price was way too high for what you’re paying for especially as the staff wouldn’t give me the time of day. Stay here if you want to watch movies at night and don’t plan on...