The Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa, Phuket — Hotel in Ratsada

The short version: Lovely design but poor maintenance, mixed experience with staff (but mostly positive), quiet location, sub-par beach but good (though small) pools, restaurants not particularly geared toward healthy eating.

Details:

Overall, we had a very nice stay, mostly because of two factors: the green and serene location, and a few staff members who were exceptionally warm and helpful.

The best thing about this property is the peaceful and leafy campus, with the various buildings spread out with a lot of greenery in between, and most rooms having ocean views. The pools are nice, too (though a bit small for those who actually want to swim for exercise). The fitness center was average in most respects, though we really enjoyed the ocean views from the treadmills.

There were several staff members whose genuinely warm and caring personalities brought a lot of joy to our stay. Unfortunately, a few of the staff members were less friendly and some of the restaurant staff weren't particularly competent (getting orders wrong repeatedly).

Upon check-in, we didn't receive a particularly warm welcome (no smiles at the SPG desk), but we did receive an upgrade to a modest junior suite with a nice view of the bay, which we appreciated very much. Unfortunately, that suite turned out to be somewhat uncomfortable because sometimes the air conditioner produced a foul smell, so we had to choose between cool but smelly air or fresh but hotter air. But it was still a nice place to be.

As for the rest of the resort facilities, we appreciated the village-style layout of the place, and particularly the pools. But everywhere I looked I saw things that needed maintenance: swimming pool railings that were dangerously loose, peeling paint, many of the outdoor wooden features badly in need of new varnish, scratched and broken furniture, etc. Clearly some investment is needed to restore the place to its former glory.

If you're all about the beach, this probably isn't the place for you, as this resort's private beach is small, and the water is shallow and murky. We didn't see many swimmers there (most were at the pools).

There was only one area that was disappointing for us, which was the restaurants, which don't cater well to health-conscious diets and didn't handle special orders reliably (making repeated mistakes with our orders). We follow a healthy diet (emphasizing fresh green foods, with no animal products), but we found all the hotel restaurants to be highly focused on meat and dairy products. There were a few dishes that we could eat, but we didn't find any of them to be particularly interesting or worth repeating, so we wound up going out for most of our meals.

A few times when we did eat at the resort's international restaurant, we ordered dishes without meat or eggs, and the servers wrote the orders down correctly but the kitchen cooked and served them with meat and eggs anyway. Sometimes our server caught the mistakes before the plates reached our table, but sometimes not. Once we had to send the same dish back not once but twice (as it still had egg the second time), which is hard to understand. We're all human and one expects such mistakes now and then, but not this often, and a resort at this level can and should do better.

We request that the resort's chefs take time to retrain the restaurant staff about handling special orders, food allergies, etc., and also to take into consideration the growing trend of health-conscious eating by offering a greater variety of vegetarian and vegan items. It would be great to have a salad bar, too.

The most outstanding staff member we encountered was Matthieu, who took special care to look after us in the restaurant and make sure that we got what we actually ordered. We really appreciated not only his care in looking after us, but also his very warm and friendly personality, which brought joy to our stay.

We also appreciated the friendly and helpful Italian chef at Prego and kind women who managed the happy hours at the lobby bar.

We found the spa to be mediocre, with a nice sauna but unremarkable massage treatments (not bad, but no more skilled or attentive than in the typical roadside massage shops that are a fraction of the price).

Overall, despite the issues mentioned above, we had a good experience and we might...

The location is stunning with beautiful views from every room. The room with pool access was spacious, with good closet space, comfy bathroom, a great bed and a mediocre couch. The gym facilities were excellent. The baby crib is awful - cold steel bars, cramped and we had to ask for a second mattress to raise it, otherwise I don't know how tall you'd have to be in order to put your baby there (I'm 5'8 / 173cm and each time I felt like it was never a soft landing for my toddler because how deep I had to go to lay her down). There were three restaurants to choose from for dinner/lunch and we ended up eating at the Italian one most of the nights because it was delicious (freshly made pasta, top quality pizzas). We wanted to love the Thai restaurant, but the price for the local food was exorbitant for what was actually served. The lobby bar was very good with some very tasty cocktails and delicious freshly popped corn. We were there the week before Easter so the place was quiet. We absolutley did not mind the walking up to our room despite the fact we had 17 month old with us. It was part of the charm and a good minimal work out :).

The spa massages were well done however the price was excessive and I would not go back. I decided to pamper myself to a manicure and pedicure despite the fact that I paid more than I would pay at home and frankly speaking, if this was back home, I would have refused to pay. The lady was polite and pleasant, but the only reason the treatment lasted 2 hours is because she kept correcting all the nail polish mistakes. There was zero massage, just a soak and poorly done nail painting. I removed the manicure within 5 min of coming home and redid it myself. Their selection of nail polishes is also minimal. I would absolutely not recommend this service to anyone.

Room service delivery was a bit of a miss despite the fact there were very few guests. We ordered dinner a few of the nights simply because our toddler was too tired. 4 out of 4 times the order came without the specifically requested condiments , despite the fact we reminded them that last time they forgot to include the items (we ordered twice over the phone and twice in person). One time one of the meal items was missing.

There were multiple pools available, which was great, although it may have been different if we weren't there at peak period. However, I must note that 3 of the pools we tried had missing tiles, or loose tiles, including the kid pool, where I scraped my knee till it was bleeding. Absolutely not the safety standard you would expect.

The ladies at the Kids Club were lovely.

The arranged car for airport pick up was very good, although it arrived late and we did not see traffic on the road, so this seems to be poor planning. However, the driver was excellent and the drive was very smooth, which was very important to us with a small toddler in the car.

Room cleaning was a bit of a miss because the staff kept coming around 2pm, despite multiple requests that they came earlier, when we were not back in the room for the toddler's nap. We offered a 5 hour time window, but this was met 2 out of 4 times, so we did not get the room tidied up daily.

All the pool staff were very friendly. The breakfast staff could be more attentive and I could imagine that if we were during a busier time, this could have become an issue (there would be on average 2-3 couples and 1 family with another toddler eating at the same time as we were, so really not busy).

Lastly, while booking the airport pick up, we mentioned in the casual email exchange that we are coming down for our wedding anniversary. The corresponding person was very kind to extend to us a complimentary cake and flower arrangement to congratulate us. This was very sweet and completely unprompted. It also didn't actually happen once we were there. As we are not out to get free things, we did not remind anyone while there, however it does add to the impression that staff seems to...

The Westin has gone beyond its useful life as a luxury resort; its tiredness is approaching narcolepsy and its current condition is seriously damaging Marriott’s reputation for state-of-the-art luxury. To be fair, I’m sure that the resort was superb in its day and a paragon of early naughties luxury. Its location is magnificent and the sprawling complex sits nicely in the wooded hillside with stunning sea views. To be fair, the customer facing staff were all delightful and worked so hard to overcome the hotel’s shortcomings during our stay. Their charm however was tempered with a slight sense of weariness and embarrassment. Our receptionist was keen to hand over complimentary drinks vouchers to compensate for our room being almost an hour and a half late in being prepared; clearly something he was well used to doing. As Bonvoy elite members, one of the benefits was a complimentary room upgrade and this indeed was forthcoming. Our “suite” however, gave the appearance of being two adjoining standard rooms, in which the bed had been taken out of one room and replaced with a table; substantial but soulless. As reported by previous reviewers, the furniture was dated, with scratched wood and ill-fitting drawers. The electrics were unfathomable and in some cases unusable. It was a good night when my phone fully charged without the charger disconnecting from the over-worn sockets. The shower was temperamental, lacking a thermostat and thus plying water through a range of temperatures on to the multiple layers of yellowing silicon sealant applied over the years. The shower fared better than the wash hand basin though, whatever position the joystick-like tap was in, the water was always on the cold side of tepid. There were only two glass tumblers in the suite which adopted multifarious usage during our stay; in turn, acting as water glasses, tooth mugs, gin glasses and a means of transporting shampoo from the fixed dispensers in the shower to the bath. We could have adopted the cups from the tea and coffee making facilities for some of these roles, had such facilities been provided. The glass shortage saga continued into the EEST restaurant, when we were served beer in a paper cup. Really? The trip wasn’t a write-off, just a disappointment; an exercise in mediocrity posing as luxury. Once you’d looked past the cracked render, rusting window frames and uneven estate roads, it was possible to make the best of the situation. There were some real positives, mainly due to the hard work of the staff. The Christmas Eve gala dinner was a delightful event, with colleagues working hard, whilst also appearing to enjoy themselves, decked in Santa hats and dressed in bright red. Boon, in the reception team was an outstanding ambassador and was most helpful throughout our stay. Kat, the jovial, ever present Maitre ‘d, who looked after us at dinner, magically greeted us at breakfast; telling us she had slept under the table. The food and drink were agreeable and the outdoor pool areas enjoyable. The management response from Jan-Hein Breitschaft to previous reviews are always pasted, apologetic and full of promises to look into issues. The simple truth however, is that without a serious refurb, no end of maintenance will address the fundamental problem - that the hotel is well past its sell-by date. I feel sorry for poor Mr Breitschaft; it must be soul destroying trying to constantly prop things up. Since starting this review I have heard that Marriott have announced that the Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa in Phuket is being rebranded as The Ritz-Carlton Phuket in 2025. Hopefully, this will come with the renovations sorely needed. Until then, I recommend that you only book on the understanding that this is a hotel at the end of its useful life with the expectation that room rates are set...