ZFW-ATC

Very nice video review. Brought fond memories of my stay there last year.

Eric

rkaradi

Very nice video, thanks for sharing. Heading there in December and if I wasn't already excited...

Land-of-Miles

I have revised my opinion of the reasonableness of pricing here after spending £150 on a pretty simple dinner from the snack menu and an average bottle of wine at Azure last night. This is more than the equivalent cost at the comparable Conrad Rangali bar.

bamboola

All the suites are the same. Beach villa refers to those on the first level. Retreat villas are those on the third level.

Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone?

lewende

You are right. All 1xx, 2xx, and 3xx villas are one-bedroom villas with a pool. The only difference is the view.

I love this hotel much more than Conrad Maldives.

Thunderroad

I basically agree, lewende, though IIRC there are one or two minor bells and whistles you get in the second and third level villas that you don't in the first. Also, if you care, be aware that some villas are slightly better situated than others on the same level in terms of the views and privacy. (I think I detailed this in my post in this thread following our own stay a couple of years ago, if you feel like searching.) But the bottom line is that they are all great and that, with the exception of practically no beach, this is an outstanding property.

Land-of-Miles

We are in 301 which I love because it is very private.

I too think this is a better property than Rangali, service is top notch which I couldn't say for Rangali and being able to bring your own booze also makes an enormous difference even though we will still spend circa £3k here..

Land-of-Miles

To update my thoughts post stay.

This is a superb property we loved it and ate in every restaurant and drank in every bar except Aura.

Highlights were the private dinner with matched wine with friends in the Wine Cellar and the tasting menu with matched wine at Jahn, which gave Nahm in Bangkok (where we ate prior to our stay) a serious run for its money and whilst we loved Nahm (and it's earlier London incarnation) the Massaman Wagyu at Jahn alone would tip the balance for me.

I had thought that prices in resort were relatively high and with a spa day and expensive dinners and drinks at nights most nights for our 8 night stay I expected to pay £3k+ at checkout and was amazed when our total bill came too only £1.7k. This was the best use of HH points (pre devaluation) I have ever made including our Rangali stay.

The views for the villas and pools especially at the 300 level and above are stunning. The staff were broadly excellent (but see below) and we had no major issues however I was surprised by a couple of things.

Firstly this property has to have the most disengaged senior management of any Hilton property I have ever visited. Not once were we greeted by any of the management team beyond a chat with what I assume was the Exec chef Conrad at breakfast one day. I cannot think of another property where I have stayed a similar length of time and not been invited to a managers drinks reception or been contacted to enquire about my stay. The GM and members of his team would sit in restaurants and bars talking amongst themselves and not say a word to guests. I am thus reluctant to give them any credit for the superb staff this resort has.

Secondly breakfast is poor. The a la carte offerings are pretty dismal and the English breakfast somewhat sad. Portion sizes are amazingly small and I have never eaten poorer bacon anywhere in SouthEast Asia (even Muslim countries). Staff here were often disorganised, orange juice was only available on request (and sometimes ran out before we got to breakfast). Simple things like napkins and cutlery were often hit and miss.

When other resorts offer similar or better quality accommodation (e.g. The ocean view pool villas at the meridien, albeit without the superb view) at much lower prices I would really expect a more engaged management to sell us on another visit. Sadly I think senior management let this property and their mainly superb staff down. I shall probably give the meridien ocean-view pool villa a try on our next trip to Samui as a result as a brief drop in visit to this amongst several starwoods on the island resulted in a full tour from the front desk manager who was proud of his resort and happy to spend time with us showing it off and arranging drinks etc. even though we were just passing through. This level of management engagement is what the Conrad Samui seems to sadly lack.

Tomphot

We stayed in #302 during our visit and loved the location as well.

Our stay was before the current GMs regime, it's sad to see that the management style hasn't changed.
We had met the GMs son on the pier feeding the fish one day. The next day, we were out to lunch and my wife noticed him a few tables over with his parents. We were both leaving at the same time so my wife said hi to the son and mentioned that we were staying on property and thought it was great. We barely got a nod of recognition as they walked to their car. Very strange.

bamboola

I did not meet the current GM during our stay because he was on business in Europe. However, he did email me several times (before, during, and after our stay) to ensure that everything was running smoothly.

He also made sure that his Director of Operations (Simon) looked after us during our stay. When Simon had to leave on a business meeting in Bangkok, his staff told us that he called to make sure we were well looked after.

I am surprised to read the above comments. This is one management team that has consistently surpassed my expectations and that followed through on reasonable requests.

mileageking

+1. Agree with you. We received same great experience from management when staying we stayed in #233.

Deking

Has any diamond received a welcome bottle of wine recently?

bamboola

Yes.

Dcislander

The wine was a This version of Boones Farm, just not as good. At least that is what we got. If you like wine it's best left alone.

Land-of-Miles

No