Just finished a 3 night stay. This is a brief review:
Location: From the airport is about 30-40min ride, which will cost 600B (one way)on a Toyota Camry (hired at the airport). You can also hire the return, since it can cost you more if hired at the hotel. The hotel is located near Phuket town, but it is necessay to go by car. The shuttle bus runs kind of every hour (you must reserve it) and will cost 50B/person/one way. The other option is to take the taxi, which cost 300B (quite high if you consider is a 10min ride).
The town offers some local food, groceries.
Checkin: Greeted with a kind of lemonade and cold wet towel. I booked a Superior room with pool access (these are the rooms that share a private pool, 2 rooms for 1 small pool). Although being SPG Plat, got NO upgrade
and they wanted to downgrade me to a regular superior room. Had to discuss for a while and finally I got what I booked. Bad start and sour taste. Was transported to the room in a golf cart.
Room: The room was a normal king size (nothing impressive, of course is an entry level room
) with its own balcony and 2 chairs by the semi-private pool. Overlooking the bay (far view is nice), but the beach view is awful.
No pool towels in the room, although we had a pool. So if needed had to go all the way up the hill to the Splash pool or down to the Horizon pool.
Bathroom was ...just a bathroom.
Hotel: the setup is nice, staff attentive but not trained to an Asian level property you expect. Beach is as many reported here...unswimmable. Also very dirty, they have a staff of two everyday picking up the rubbish that arrives overnight. The pools are nice but small grounds. Many Chinese and Korean groups or couples, not Japanese at all (at least during my stay).
Food: Breakfast was tough to get a table from 9am~. Once there was a line of 8+ people waiting. The day we ate at 7am was ok. Food selection and quality was decent. Nothing impressive. The juices were kind of artificially sweetened and many dishes were kept empty for quite a while (had to wait almost 30min for the hash browns). No icecream anymore as reported earlier. Room service was ok, not slow as reported and quality in-line with breakfast experience.
Spa: booked one signature treatment for my wife and an 80min massage for me. It is a nice Spa, but nothing impressive. I guess you get what you pay, so no complains but wouldn't come to the hotel because of the spa. No waiting room or sauna/mist room to enjoy prior your massage, you just get to the massage room. It's just an unimpressive spa with western rates.
SPG Plat Happy hour: everyday at the Splash bar 6-7pm (kind of short), was a nice amenity. The staff is very attentive, view is nice and drinks good. Be careful to use the Plat menu and not the regular, or you will be charged.
One very negative point was that after the spa was going back to the room to relax and found 2 guys sitting on our balcony, eating and drinking. They were apparently the guys next door that found nothing better than use the neighbors balcony. I ask the front desk if the balconies are public use or belong to the room. They said is part of the room and should be private. After a while we managed to put the guys back to their side, but it was not easy. Avoid shared pool rooms!
All in all considering that we are all busy people and need to enjoy a nice stay, especially when coming to Phuket (enjoy good food, beach/sun, upgraded room (to a suite preferrably if you are Plat) I do not recommend this property. The experience was not worth at all, and I will not return to this property. Even for a MR I would prefer to stay in a property in my town and stay longer at the good property in Phuket (if SPG LM Phuket is much much better).