It might have been an instance of "when it rains, it pours", but even ignoring the soft product issues, the hard product is just not adequate anymore. Don't get me wrong, I think the property does look beautiful and it must have been a top notch product in past days, but it just isn't anymore.

A "resort manager" (not sure if this is what Aman calls GM's) did reach out via email offering to refund one night for the lack of AC during the first night, which certainly was a nice guesture but I would have rather had no issues in the first place. I would be surprised if this was specific to us, but would rather think that everyone staying this night got that email. They did manage to mess that up too though, first claiming they would refund to the card used and that a colleague (CC'ed in the email) would reach out to process the refund. Nobody did reach out, so after a week I followed up. They then discovered that they couldn't refund to the card and asked for a bank account number. They claimed that they would reach out once the wire had gone out, which of course they didn't, but the refund did show up on a few weeks later.

The other service recovery received was a 50 (?) USD off the bill (I'm not entirely sure on the amount), which they added on the spot after I must have looked visibly irritated that they didn't seem to get the delivery of our rental car right (I didn't say a word or complained about this, just tried to explain them that we had a rental car). That covered part of our luke warm meal and soggy Khao Soi from the night before that had been sitting around somewhere for 30 or so minutes.

As pointed out by livefromtuscany, that was Amanpuri in Phuket which does have a beach. I think the intitial room was 802 (see e.g. this map https://www.bluexseatravel.com/wp-co...Amanpuri-1.jpg) which is right by the road that sees quite a bit of motorized traffic. It's not a great room location by any standard, I suppose the message here is: Stay away from the entry level pavillions.

You are right that the Pavillions have been retouched and indeed the ceiling in the Pavillion was a lot higher than in the villa that they gave us on the second night. There was also a dyson hairdryer in the pavillion as opposed to the decades old no-name hairdryier in the villa. What they didn't change was the doors and either they never fitted very well or it's just the effect of 30 years of moisture and heat on wood, but there are gaps everywhere. Ants of course come in through these and it doesn't help with AC performance either. The room layout is also not great anymore. Why is there no couch or sitting area for two people?

My other grievance is the density of the villas which are really close together with paths running through them offering views into your bedroom. Our second assigned pavillion did have a window facing such path and we basically kept the blinds closed the entire time which makes the room rather dark. I vaguely recall sitting under the gazebo outside where the AC outlet from the next villa was quite audible.

As mentioned above, a resort manager did reach out by email. I think the capex that went into the hard product must have been when the resort opened in the 80's. While they might have refurbished villas by removing ceilings and replacing the AC after 30 or so years the villas still visibly show their age (and I wouldn't tout replacing an AC as huge capex after 30 years, it might be from an accounting perspective, but it's really just maintaince). Clearly the resort still sells, particularly in the higher room categories (the only reason I booked the base category room was because no other was available), so they are getting away with it, but the hard product is not adequate anymore in 2024.