Novotel Rayong Rim Pae Resort — Hotel in Rayong Province

I have stayed in a few different hotels in Thailand, including Bangkok, Krabi and Hua Hin, and the Novotel has unfortunately been my worst experience so far. Upon arriving, we were lead into our suite which was boiling hot at 30C. I wouldn't expect a hotel to keep unoccupied rooms at 21C, but knowing that a customer arrives that day, I would expect the A/C to at least be set to a tolerable 25C or so.

The suite is big and spacious, but arranged in a slightly strange way - presumably due to old-fashioned layout of the building. The bathroom is comparatively small, without a separate toilet. Windows and screen doors are quite outdated, and the overall design of the room is very plain and basic. The A/C worked well enough, but was quite loud, with hideous A/C units in front of the rooms. The hallway leading up to the room is dark and feels like a cheap apartment building. The TV worked but there was not a single movie channel to watch.

The gym in this place is an absolute disaster and quite frankly a safety hazard. The elliptical machines don't really work (and are probably 20 years old), and the weight machine in the center of the gym must be at least 30 years old. I've been to countless hotel gyms around the world - including ones with old equipment, but I have never seen anything like this. The weight plates are literally cracked - it's an absolute mystery to me how this does not get addressed by an international hotel chain.

The location of the hotel on the other hand is perfect, with direct access to the beach. There are a number of pools which aren't big but big enough. The food at the restaurant is good enough with a great view. The service isn't great but good enough, however I was extremely disappointed with the overall friendliness and quality of service at the resort. Almost every hotel I have been to in Thailand has extremely friendly and courteous staff, that will greet you even when you are just walking around the property. Not so at the Sofitel however, you never feel welcome or appreciated. You don't even get greeted when you walk through the lobby, which I found somewhat shocking.

The breakfast is mediocre at best, and again, one of the worst I have experienced in Thailand. Don't expect good bread, (edible) pastries or a wide fruit selection. On most days they didn't even have bananas, we were lucky enough to have Papaya on 2 of the 5 days. Thankfully they have a fairly decent coffee machine and an omelet station, but that's about it. Even the jam selection was pathetic. The breakfast alone is enough reason for me not to stay there again. The restroom next to the toilet was out of order as well towards the end.

A positive feature of the site is a small coffee shop that serves Starbucks coffee, but not very good pastries or food unfortunately. It's also a bit warm and it closes at 4pm already. Nevertheless it sort of saved the day for me as I have to usually work a couple of hours a day.

There is a ping pong table (which never even gets wiped off from leaves etc) and a badminton net which is nice.

Towards the end of our trip a huge group of employees that were part of some corporate training arrived and took over the resort area for a few hours. What had at least been a quite area was suddenly transformed into an overcrowded and busy county-fair type of environment with games played and so forth. Again, mind boggling to me how hotel management would allow something like this in what is supposed to be a quiet resort.

In summary, the property is at a very good location, but the upkeep, quality and overall feel of the hotel is quite bad. I can only imagine how poorly this hotel is run. While the Marriott doesn't have a nice beach like the Novotel, it looked like a much better hotel for essentially the same cost. This visit severely tarnished my view of the Novotel brand, and I cannot imagine staying in a Novotel again in the...

The resort is quite isolated without grab car, but with hotel taxis but fortunately everything you need is contained within this paradise resort. With 2 large pools, a jacuzzi, a spa, a private cinema room, a snooker room, a gift shop, starbucks cafe and beachfront restaurant - we found we had a very relaxing and enjoyable week, and we were sad to leave. We stayed in the units in the block closest to the Ocean and I would recommend these. We had a ground floor garden view room which was ideal. The gardens are just beautiful and extremely well-maintained. We saw quite a few gardeners working. It was low season so all the external timber was getting a fresh lick of paint, and the place looked very well maintained. There are several out door games for children - badminton, ping pong and foot ball. The beach is cleaned well every morning. During low season there is a little bit of plastic in the water at the end of the day, but we loved swimming in the ocean here. The snooker table is in a private room for a cost of 200 tbh for an hour. The movie room is available at 2pm or 6pm with tickets ranging from 200-300 thb including drink and hot chips. The spa runs a very high quality indoor service (accor plus discount and specials available). This service is priced a little high for Thailand, however they also offer beach front massages in a Sala for prices similar to those across Thailand. We tried absolutely everything on offer and loved everything. Even the gift shop included some hand made local products at really decent prices. The only thing we really didn't like was the welcome drink at the poolside bar. And we also didn't like the pizza at the restaurant, so we stuck to Thai dishes after that, and the red curry was a particular hit. We enjoyed all the meals, and using the Accor Plus discount made the prices reasonable. There is no grab car available to the property, but I believe there are some limited grab food, and one could certainly wander down the beach to eat else where - we never did, we really enjoyed the hotel restaurant. We also made good use of the mini-bar package. You could pre-book a full minibar for 590 thb or just order some parts of the minibar, such as the snack pack or the beer pack, which meant you had snacks on hand at very reasonable prices. We did one outing to the Rayong Botanical Gardens with the hotel transfer costing 500thb and the bike rental at 50 thb each, this was a really lovely day out. Finally, and certainly not least, the staff went above and beyond to be accommodating, helpful and friendly. They made our stay very special and are an absolute asset to the hotel. The front desk team, the lady running the spa, the restaurant team, the cleaning staff and all the way up to the GM, everyone was so lovely. If we are back to this part of Thailand, we would...

I have stayed in about thousands hotels. Very experienced guest. 70 K views on Tripadvisor. VIP Customer Expedia.||At first sight everything seemed ok. Came from ”Bandara on sea” and a less pleasent stay. Nothing could be worse.||Check in experience:| Girl in reception offers a room with a better location for 400 bath a night extra.|(We had booked a ”superior garden view” meaning towards a parking lot.)|We viewed the new room. When we come back to reception she raises the cost with 100%. Unprofessional. |Bad start.||Pool area:| 100 sunbeds. Guests rise up early in the morning and put their towels on the beds before breakfast. Meaning that if you arrive after 9 am there is no one left to sit on.|Mostly people from Russia at the resort.||Breakfast: |The most expensive and the worst breakfast we have had so far in Thailand. Cost 550 baht. No protein in the few warm dishes. Only pineapple and melon fruit wise. Scrambled eggs made out of one egg only. Cakes and bread not daily fresh. Overcrowded at breakfast. Eat early.|Service level low in breakfast area. Had to find things myself. Staff do not speak english.||Rooms: |Very noisy friday and saturday nights as the ”ballroom” is rented out to private parties. If you decide for a room with a pool view- bring your earplugs. Loud music until late. The hotel turns out to be a night club.||Taxi: |Be advised that no Grab car seems to stay at the hotel for pick up. The hotel has private cars. A trip that cost us 300 bath with Grab costed 800 baht with the hotels private car. A Scam. ||Beach: |Some days full of trash. Some days not. ||Restaurants on beach: |Tried them all. Best restaurant- Be happy!|Worst- ”One beach ” -where we got food poisoning.||Who is this resort for? |A person that doesn’ t mind to chase sunbeds at 5 am and then not leave them for the rest of the day. A person who like crowds and doesn’t mind high music late at night. Great if your wallet is thick as the resort is a bit greedy.|You should not be a breakfast person.||Will I return? NO. I like Thailand less...