good times
I spent a couple nights here recently with family staying in a large 4 bedroom family villa (8 adult capacity) and we absolutely loved it. Our villa (312) had a separate large dining room/kitchen and living room, with one 2-twin bedroom on the ground floor, and another on the second floor directly ontop of it, and then two large master bedrooms which both had large balconies with an ocean view. The pool was located beneath the balconies and while it did not have an ocean view, it was surrounded by landscaping and grass and shrubs rather than being directly next to the resort roads.
Not all villas in the same room category at Premier Village are equal. Some of the beachfront villas are remarkably close to the public amenity areas and do not seem to offer much privacy, as they're sandwiched between the resort beach and the road. Additionally, many of the 'island villas' and 'hillside villas' are spaced very close together, and face the resort roads, and you'll end up seeing shuttles and people very often. We booked a hillside villa category (6 adult capacity) but requested additional adult guests, the resort said they would charge us an additional $60 or 70 per guest per night. Now, I was afraid that they were going to charge us extra and give us a 6 adult capacity villa and make the rest sleep on a sofa bed, but the resort staff actually reserved for us Villa 312, which is technically in the Hillside category, but is built to the spec of a 4 bedroom oceanview, on a one way road a top a small hill (meaning more privacy, less traffic). If you look at the resort map pdf, you will see FAMILY VILLAs scattered throughout the resort, yet Family Villa is not a bookable room category on the Accor website.
The villas are sprawled throughout the peninsula and the resort was built into the forest so some villas are quite far (walk-wise) from the amenities, which is why they tell you to call for an electric cart (buggy) to get around the resort. I think Premier Village is best enjoyed by staying in the resort, in a large private villa, rather than attempting to go on excursions to other destinations in Phu Quoc island. The resort is pretty isolated accessible through some mountain roads, even though there's a large resort area near the JW Marriott where you can find restaurants and food stalls -- the prices are very high and the food quality is low. Definitely go for in-room dining instead. The in-villa private BBQ is excellent (and half the price of the private beachfront BBQ at the JW Marriott). The breakfast buffet gets very busy and the food fare is nothing spectacular. I recommend requesting breakfast in-room instead, they will send you a large quantity of breakfast foods boxed, which you can enjoy in peace. We also had a beachfront dinner at Corallo Restaurant--the food was decent, but prices were high and I didn't see the value when comparing it to the In-Villa BBQ, which is amazing value. Apparently the resort is having an issue with guests bringing in their own food and causing a mess in the villa kitchen when cooking or causing a fuss over requesting dining services, so the resort has implemented some steep surcharges for that behaviour. Because after all, the profit margin lies in the food and beverage and amenity sales, rather than the room rate itself. However, some of my more frugal family members snuck some takeaway into the resort, so YMMV depending on what you wanna do.
Back to the hard product, overall it was satisfactory: the villa we stayed in did not show too many signs of wear yet, but some villas I walked past look pretty beat up on the outside...The pool was in great condition, AC was cold, fans were smooth and quiet, water pressure was great, sound proofing was excellent, lighting design was excellent. The kitchen was fully stocked, but we didn't do any cooking aside from making instant ramen noodles. I wish they provided us with more drinking water. Also the fridge was not very cold, but the freezer was decent.
Workers are constantly maintaining the property landscaping. The resort will let you know when landscapers plan to work near your villa, and ask you if its suitable or not. From our villa, we saw and heard many tropical birds, saw many boats in the ocean, even saw a monkey. No mosquito or pest problems whatsoever. You can keep the floor to ceiling windows open if you wanted to and embrace the whole indoor-outdoor living thing. The lush forest greenery was beautiful. You can tell the resort puts a lot of effort into the landscaping.
Based on a price per square foot consideration, Premier Village is a great deal. Just be prepared to pay a lot more if you're eating lunch and dinner on premises. The in-villa BBQ is great because its hard to mess up fresh grilled meat and seafood, but I do not recommend eating at Corallo. I'd recommend buying plenty of snacks, ready to eat foods, and drinks from a grocer in Phu Quoc town and then bringing them into the resort with you (just don't disclose this to the staff!).
There is a language barrier as not all resort staff are fluent in English...Guest Services sometimes had trouble understanding our more complicated requests, but you can also use their smartphone app, which lets you communicate with guest services and automatically translates your comms.
I can't wait to go back here and stay the highest room category next time. Cheers!