---> there is a short conlcusion at the end of the post <----

We had a short trip in June to Khao Lak. I've split it to two three nights stays between the LeMeridien KL and the JW Marriott Khao Lak.
We wanted to see the difference between the hotels. I have read all the reviews and will try to do a fair comparison here. This thread will be edited later. Forgive me, my english is not perfect, i'm not a native speak....

1. LE MERIDIEN
Transport and Check-In
We arrived at Phuket Airport and had the transport booked by LeMeriden for 2500 if i remember correctly.
I tried to look for the airport lounge but didn't spot it so we went outside were all the other drivers had signs. After 15 minutes the driver found us and we 2 minutes later we were already heading to Khao Lak. Driving style was excellent, and i really liked all the drivers from the LeMeridien. I never regretted it to have have car booked from the hotel. The LM is about 5-10 driving minutes north of the JW Marriott. We arrived about 2 hours later at the hotel ( we had 1-2 stops to take pictures ). We were asked to take a seat in the lobby which had a nice view. A clerk came over to us and asked me for a hotel voucher ?! I was sad they did not expect us as we have booked the hotel car and they should have known who was coming.... ( i remember my first stay at the Sheraton Pattaya, we arrived by private car and my door was openend and the first sentence was "Welcome to Sheraton Pattaya, are you Mister xxxx ? , i was really impressed.... / How could they know ?" ) So i really expected a little bit more here.... After i pulled out our passports and membership card the clerk went back and one of the villa and suite hosts came over, i dont remember her name but she really took care during our stay. ( we had the cheapest room booked under BRG )
We received sparkling wine for welcome drink and information about the hotel. From this moment on i felt very welcome The hostess took us on a tour through the hotel in buggy and escorted us to our room.

The room /suite
It was low season, the hotel was almost empty and we we're upgraded to a decent suite with two balconies but no view. The room was really nice and included a kitchenette. ( I think you cannot book this room on the website ).
We really enjoyed the big room on the first night as it was raining all evening. Next morning we woke up because somebody forgot to reset the alarm clock... i hate when this happens on holiday.. You could hear the people upstairs walking around in their room, wooden floor = noise, but it was not too bad.
Next morning i asked to take a look at the villas. They offered me a fair price so we decided to upgrade to a oceanfront pool villa for the next 2 nights. The private pool with jacuzzi was nice, the outdoor area was nice and we also liked the bathroom. The villa itself was a lot smaller then the suite. You have your own sunbeds directly at the beach and your own table to take a private dinner. Really nice to relax and lounge in privacy. The villa host team walked by every day to ask if everything was fine. I asked for my favourite fruits and they were brought everyday. Only problem was if u had open food inside the villa very small ants showed up within half an hour and enjoyed the meal too. they were really small and they only went for the food. It is impossible to keep them out in an enviroment like this. In the evenings you see a lot of wildlife directly walking in your garden what i really enjoyed.

Breakfast/ Food / Service
The breakfast was nice. They offered a great variety and quality stuff. fresh salmon, very nice ham and cheese. We were morte than satisfied with this breafkast. ^ The service was excellent too ( but they were not many guests they had to take care of.
We only took lunch at the beach restaurant two times, they offered two 99THB dishes which was a really good value ( a coke was more expensive then the plate ). We had other food delivered to the room. The pizza was nice and also the salads. We were not impressed by their thai food though.. As in all intl hotel chain restaurants i would love to have a greater choice of local food. One evening we had to call the "butler" three times to have the tray removed...
I really didn't feel comfortable with the staff of the pool bar... the drinks were ok though.
There was not really much choice to eat outside of the hotel unless u took the shuttle bus. It was 100THB per person to town center. Not expensive but i expect a service like this to be complimentary.

Hotel area:
Decent, big pools, playground for children. Nice activity center. I liked the hotel grounds.


Check-out was great, much better than check-in

We took the hotel car and changed to the

2. JW MARRIOTT KHAO LAK
Checkin
We were seated in the lobby and the view was impressive. We received a welcome drink, refreshing towels and some thai sweets. Check-in was slow and they did not connect my seperate bookings. We were upgraded to a pool access room ( did book the lowest category ). We were escorted to room by buggy and received some information about the hotel. The hotel was also almost empy ( maye 50 other guests ).

Room:
The room had nice design and was stuffed with hightech. The cisco phones and in-room entertainement did not work properly though. ( I saw other peoples guest names in the phone and the folio also showed other peoples names... different names every day ). I set up a wake up alarm but during the night the phone was updating itself and the alarm was gone.... I wanted to call the front desk one time but the phone was downloading something so i could make a call, had to use my mobile phone... The pool access was great... the pool is awesome. The room was small but it was nice.
I did not look at the suites as was impossible to beat the LeMeridien villa experience. JW Marriott KL has no villas. After the first night i received a bill of 20000THB which had charges from other guests before my arrival date, but they fixed it after i complained.

Breakfast/ Food/ Service
The breakfast was POOR The LeMeridien bf i rate 7/10 the JW breakfast would hardly get a 5/10... I can not remember having such a bad breakfast in a 5* Hotel except in Egypt... It was one of the worst buffets i had in thailand.... They stopped to refill everything from 10am... ( i had better breakfast at the Courtyards in thailand...) The fresh smoothie station was the only good thing. The staff at breakfast was nice though.
The food at the restaurants/room service was of better quality and was presented in a better way than at the LeMeridien in my opinion. And everything was a bit cheaper than at the LeMeridien, also the drinks.
You also had the choice to eat outside the hotel, left and right hand on the beach there were small thai restaurants what we really appreciated (hotel food is getting boring so quickly for us)... The pool bar staff was nice and i really enjoyed the small talk. Later we met some of the staff members in Jungceylon phuket and chatted again... Their staff was excellent...
The hotel also offered *surprise* a complementary shuttle bus to khao lak center..

grounds: one of the best pools i have ever seen. It is huge. Everyday i swam from my room to the poolbar near the beach ( about 5-10minutes of swimming ) It was great to swim around the around the immense pool. They also had a playground for children and children pool which looked better than the one at the LeMeridien. The beach area looked smaller than at the LeMeridien and the waves were so strong that it was impossible to swim at the days we were there. I liked the style of the JW more than the style of the LeMeridien.

Checkout was ok, i asked for the price for transport to Westin Siray Bay but then booked a car from budget and drove by myself.


CONCLUSION:
Both properties are very nice and both have their flaws. I would return to both of them. ( not during high season )
If i had 6 nights again in Khao Lak i think i would split my stay again...
Both hotel have some very good staff members, but except from the villa host team at the LeMeridien i would rate the staff slightly higher at the JW Marriott. Both hotels gave upgrades. We spent around 3times the money at the LeMeriden but had a villa for two nights and only ate in the hotel.

JWMARRIOTT
PRO

CON

LEMERIDIEN
PRO

CON

I will add some pictures soon.