Seashell Resort Koh Tao — Hotel in Ko Tao

We had an awful experience at the Seashell dive centre attached to the hotel, and are now out of pocket for 22,000 baht for courses that we couldn’t complete due to the behaviour of the centre manager. We booked and paid upfront for a day of fun dives and 2 AOW courses. After an awful experience where I became very cold and sick on the fun dives due to poor weather conditions and inappropriate kit, we asked to be refunded for the AOW or to wait until conditions were calmer. The manager said that we could not be refunded but could wait for calmer conditions and we extended our time by another week in order to wait for things to calm down. However, the following day we popped into the centre and the managers attitude was completely different, he was rude and difficult and following some very unpleasant interactions with him over the following few days, we took the decision to not go forward with the course. One of the instructors who witnessed the managers behaviour apologised on his behalf giving the excuse that he was in a bad mood as had broken up with his girlfriend ! It was evident that once he had our money, that he had no interest in delivering our course or providing any level of customer care. ||On the fun dive, kit was poor, with a thin shorty wetsuit provided that was not suitable for the weather conditions, no boots, fins that were too small as they didn’t have any other sizes. Our instructor however was dressed in a full wetsuit and boots etc as said he tends to get cold. There was no provision of snorkels despite PADI guidance stating that these are an essential piece of safety equipment and no basic first aid care / procedures provided for cold, sick customers. When we asked for snorkels, we were told that they are unnecessary and just get in the way.||The manager has refused to give his name and diver number despite repeated requests which raises further alarm bells and he ignored all initial emails and messages. Finally, we received a response whereby he said that we had booked onto the course on 3 occasions and not attended. This was completely untrue as no date had been set for us to do it at all. ||The hotel (who we paid for the course) have not responded to any emails or messages in relation to our complaint and couldn’t have been less interested when I raised it with the reception staff at checkout. My advice is that if you go to Seashell hotel, please AVOID the dive centre. You might be ok if everything is straightforward and you get a good instructor, but if there is a problem then don’t expect any level of care or compassion. ||We had travelled to Koh Tao to do some fun dives and complete our AOW courses. Our experience at seashell dive centre has ruined our trip to this island. ||After some detective work, we have established that the dive centre managers name is Hasan Can Toker . I wonder what his reasons for hiding this are ! Again, not the actions of a professional and transparent dive centre manager. ||As for the hotel, it is a 6/10 at best. They know that the island is rammed so there is no need for any level of customer service or responding to messages. They simply don’t care as the hotel will be booked regardless as people have few other options. We saw people turning up having booked and being turned away as they had no room for them. The pool shown in the pictures is for the beachfront villa guests only and the main pool was green, mouldy, with broken decking and closed for the duration...

We had an awful experience at the Seashell dive centre attached to the hotel, and are now out of pocket for 22,000 baht for courses that we couldn’t complete due to the behaviour of the centre manager. We booked and paid upfront for a day of fun dives and 2 AOW courses. After an awful experience where I became very cold and sick on the fun dives due to poor weather conditions and inappropriate kit, we asked to be refunded for the AOW or to wait until conditions were calmer. The manager said that we could not be refunded but could wait for calmer conditions and we extended our time on KT by another week in order to wait for things to calm down. However, the following day we popped into the centre and the managers attitude was completely different, he was rude and difficult and following some very unpleasant interactions with him over the following few days, we took the decision to not go forward with the course. One of the instructors who witnessed the managers behaviour apologised on his behalf giving the excuse that he was in a bad mood as had broken up with his girlfriend ! It was evident that once he had taken out money that he had no further interest and no interest in any customer service or care.

On the fun dive, kit was poor, with a thin shorty wetsuit provided that was not suitable for the weather conditions, no boots, fins that were too small as they didn’t have any other sizes. Our instructor however was dressed in a full wetsuit and boots etc as said he tends to get cold. There was no provision of snorkels despite PADI guidance stating that these are an essential piece of safety equipment and no basic first aid care / procedures provided for cold, sick customers. When we asked for snorkels, we were told that they are unnecessary and just get in the way.

The manager has refused to give his name and diver number despite repeated requests which raises further alarm bells and he ignored all initial emails and messages. Finally, we received a response whereby he said that we had booked onto the course on 3 occasions and not attended. This was completely untrue as no date had been set for us to do it at all.

The hotel (who we paid for the course) have not responded to any emails or messages in relation to our complaint and couldn’t have been less interested when I raised it with the reception staff at checkout. My advice is that if you go to Seashell hotel, please AVOID the dive centre. You might be ok if everything is straightforward and you get a good instructor, but if there is a problem then don’t expect any level of care or compassion.

We had travelled to Koh Tao to do some fun dives and complete our AOW courses. Our experience at seashell dive centre has ruined our trip to this island.

After some detective work, we have established that the dive centre managers name is Hasan Can Toker. I wonder what his reasons for hiding this are ! Again, not the actions of a professional and transparent dive centre manager.

As for the hotel, it is a 6/10 at best. They know that the island is rammed so there is no need for any level of customer service or responding to messages. They simply don’t care as the hotel will be booked regardless as people have few other options. We saw people turning up having booked and being turned away as they had no room for them. The pool shown in the pictures is for the beachfront villa guests only and the main pool was green, mouldy, with broken decking and closed for the duration...

Absolutely the worst hotel experience as a traveller and a professional tour operator that I don't even know where to begin... We travelled in big family of six with seniors and young child. There was a problem with our original booking which I tried in every reasonable manner to communicate and resolve with the hotel. The hotel receptionist (name KeKe or Miss Porntip) was no help stating she didn't speak well english and asked me to contact Agoda directly which I did hoping to facilitate things. Agoda cancelled our original booking and I subsequently rebooked the same hotel. Miss Porntip, along with her manager, was apparently at disbelief that we were able to book with the Agoda quoted price that was somewhat less than their standard price and refused to check in our group after more than two hours of waiting at the reception. I was confronted with the validity of our Agoda booking in a humiliating manner as if we have tricked them to get special rate. They asked me to email them directly my agoda confirmation and I was questioned with dubious and preposterous assumptions such as I have manipulated Agoda system by entering the wrong number of children in our group. We are a group of 5 adult and 1 small child which my booking confirmation clearly stated. My grandparents in their 80s and my child 4 years old were never even offered one drink while waiting in the reception with their bags for more than two hours. We were finally permitted to check in after I confront their manager to end this torture but to know it's just the beginning of a nightmare... We had three garden view rooms right by the main street separated by a barely existent thin fence...imagine motorcycles speeding away five meters from you trying to get some sleep in an extremely humid bed. The room is dark, filthy and old. Your entertainment include a tv that was though to be distinct since the 90s and of course the wifi didn't work. There was mold in the bathroom and crawlers were literarily ALL OVER the place...lizard, ants even centipedes. ( yes-I have pictures and I am not exaggerating) I found louses on my son's head and some twenty mosquito bites the day after... Apparently we didn't use the pool with opaque water that looked like hasn't been changed for weeks. We ran away the next morning and continued our vacation at another hotel on Sairee Beach that showed us true Thai hospitality. I am both an avid traveller and a travel professional that build trips for others, from years of travelling I've had my fair shares of bad hotel experiences but this place is by far the most absurd, from apathetic staffs that would refuse to assist you one moment stating they don't speak english to another moment arguing with you for no reason in fluent English, to the extremely poor hotel conditions and bugs that simply eats you alive. please AVOID if you like to be treated with human decency and not to be eaten by bugs alive...