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Hyatt Regency Phuket REVIEW - MASTER THREAD

Hyatt Regency Phuket REVIEW - MASTER THREAD

Old Jan 7, 2014, 6:47 am
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Hyatt Regency Phuket REVIEW - MASTER THREAD

So we checked into the hotel tonight.

The lobby is open-air. All facilities are apparently open now (both restaurants and the spa and the regency club - haven't checked anything out yet). We took the hotel limousine from the airport, cost is 2,000 baht (Mercedes E-Class limousine). Check-In was very friendly - took quite a while because they had to find a buggy (welcome drink and cold towel provided). There is a small shop in the lobby area and also a tour desk. We were taken with the buggy to a room in the 9000 range which was described as a Club Deluxe Pool King room (we upgraded with points, just before the devaluation, and were promised the 105 sq m room to do so (I wanted to use points for a suite but was told that this room was actually bigger and better for couples).

The room smells completely new - not surprising, as this wing apparently only opened yesterday and nobody has stayed in it before. It most definitely does not feel like 105 sq m. I thought we had gotten the "Club Oceanview Pool King" category which is described as being 60 sq m. When asked, the friendly gentleman who checked us in said that this counts the terrace, the bathroom, etc. Still doesn't feel like 105 sq m.

Anyway - the first room we were taken to had a cleaning apparatus in the middle of the room, dirt and dirty footprints all over the room and bathroom. The poor gentleman who checked us in was very surprised. When we checked the toilet, it was actually broken, the top was off and there was some weird dirt all over the floor.

Naturally, the gentleman went and looked for a new room for us (took a while again), which is in the same category. In this room, the small dipping pool is completely overgrown with plants, so no view.

But the toilet seems to be functional ;-).

I find the description on the website a bit of an exaggeration.

Club Deluxe Pool King
Hardwood floors and ocean views welcome visitors to this 105-sqm deluxe corner guestroom that boasts one king bed and large balcony with private pool and jacuzzi. A separate tub and shower can be found in the spacious bathroom, while the rooms modern amenities include a 40-inch flatscreen TV, iPod docking station and complimentary wireless Internet. Regency Club guests have access to Club Lounge.
The "private pool and jacuzzi" is a very small dipping pool that apparently has some jets, so don't expect a pool and a jacuzzi out there. The iPod docking station is a JBL wireless speaker, no actual charge possible.

The Internet seems to work ok so far.

There is a very large infinity pool in front of the lobby and (haven't seen this one yet) another, smaller infinity pool at the Regency Club.

No personal welcome note from the GM or anything.

We are going to check out one of the restaurants tonight and the rest of the facilities tomorrow and will then decide whether we stay or check out and - for now - go to a hotel that has gone through growing pains already. Considering the fact that no corporate rates seem to be loaded yet and the daily rate is almost 8,000 Baht plus tax, I think we might get better value elsewhere, at least for the moment.

But maybe the view and the beach and the facilities and perhaps the friendliness of the staff will change our mind .

P.S.: As anywhere in Phuket right now, the mosquitoes seem to be quite aggressive...already got bitten a few times.
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Old Jan 7, 2014, 9:13 am
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Pictures please.
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Old Jan 7, 2014, 5:53 pm
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Great first review! Yes, photos of the private pool would be great.

I really dislike when properties include the terrace in the square metre descriptions. I like it when they list both the room size and the terrace separately.

The private plunge pool should negate the need for using the Regency Club pool, but if a Club guest having a separate pool saves you from the hoarding masses at resort properties.

How do you access the beach as the property does not have one?
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 11:42 am
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So we are staying for the full four nights.

Some more observations:

Property: It's really, really steep. Walking from the lobby to the room is not possible without breaking a sweat. Forget about staying here if you are old/handicapped or anything like that.



Room: Apparently the room is indeed the Club Deluxe Pool King room which is described as 105 sq m on the website. Again, there is no way that these are 105 sq m. I consider the "plunge pool" totally useless - definitely not big enough for swimming, half of it is extremely shallow anyway, the deeper part is maybe as big as a bathtub - not sure what to do with it. There is some water that runs into it constantly, so there is a constant fountain-type noise that apparently cannot be turned off either. The finishings in the room don't seem flawless, some stuff, although new, looks like it was used. Bit weird. Water pressure in the shower (and toilet) is quite low.



Kindly enough, my ambassador reimbursed the points for the upgrade to me, as I expressed some disappointment with the room.

Internet speed: Just barely ok, but not fast enough.

Breakfast: Breakfast in the main restaurant was alright. Nothing out of the ordinary (for Asia), not bad. They should probably cover the fresh fruits with something, as there were quite a few insects around.

Beach: The beach in front of the hotel is not really useable. In the morning and until around 2 p.m., it seems to be low tide, and all you see is a lot of seaweed and some birds and some locals picking something out of the seaweed. In the afternoon, at least there is water, but I haven't seen anyone swim on that beach.





Pool: The pool is the highlight of the hotel. Huge infinity pool, I would guess maybe 50 x 30 meters? As of right now, with only about 50 people staying at the hotel, very nice to swim some real laps, and nice to chill at the same time.

Again, the finishing doesn't seem to be great quality, one tile in a corner of the pool came off when i was trying to lean on it. But the pool is definitely nice and to some extent makes up for the lack of a proper beach (even though it's a bit funny when you are in the infinity pool in the morning and you see the messed up beach and/or a bus or truck passing by with people looking down on you (because they are higher up than the pool).



Regency Club: I would say that the Regency Club is another highlight of the hotel. It has its own, smaller infinity pool (the kind I would have hoped for at our room, going by the description of the room on the hotel website...). I would say it's about 15 x 4 meters, long and wide enough for one person to actually swim. Cocktail hour (alcoholic drinks and warm and cold food) offered from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.



Fitness/Spa: There is a fitness room (24 hours accessible) under the Regency Club. The spa (located a short walk up from the Regency Club) is open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. - haven't tried it yet.

Staff/Service: The staff has been very friendly throughout. Some things may be attributed to possibly a language barrier? We asked for some additional towels to the room after arriving in the room and seeing that there was only 1 per person. The employee said yes, of course - one day later, nothing. We also called to ask if that "fountain noise" could be turned off. They said they would send an engineer. After about 30 minutes, we called it off as we wanted to go to sleep. Never heard back. Also, returned from a day at the pool at 4 p.m. to find out that our room was just getting cleaned then. Bit late, I find. Had a conversation with the very friendly Dutch director of rooms. He made it possible to change the stay to a points and cash stay. The GM hasn't made himself visible to me. There was someone who I think is the GM, talking to a couple at the cocktail hour in the Regency Club. He didn't get around to talking to the other four couples there at the time. Edit: Have in the meantime had a very friendly conversation with the GM, will add some notes on that later.

Overall: Overall, I would say this is a 4 star hotel. From what I have read about the Westin Siray Beach, the setup on the hill sounds a bit similar. Although staff is friendly and the pool and regency club are nice, I will probably not come back. The hotel seems a bit out of the way from everything and I prefer to have a real beach.

Last edited by Football Fan; Jan 8, 2014 at 10:20 pm Reason: removed pics
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 12:01 pm
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Certainly doesn't appear to be an "aspirational" property.
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 12:27 pm
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Thanks for the review. Based on that I will not book the Hyatt for my next stay in Phuket which I wanted to do. Anyone has experience with the Regent?
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 12:32 pm
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football fan,

thx for the thorough review. the property looks amazing on the website, but the "dipping pool" is lame and the unusable beach is a killer for me. i'm going to have to find another hotel for my march stay in phuket or go to some other place entirely like bali.

Last edited by sucklingpig; Jan 8, 2014 at 1:01 pm Reason: fix my poor grammar
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 2:04 pm
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Looks somewhat awful. Any pictures of the room itself?
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 4:20 pm
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I'll stick with the Westin Siray Bay. That 'plunge pool' is more of a bath.

Note that the Westin's beach is unswimmable, or at least looks it. But it's certainly a much higher grade property than this.

Add the SPG Platinum cocktail hour which is 2 hours on the Prego restaurant rooftop with bar menus with no prices. You can order Lychee Martinis, Passionfruit Mojitos, and any other specialty cocktails, served with canaps with no charge and a live band playing in the background. The best club lounge experience of any hotel IMO.
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 4:22 pm
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Originally Posted by sucklingpig
football fan,

thx for the thorough review. the property looks amazing on the website, but the "dipping pool" is lame and the unusable beach is a killer for me. i'm going to have to find another hotel for my march stay in phuket or go to some other place entirely like bali.
I have been to both Hyatts in Bali (suites in both last year, the Bali Hyatt pre-renovation) and in my opinion, they are both clearly a step up from this hotel here (especially the Grand Hyatt). I would say the only thing this hotel beats those two at is the view from the Regency pool here.

But I don't want to sound too negative. With the nice large infinity pool, the friendly staff and rooms and restaurants which are alright, it is a perfectly decent place to relax and chill out for a few days, and probably also a good base for day trips and excursions (e.g., Koh Phi Phi, etc.), if you can get a good rate at this hotel.
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 4:42 pm
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Originally Posted by Football Fan
I have been to both Hyatts in Bali (suites in both last year, the Bali Hyatt pre-renovation) and in my opinion, they are both clearly a step up from this hotel here (especially the Grand Hyatt). I would say the only thing this hotel beats those two at is the view from the Regency pool here.

But I don't want to sound too negative. With the nice large infinity pool, the friendly staff and rooms and restaurants which are alright, it is a perfectly decent place to relax and chill out for a few days, and probably also a good base for day trips and excursions (e.g., Koh Phi Phi, etc.), if you can get a good rate at this hotel.
If the Bali Hyatt was already a step up (at the condition of that place and the price of 5k a night) then I have heard enough.

How much does the HR HKT run per night in terms of THB/Points?
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Old Jan 8, 2014, 4:47 pm
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Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX
If the Bali Hyatt was already a step up (at the condition of that place and the price of 5k a night) then I have heard enough.

How much does the HR HKT run per night in terms of THB/Points?
15k points or 7.5k + $ 100 (cat. 4). Daily rate is something like 8k Baht, I think.

Haven't taken pictures of the room itself yet, will do it after they clean it.
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Old Jan 9, 2014, 3:31 am
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Looking forward to it!

Where did the pictures of the dead mouse go or did some other animal pick it up overnight?
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Old Jan 9, 2014, 3:50 am
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Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX
Looking forward to it!

Where did the pictures of the dead mouse go or did some other animal pick it up overnight?
The GM came up to us today and we had a very friendly conversation. I felt a bit bad about it because it apparently made some waves (not the mouse, which is dead, but the post ).

I also didn't want anyone to get in trouble because they accidentally led us to a room that was still being worked on, so I removed the pic of the broken loo as well - stuff happens and I think these two pics gave a worse impression of the hotel than it deserves.

We are quite enjoying our stay, despite some service hiccups.

Again, everyone is very friendly, from service employees to management, and that does make a big difference.

I fully understand that it is not an easy job to open a hotel here, with all the dealings with authorities and land owners, etc. etc., and management has to work with what they have, they can't "make a beach" right in front of the hotel and if it's steep, it's steep.

But I did have the impression that the GM is sincerely committed to making things work, especially for Diamond members, and is taking the feedback seriously. And they are trying to find a solution regarding the beach (I guess a shuttle to some nice beach nearby.) Let's see what the resort comes up with in the near future. Maybe they will even respond here?

I do think that the hotel should not be a cat. 4, e.g. compared to the hotels in Bali. Even with cash and points, it feels like a lot of points for this property.

But as I said, we are having a good time at this hotel - the point of my posts was not to complain or be overly critical, just to give fellow Flyertalkers an idea of how the property compares to some of the other options we have.

Going to the happy hour in a few minutes!

Last edited by Football Fan; Jan 9, 2014 at 6:13 pm
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Old Jan 9, 2014, 5:02 am
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Thanks for the review. Rather disappointed in its content though, as I was really interested in the room with private pool until seeing your picture. It's probably for the best that I didn't get to see the ones you took out...

By the way, there appear to be some plans that have yet to be advertised, but show up if you enter them directly into the Corporate or Group Code Area:

28294: Explore Package: Daily breakfast: Phuket Fantasia per person per stay : Tax excluded - Breakfast is for registered adults in the room - Valid 7 days a week - Destination inclusion is per stay

28297: Romance Package: Breakfast daily: Bottle of sparkling wine per stay : One cake per stay - Breakfast each morning is valid at hotel restaurant or in room dining - Breakfast is for registered adults in the room - 2 night minimum length of stay

Romance Package is only available for two adults.

Also, be aware that this hotel does not have voltage converters, so if you're bringing a laptop or something else that you will need to charge, BYO.
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