L'esprit de Nai Yang — Hotel in Sakhu

I’ve been doing volunteer work for the past 8-weeks in Southeast Asia and was rather looking forward to my 3-day, 4-night stay at L’esprit for rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, this was not my experience. ||The room was rather comfortable, the pool attached to the room was dirty with foliage but suitable for a little swim, the breakfast wasn’t anything special but had enough variety, and the staff was kind. However, because of my previous traveling, I was desperate for laundry! So I used the hotel laundry service… BIG mistake. ||The laundry service took almost 24 hours and my items came back either damaged or missing. I hadn’t traveled with much, and my one nice skirt I was hoping to wear that evening came back with a sizable rip in it. When I brought it up to the front desk, they did get right on it to send it for repair but I mentioned I wasn’t comfortable paying for the laundry service because of the damage and that concern wasn’t addressed. ||Then when I was packing, I realized another article of clothing was missing. I contacted the staff again and through a bit of frustrating communication, they were able to track it down. They said they’d bring it to my room that evening and I waited 3 hours before finally going to bed as I had an early flight the next morning. The clothing was finally returned to me in the morning but without communication from the staff the previous evening. ||I sent a message to the hotel service very kindly explaining my frustration and that I was uncomfortable paying for the service, as it was done very poorly… No response. ||When I was handed my bill at the front desk that morning, I attempted to explain to the front desk staff the situation and that again, I didn’t think it right to be charged for the service and would like it taken off the bill. Or at the very least to be understood in my frustration over the poor service… ||The front desk staff tried to handle it by making a call, which was short and didn’t seem to address my concern. He said he was unable to do anything about it and again handed me the full bill. ||As I had to catch my flight, I reluctantly paid the full bill and left the experience feeling stressed, disappointed, and defeated. ||All of this to say, the communication between staff seems very poor in regard to guest issues. And there does not seem to be anyone to speak with who can truly handle issues that arise. ||This is less of an issue but just paints the picture clearer of the poor communication… On top of the disappointing laundry service, I was also told I would be provided a breakfast box to go that morning, as it was included in my stay as a paid service. I was not provided this, thus I also paid for a service I wasn’t given. ||I’m left very disappointed with my stay and am frustrated to have paid for a quality stay and met with a poor one. ||I won’t be staying at L’esprit again and would be very hesitant to recommend it to anyone, at least when it comes to trusting your items to be dealt with care or your time to be free from frustration. ||I’m happy to see from other reviews that not everyone’s experience was as poor as mine… and hope that if you stay at L’esprit, that your stay goes...

STAY AWAY! We booked a 4 night stay and selected the garden villa for our honeymoon for $150 a night. Let me just say that we were SHOCKED at how different the hotel rooms were from the pictures. I’m also confused as to how other people can rate 4+ stars for this place as that was far from our experience. Once we got to the hotel, the staff were courteous and we were hopeful. Then it all came tumbling down...as soon as the staff opened the door to our room, you could smell the mustiness of the room. He spent a few minutes trying to fix the AC that was clearly broken and blowing hot air. The room was also dark because the light in the ceiling was broken. When I walked into the bathroom the toilet seat cover was yellowing from stains and the tub and shower were filled with mold and mildew. Very outdated facility. To make things worse, we saw a salamander/lizard INSIDE of our room!! There are cracked all around the place that’s big enough for mosquitos and lizards to come through and we have seen both inside of the room. We tried to muster up some courage and laid in bed to sleep through the first night and noticed a stench from the pillow that was out of control. It smelled like a wet towel and I eventually noticed that the sheets smelled like that too. We went to the front counter to ask if they can get us a different room. Once again, the staff member was super nice and moved us to a different room. This was no better than the other one...there were exposed wires in the ceiling that looked dangerous, the pillows still smelled really bad and the bathroom was practically outdoors! There were walls but it had an opening where the wall met the ceiling which resulted in a huge moth being ready for me when I was going to use the restroom every time. I really wish I was making all this up but we ended up going to another hotel at 4 am in the morning. I came here to rest at a resort, not necessarily to experience sleeping outdoors in the jungle for 4 nights with critters. Please do yourself a favor and don’t make the same mistake as I did. So many other options are available here in Phuket.

Other things to note: there is a one-way taxi service but is only free if you use it from 8am to 9pm. Location really is not convenient as there’s nothing close by other...

One of the most wonderful places and experiences I've ever had! I chose the place for its secluded location and lush vibrant gardens and it was even better than expected. I initially booked the private pool villa for 3 nights but ended up extending for 9 nights, halfway through moving to the garden villa. The hotel itself has a beautiful design and decorations, the villas are spacious and bright surrounded by beautiful tropical gardens, main pool is big and the area is lovely, the restaurant serves delicious food at very reasonable prices, and you are able to walk to the beach within minutes crossing a river. Clean throughout. The whole place has just a very peaceful and healing energy. What especially stood out was the service. I was always greeted so kindly and lovely by all the staff. Especially the evening restaurant crew, they were so hands on at all times. On my arrival day I found my private pool water had so much chlorine in it that all my silver turned gray, so the staff changed the water first thing in the morning and provided me a baking soda on my request so I could clean my silver which fortunately went well. One night I asked the reception whether they had any candles to provide. The lovely lady (Rath) couldn't find any but suggested some shops to get them from. However, the next morning she came to me with a whole new package of candles that she had gone and bought herself for me the next morning. How amazing! Those little things are what matter the most and make the experience so humble. After 9 days this place felt like a home to me already and leaving was quite sad. Of course the place has some wear and tear here and there, and there's always room for some improvements (for example screen doors to prevent bugs getting in, (ceiling) fans in the room to circulate the air, main pool clean up etc), but they're rather recommendations. For me, it was such a gem where to truly rest my soul and heal. Thank you for all the staff for making my experience and the whole stay so beautiful and...