Railay Phutawan Resort — Hotel in Krabi Province

We booked this place to stay as a couple for a retreat purpose. Paid more money to get the best room with the best view. We got what we wanted but unfortunately the whole experience was very disappointing.

Pros: 1.Beautiful view. Situated in the midst of greenery looking out onto East side of Railay. They provide a transport to go down to the beachfront and back up.(a tractor type vehicle) The resort is up in the hill, you need to be fit to stay here to walk up and down. We didn't mind. Most staff are nice and polite (with an exception of a maintenance guy.) Breakfast was average (except the flies on the tables and bees in jam jars)

Cons: 1.We were unfortunate to be there the same time as 2 big groups consisted of 40 plus something people. We had one guy shouting below us onto his friends at the pool. He kept making crazy noise with no consideration of other people's privacy. I know this is hard for the resort to control so this is NOT a complaint but a suggestion. For example, instead of telling us that the vehicle cannot take us back up to the lobby because the driver was waiting for the group of guests, he should have at least provided another vehicle for us. That way we would not have felt that the group guests had priority over individuals like us even though we paid more money. I think the staff are not well-trained to have service mind. If things cannot be done within that moment, they should promptly take action to find creative solution! A little thing like that does count! For the rest of our stay we walked up and down from hotel to beachfront, couldn't be bothered anymore.

2.We hadn't realised that this place is a TWO STAR HOTEL according to Google. So there is NO SAFE in the room. And there are no pool towels provided.

3.It took ages for us to get into the room.Check in time is 2 PM. But we had to wait and to keep asking them if our room was ready as they sent us to wait at the pool bar. And there was no one bother notifying us. Another couple encountered the same issue but had to wait longer than us.

Leaks in the roof. Never before did we encounter leaking ceiling when staying in a seemingly well looked after resort. We had to try to sleep with the sound of rain drops onto ceiling. Water was flowing down onto the bathroom door and down onto the floor. We laughed even though it wasn't funny in the end! They were notified and we were told that they were going to recompense us in some way. Rooms were all booked out. So in the morning after some guests had checked out, they asked if we wanted to move, but that would mean losing a room with the view we had originally booked for. So we decided not to move to save trouble packing and unpacking.

The shower had no hot water for the 1st day and more half, we in the end couldn't cope with cold shower anymore, so we called for maintenance guy to come and fix. Waited 30 minutes and this guy smelled of alcohol came with another lady who might be an owner not sure. He in the end fixed it but he was rude, no apology from both persons.

They maid did not understand the "Do not disturb" sign. Because of no safe in the room, we wanted to go for breakfast quickly and come back up without having to lock our valuables in the case. So you would have thought hanging the sign "do not disturb" on the door would stop anyone from entering in. But nope! We came back only to find that the room was done. Thanks for their enthusiasm to clean but that's not what the guests wanted! Hotel staff apologised for the mistake. But it's that many "small little things" that count towards how well the guests are treated and cared for.

The administrator of FB page sent apologies for all the troubles we had. That's about it. For the money we paid and the service we got, we aren't...

I will try to give this hotel a fair review and cover all the points mentioned in other reviews. We stayed here for 3 nights.

Location: The hotel is 10 minutes by foot away from the pier (Railay East, blue pier because of the blue floating pier). The hotel has a tuk tuk which can pick you up. When you arrive with luggage try to get picked up by the tuk tuk from the hotel... Otherwise it can be challenging to get to the hotel depending on the weight of your luggage.

The hotel is not located near the beaches. In Railay there are 3 beaches which can be reached by foot. 2 beaches are landing zones for boats (east and west) and south is the nicest beach, but also the farest away.

If you want a short walk to the beach this isn't your hotel.

The hotel is located higher in the mountains and therefore has a nice view facing east / south. The view from the hotel is stunning. It is very nice to chill at the pool and look to sea and see mountains left and right.

It was mentioned that the pathways between reception, eating area and pool are quite steep. Yes, it can be challenging. Especially if it just rained and it is dark. Keep this in mind! If you are having problems with not so perfect pathways then this won't be for you.

The hotel are is very nice. It has big palm trees and other plants. Everything is very green and the staff clean the gardens every day.

Room: Others already have mentioned that the rooms are outdated / old. Yes, this is true. But you have to keep the price tag in mind. I normally like the new style of rooms better, but this is okay for me. However, the rooms need to be renewed in the near future. There are way to little power plugs. And the ones that are there are sometimes not functioning. You have to unplug them and plug the power cord in again... The bathroom in our room was very small. I think that bigger people will struggle in the bathroom. The water pressure is really good here, the best of all the hotel we had in Thailand. The bed wasn't very comfortable for me. The mattress is old and needs to be changed.

Breakfast: Like the rooms, the breakfast is also outdated. It is to standard. I suggest that they invest in a coffee machine to make cappuccino and other coffee variants. Currently they only have filtered coffee. The breakfast has different types of bread, warm dishes and fruits. There's also muesli. It is okay. Nothing special. The breakfast does it's job but I would give it 3/5 stars. The staff didn't offer any special omelette, but I also...

A dream turned into a nightmare

when we arrived we were shocked with the beauty of this place. We made sure to have the room top category to have a great experience but it all went downhill. Wasp attack: on the first night our room was attacked by wasps around 5:30 am (the black and yellow type) the door entrance does not seal correctly and they were going into our bedroom. We later noticed that the window from the bathroom has a gap that allows insects to come in. This type of window is in every bathroom of the hotel. The reason why they came to our bedroom was related to the lights that were outside out bedroom door. No one shared in the checkin that lights should be off to avoid this kid of problem. And no one apologise for this lack of info. They were 5 wasps that came in and my partner had to deal with, and someone from the staff that came with a spray and took more than 40 down. Was an intense moment. Checkout nightmare: when doing the checkout they came to the main reception with a dirty sheet from our bed saying that the stains could not be removed and that we had to pay 1000 bhats. They did not wash the sheet. These stains were not to our knowledge, they could not explain it either but they wanted us to pay. It was a very uncomfortable moment since the reception was with other guests and they were waiving the sheet in front of everyone. Refused to give the manager contact: at some point the reception guy mentioned that everything was ok but the sheet would be deducted from his salary which I found ridiculous and sounded like it was a way to shame us even more. I requested to speak to the manager and no one contacted him. At this point there was already 6 people from the hotel staff there. Water drama: at the checkin they say you get 2 waters on a daily basis for free. Amazing detail! Then at the checkout they charged for them. We did not understand why and they finally after a lot of asking we understood that the 2 bottle for free were hidden under the table and that we used the ones that had to be paid. We found this not nice either. Leave the bottles were people can see them like every other hotel does. To sum, this is a beautiful place to visit but definitely you need to be prepared to deal with all these nonsense ways of treating customers. And also be aware of avoiding insect issues with the lack of...