So, another Sofitel Phokeethra golf resort and spa stay, and must say this did change a few things on how I view the Sofitel brand in some cases (the second last blue flag may give it away somewhat).



Again, this was a hotel recommended by my very good and trustworthy friendGoldorak, but it had been some time since he stayed here last and things had changed since then...

Booking: We booked a room (Luxury Room w/ 1 King Size Bed, Pool and Sea Side) through the Accor website as we always do. The 7 night stay came to roughly TBH 50'000 (or around EUR 1'100) which is very reasonable IMO for a stay in any Sofitel including breakfast. Having a platinum Le Club card at hand we were hoping for an upgrade which we got.

Check In

We had ordered a pickup from KVB airport at domestic arrivals and as we got out there were noone from Sofitel to greet us. We had flown for a good number of hours via HEL and BKK and had hoped for a smooth pickup but it never materialized. I had written to the hotel and specifically asked for a domestic arrivals pickup but something got lost in translation. My better half ran over to the international arrivals and found our man and got him to drive over to the domestic to pick me up with the bags. No hard feelings and these things happen and besides, there were palm trees out by the parking spaces and sun. The ride took around 45 min through some bumpy roads as there were massive road works going on, but made no difference to us. We had cold drinks served in the minibus (as well as cold refrshing towles) and the driver was very careful when driving on the rugged roads

Upon arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by the reception staff asking us to take a seat in the nicely decorated hall. Cold welcome drinks were quickly served as we were expected and all the papper work was done very fast and discretley. We were introduced to the manager in charge MrAlfredo Denage(the GM was in BKK on business) who we had a very pleasant short talk with. More people came and introduced themselves expalining their field of experetice and that they were there for our convenience around the clock. A bit overwhelming but never-the-less very professional and informative. Our bags had been taken care of since we were picked up at the airport and delievered without delay in our room seconds after we entered the door.

Service

One thing that really brought the whole Sofitel experience down was (as mentioned before the second last blue Tui flag in the first photo) that the hotel now chartered for Northern European (DK, SE, NO and FI) package holiday makers that would never check in to a Sofitel hotel otherwise. To put it mildly the clientele from these tours do not quite fit into the Sofitel segment and it struck us the first morning while having breakfast when a yellow bear costume bearing person together with a holiday rep walked around the restaurant to greet the families that were there with Tui

Not being happy with the disapoining experiences as described above we asked to talk with the manager the following day. Quietly we explained our views and what our expectations were when booking and checking in at a Sofitel something we felt had not been fullfilled at the establishment. I kind of felt that the manager knew what I was going to say before i even got to the bare bone and this is where the staff of Sofitel really shows it stands above the rest in my opinion.

Without hesitation Mr Denage said he would see what he could do as his priority was that we (which he called VIPs) where here to feel relaxed and not have any problems with our stay. A few hours later he upgraded us to the top tier Opera suite with our own access to the private pool shared with only 8-10 other rooms

We were asked to return to the reception at 18:00 as the room would then be ready for us, and that our bags would be taken care of. We sat in the lounge having our drinks and at 17:45 Andreas, the duty manager (from Switzerland) who we hadn't really talked to earlier, came and told us that the room as ready and that he would like to escort us down to the room (189) at our convenience.WOW service above our wildest expectations.

The Opera Suite was the same size as the Prestige suite we had previously been in but had one huge difference and that was the direct entry to the private pool.

Room

We had been upgraded to a Prestige room (159) just as per the Le Club Platinum benefitsand this is one thing I love about being a plat.

The entrance greeted us with a fresh flower arrangement and then we knew this is Sofitel.



Living room:



Bed room:



Bathroom (Same feel as Seam Reap)



Nice fruit arrangement with a personal note from the hotel staff...



The room was very clean in deed and everything one could dream of (there were even 2 television sets with DVD player - and DVDs included for free should we wish to use this service - which we didn't use). The bathroom had all possible thinkable amities (L'Occitane) and lots of fresh towels. Super nice and as one would expect from Sofitel.

This was a corner room at the very end of one of the buildings, so secluded and very quiet meaning no other people disturbing the peace and quite



The terrace was facing the pool area but was far enough to not be disturbed.

Impressive flower arrangements and well equiped minibar



So, the Opera suit was a tad upscale from the other room we first stayed in, as mentioned before had it's own private entry to the pool and all of a sudden our stay turned to great (or as great as it could get due to the circumstances mentioned earlier with the Nordic package holiday makers).

The room consisted of a main living room with the direct access to the pool, and a separate toilet, to the left a large bed room with a huge double bed which was amazingly comfortable and a large 2 sink bathroom with "walk-in" bathtub, rainforest shower and yet another water closet. The "sitting" room also had TV number 2 as well as a DVD player and I believe the option to get DVD's from the reception (at no extra cost I believe). We did not use the TV or it's service so cannot comment on it...



Bed room upon arrival with flower petals, and an elephant towel that my other half could not leave alone for 2 min :-)



The windows on the left are the entry to the terrace that faced the pool and also have direct access to the sun beds to the right. Only "down" thing is that the TV was an older CRT type, but we did not go to Thailand to watch TV (we have enough of that at home).

The terrace as mentioned, we did not use at all as we had the direct pool access but nice touch never-the-less...



When entering the bathroom, on the left there was one sink and the WC straight ahead



And to the right sink number two (and the shower to the left)



On the right side was the steps up to the elevated bathtub/yakuzi



Now, I'm not a particular fan of the whole rose petal thing, but some people are and I guess it adds a little wow to the ordinary (which of course this room was anything but). The staff had lit the candles before we "moved" in and did add a little extra to the whole experience.

The view from the "terrace" towards the pool entry.



and the big selling point of this room was the own pool access which had two sun-beds facing the pool and were very comfortable in deed.



We had a room about â…“ down the pool side and I guess there could have been 8-10 rooms (maybe more maybe less) with the pool access and what I saw there was maybe only one (maybe max two) other rooms that had been booked, as we didn't see anyone else using the pool from these rooms.

Opera Suits facing the pool side, looking down towards the end of the private pool



Opera suits facing the the pool towards the "linking" to the main shared pool (room 191, which I believe was the top of the top room at the hotel, we had 189)



The pool was conjoined through a narrow passage between the main shared and the private part. There was a zig zag partition between the the two (you had to swim up towards the left as per the photo above) and there were two signs that clearly stated that this was a private part of the complex and no access was allowed. Of course this was ignored by our "friends" who where there on the package holiday through Tui (Finnmatkat). I did notice later, that the staff put up a rope with buoys to indicate that this was not an entry point and did somewhat help. I did not say anything as I thought the managers as mentioned before had done more than one could ask of and did not want to cause any more problems...

Pool

The pool area was in the best Club La Santa style (have never been there but it's what I could imagine) and lots of loud obnoxious people running around making a scene most of the time. It was very difficult to get a sun chair unless you got up at 5 a.m to leave your towel across the 5-7 sun beds you felt belonged to your all inclusive payment. We did not once go to the pool area which was a pity as the pool looked nice from a distance.

The pool side, as said earlier, was very difficult to come by due to the hoards of the all inclusive guests. There was a cafpoolside restaurant that could have been nice had it not been for the clientele. Unfortunately, this also had a negative impact on some of the staff working this area tbh. Some where not very interested in their jobs, which I honestly can understand as I saw that they were not spoken nicely to and treated pretty bad in many cases. Could be a language barrier or just ignorance by my fellow Scandinavians (which I'm ashamed of admitting I am also)... I don't know.



Pool (early evening - sorry for the poor light, but I just wanted to get out of there so didn't take my time to do the correct manual setting before it was too late)

Beach

The beach on the otherhand was much more relaxed and more or less free from the loudmouths at the pool.



There were staff all the time present making sure all were equiped with towls and to help out with moving sunbeds if needed

Dining

One thing I noticed after we moved to the new room, was that there was an activity centre with a Cooking School so it didn't take me many seconds to run up to the activity booking centre at the foyer to book a class. Half a day (around 4 hours) with one of the Thai Restaurant chefs was just what I wanted, and luckily I was the only person who signed up (I guess our beer drinking Tui friends were busy sleeping it off in the sun by the pool on one of their sun beds they had "booked" by the towel principle at 05.00 am in the morning) so I was happy...



The course was good fun, but I would have liked to do a little more cooking myself and the person I am I was hoping for a test or exam at the end of it, but it never happenedI did get to invite my better half to my own cooked dinner that evening, and did also get a diploma for my hard work

The result of the hard labour (and it did actually taste very very good in deed)

Overall

The Hotel in general:

The Reception was, as I remember it, very similar to that of the Sofitel in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and followed the colonial style very well in deed. Very high ceilings, and as this being close to equator (or rather close enough) it had no walls but rather a huge "walk" through space with the reception to the right and a hotel shop and caflounge area to the left. Very stylish and felt right.

Lobby/foyer area:



View from the lobby towards the italian restaurant and the breakfast area below:



We did have one horrible experience in the Italian restaurant, and this was when a group (Swedes this time - I'm half Swedish btw) came in with their children, and had a table bang in the middle of the restaurant. All of a sudden one of the fathers decided that this was the right place and time to change the diapers of one of the toddlers. He did not even bother to move away from the table and made no effort to the slightest see if there were any other possibilities of doing this job

The main lobby seen from the sitting area:



Looking down towards the pool (and the sea at the very back) from the lobby. On the right side is the Spa (which my partner more or less moved into while there), and the restaurant(s) to the left.:


The spa:



The hotel had a good number of rooms and was spread over three floors. Both of our rooms where on the ground floor and what I could gather all rooms were in kept in the colonial style. I spoke to some of the maids (are they called maids these days?) and they were not too happy with having 6 people sharing a room (again the package holiday makers) as the mess they made was close to unbearable.

The three storeys:



Final word:

The Sofitel Krabi is a nice hotel and especially if you have status through your A-Club membership or opt to go for an Opera suite with private pool access so I would probably go back again. The only BIG setback is the sellout to Tui and it should maybe have been mentioned on the website so one would know prior to booking (we would not have booked tbh had we known). It would maybe have been a little better if the hotel was closer to the town so one could get away, but being a bit isolated this was not always an easy option (being tired after a full day of activities etc).

We did get an invitation to the GM's Friday cocktail reception in the bar where we (I believe) would been able to have a drink with the management, but missed it because of a pre booked food tour of Krabi. I, for one, would have loved to have been there and get a better understanding of not only Sofitel Krabi but of Accor in general from a first hand source.

One reason to get actually get back without hesitation would be because of managers Alfredo and Andreas who put all other hospitality managers to shame no matter how hard they would have tried, and made our stay as good as they possibly could and without a catch

That's my 2 cents onSofitel Krabi Phokeethra golf resort and spa

PS. It is NOT ok to walk around in a hotel lobby without your shirt on...