Coconut Island — Local services in Ko Kaeo

We stayed in the hotel 6 nights just recently.

I never post reviews...but I thought about this one long and hard and it boils down to this....

I believe the greatest disappointment of all is the deception of claiming it's a 5 star hotel when it's in fact a clear 4 star one. Had we known it was a 4 star then the expectations are aligned and all is good...but the deceit and over expectations ruined the entire stay.

I think hotel management (mark & hassan) need to take a very drastic decision to their Board of Directors. 1) either downgrade the hotel, with all the repercussions that come with it...and state it as a 4 star hotel or 2) close the hotel down, renovate it for a year (it has huge potential!) and bring to the 5 star level. But not doing anything is a downslope move...(this review is just one example). Eventually the haox will collapse.

We left 1 day earlier than planned (and we stayed in a 3 bedroom villa! no one even bothered to call/ask and try to understand why)....and attached is a video of a frog we found in the bathroom. I'm not complaining about a frog in the room (we are on a tropical island after all...), but I do think having a net in the water sewage can prevent it from coming in since the house we entirely closed - we have a 2yr old toddler.. we always check the doors and lock them. You only need to do a tour outside of the villa to see the pipes/ air-conditioning maintaining...customers see everything! No wonder the frog got in.

Good luck. Believe it or not but this should be viewed as a wakeup call...not a...

Stayed here in August for 10 days with my girlfriend. We had a fantastic time. Would definitely stay again!!

PROS. • The hotel is in a great location and the scenery is beautiful. • Included free use of the paddle boards and kayaks which was a great touch. We got plenty of use out of them. • Pools were all warm, and plenty of sunbeds • Food was amazing!!!, especially the Thai curries at the beach restaurant. They catered for a vegan diet too which was great. Shout-out to the staff who were very friendly and always made sure we were looked after. • We booked a few day trips with the hotel which was so easy and reasonably priced. Ron and this boat team were brilliant on every trip. • The reception team were great. Quick and easy to get anything sorted for us, and booking our taxis etc • Buggy service around the hotel. Staff were friendly and helpful. Especially when we arrived with our bags.

CONS • Was a bit awkward having to book a return boat in advance every night as we wasn't always sure when we wanted to return. • Our room was a little tired in places and could have been improved. • Couldn't use the jacuzzi as it was always full of bugs and giant millipedes • Rained a lot (which couldn't be helped) but it made everything slippy and muddy. Wasn't always easy to walk the steep ramps when it was slippy. • Flies and wasps everywhere! We didn't eat much breakfast for the whole 10 days as the buffet was swarming and they landed...

I have thought long and hard about what to say here. The hotel is NOT a 5 star hotel. It may qualify as one based on a tick box of its facilities, but that's where it ends. The quality of the facilities and service fall short. I could list the numerous downsides, but let's leave it that there are numerous downsides. Please see my 5 star reviews of two of the restaurants outside the hotel to get a flavour of the Island and its people. It is not often that I would say this, but I would not recommend this hotel If you are looking for "fantastic" this isn't it. It's "quite nice" at best. Oh. We had a villa. It had an open bathroom about 3 meters from the bed. Beware of that if you value...