Anantara Vacation Club Mai Khao Phuket — Hotel in Mai Khao

Pros The 2-bedroom villa we got was spacious and really lovely (and clean). It had all the amenities we needed — washing machine, dryer, coffee machine, pots, and more.

The hotel’s breakfast buffet and seafood buffet were both delicious and definitely worth the price.

Cons The person in charge (PIC) made a mistake with the presentation preview time that we had originally scheduled. It was supposed to be at 10:00 AM, but he got the timing wrong, and we ended up having to attend the 1:30 PM session instead. Although he compensated us with THB 2,000 (a small plus), the sudden change — informed at 8:00 PM the night before — disrupted our entire schedule.

As mentioned above, the PIC promised to compensate us with THB 2,000, which we were supposed to receive immediately after the preview session. However, nothing was given to us even after we completed the session around 4:00 PM (which ended up lasting far beyond the promised 90–120 minutes). We had to keep following up with the PIC multiple times like we were begging for it — which made the whole experience feel very unpleasant and unprofessional.

Prior to our booking, the PIC offered to arrange a birthday set-up in the room, as one of our guests was celebrating his birthday during the stay. We really appreciated the thoughtful gesture and were genuinely excited about it. But the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. Due to the earlier issues (presentation time mix-up and voucher delay), I texted the PIC the night before the birthday to reconfirm that the birthday set-up had been arranged. He assured me it would be done while the housekeeping team cleaned the room. However, I noticed a change in wording. Originally, it was “birthday set-up,” but now he was calling it “birthday cake set-up.” These two are very different things — the first usually involves decorations (balloons, birthday signage, etc.), and the second is just… a cake. To make sure everything was okay, I texted the front office on the day itself. To my surprise, they said they had no information about any birthday set-up — just a note to deliver a cake to our room around 2:00 PM. I even forwarded them my conversation with the PIC to clarify, but they gave the same reply: no room decorations, only cake. They offered to arrange a complimentary bed decoration at 3:00 PM after I expressed my disappointment, but at that point, we were already too disappointed by their internal miscommunication to accept it.

When we returned to our villa around 5:30 PM, another disappointment awaited us: no cake was delivered. I messaged the front office again, and they said they would check with room service and will have them to send the cake to us immediately. After waiting for more than 30 minutes, I followed up again at 6:18 PM. Their response? They claimed the cake had already been sent and “handed to a guy” at our villa. Excuse me, but that was completely messed up and unacceptable. We had been in the villa since 5:30 PM, and no one came at all. When I asked if they had possibly delivered it to the wrong villa, they ignored my question and just said they’d follow up with in-room dining. We received no further updates from them after that. We left the villa around 6:30–6:45 PM for our dinner buffet (which we had booked in advance). Only after about 30 minutes into our dinner did a restaurant staff member approach us to ask if we had requested a birthday cake and whether we wanted them to serve it there instead.

To sum it up, while the villa itself was beautiful and the food was enjoyable, the service experience fell drastically short of expectations. From miscommunication, unfulfilled promises, uncoordinated responses, to a lack of proper cleanliness (dirty pool) and maintenance — it honestly felt like we were doing more chasing and checking than relaxing. This trip was supposed to be memorable in a good way, especially with a birthday celebration involved, but sadly, what we remember most are the...

The scenery and the atmosphere is very clean and hygienic and beautiful. ||The bathroom cleanliness is very bright and hygienic and clean. ||They provide buggy services for people to travel all around the area which is very convenient to the convenience stores Starbucks and the pharmacy. ||It was more better to use the buggy services to travel across the area around the hotel for foster mobility rather than just riding the bicycle. Also the buggy services is free as well. The buggy service hasn't changed how you explored the area. ||The nearby spots and convenience stores are all packed together so you don't have to travel all around the area to get what you want as well as by what you want. The things that I needed to find is close by as the pharmacy provides mosquito repellents and the convenience stores provide snacks and extra meals. Also the nearby restaurants also provide lots of good cuisine and delicious food. ||All the restaurants around the area provides good food as well as cheap prices, but the downside is that you need to carry insert repellents as well as mosquito repellents. The mosquitoes affected my enjoyable time to eat my food and silence as the flies always hover around the food which is very annoying. To deal with the mosquitoes while enjoying your meals outside you always have to have inset repellents or a fan to blow them away. The beach was a good place to relax as well as look at the waves and feel the sand under your feet as well as a cool water. ||The favorite moments relaxing on the beaches when I watch the waves come across my feet as well as a cool water recedes back to the Sea while my feet dig into the sand. My enjoyable time by the water is feeling the waves flowing across my body as well as the sand drifting away from my feet. The beach wasn't crowded and it did feel peaceful when I visited, but the weather was still cloudy. It felt the humidity was very high as there's no sun much. The humidity made my skin feel sticky and the Sun didn't have much change though. ||There's not much how the weather affects me while feeling comfortable during my stay. Mostly the hotel premises always felt comfortable as it's always clean and tidy and not many difficult passages to pass through. Just easy to get around the premises for the restaurants the yoga area the rock climbing and the pool area. I haven't tried the rock climbing and yoga yet. Rock climbing would be the activity I wanted to try. The good was that the AC is easy to control, air was clean, the fans were easy. But the bad thing was that the buttons at the front was difficult to know which is on and off, or which is used to operate the front door. ||The staff were all friendly and always provides all the help you need. But they may need to improve their English understanding, but overall they provide the best services and great hospitality experience for the needs and wants of the customers. They are always moments when the stuff goes out of their way to help the customers needs but as well as explain how far they can't go since they are lots of customers to provide services. ||What made me try the rock climbing activity would be that it also helps train your grip as well as your balance and various situations where you need to protect yourself from falling down. ||Overall, this has been a great hospitality experience in Thailand Phuket. Good for people to relax the nerves relieve stress. But when planning to go here you have to time the weather of when to come as it was raining constantly. That it was still fun while it was raining you could also play in the pool...

I want to apologise for writing only bad things about the resort below, but all the nice things mentioned on the other reviews online are true and the place is excellent.

I just want to bring out the down sides that I experienced during our three nights there in Oct 2012. :

The villa where we stayed, (no 56) might be better off with a coat of varnish on the outside deck and some general maintenence on the wooden boards . While the resort is excellent in every way, we did not find it really child friendly and I guess it might be targetted to honeymoon or much older couples, but with a child of 3 yrs, it was a problem as : No shallow part in the villa pool ( but I guess the steps or the tub could be adapted) No railing at the ponds. This is a problem as kids, who are the ones that primararily feed the fishes, get very excited sometimes and its best that there be a railing ( atleast partially) from where safe feeding can be done) Poor baby sitting facility - The playarea for kids was pretty deserted during our stay. Probably because of lesser kids and also because it is tucked away in a depressing corner like the gym. Kids love open places and sunlight and this is not a good place for the play area. On top of this, we were advised that only kids above 4 yrs could be left at the playarea, so essentially there was no babysitting in the resort, which was a letdown.

03.Breakfast Buffet : Excellent beverages. Never experienced the variety of such juices before and thoroughly enjoyed them. The mango lassi was out of this world.

That said, the variety of food over the days did not vary much and probably more could be done about it. After reading so much about the morning buffet in the older reviews, I was probably expecting much more, but honestly the buffet was rather average when you consider the resort. As I said, only their juices and beverages were outstanding.

I am afraid I do have to repeat the grouse with the Vacation club sales rep. The problem is that there are too many of them & you simply can't ask them to not do their jobs. It would probably be a good idea to reduce the sales rep on the ground and reposition them somewhere else. This would ensure that the same people are not asked regarding the presentation every time they go the the turtle village or pass the reception.

It was an excellent saty and I am only denying it a 5 star due to the fact that I expected the resort to be more child friendly.

Stayed October 2012,...