This property was originally built by the Oriental Mandarin Group and I stayed there in 1993 after it had been opened for a few weeks. Much to my surprise the management did not have a handle on the operations yet and after my stay in the presidential suite i shared my experiences in great detail with the head office in Bangkok.
I was given 4 free nights in a suite at any property worldwide and a followup debriefing by senior management was requested which I happily provided. Oriental poured significant resources into the property and could not make a go of it so the sale to Meridien came and they too struggled at this location but kept it as Koh Samui became more popular.