Conrad Koh Samui {THA}

Old Sep 22, 2018, 10:58 am
  #121  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: PIT-SCE-AOO-PHL-NYC-WAS
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Posts: 1,032
Originally Posted by monahos
1. There is no executive lounge in the traditional sense. The bar might be referred to as a lounge in some materials, but its drinks are not free outside of HH elite drink coupons if any (don't recall getting them on my last stay).
2. Golf carts will come pick you up with minimal wait, so unless you prefer walking there is no need to.
3. Villas ~205-213 are nearest to the Zest restaurant where breakfast is served, and about at the same level. The corresponding 100/300 series involve a short but steep climb.
4. Jahn is best accessed by golf cart, and should you wish to eat by the main pool, the lower 100 villas are nearest.

Personally my least favorite villa I stayed in, location wise, was ~207 very near Zest, and in your situation I would just make extensive use of the golf carts.

This property's design, with swimmable (not 'plunge') pools and great views in every villa, along with its underwhelming beach, means that most guests end up lazing all day in their own unit, with the public areas (pool, gym, beach) uncrowded..
Thank you so much for sharing your insights. CKS told me hotel isn't busy during my upcoming stay in late October. I am HH Diamond, and would value privacy over short distance to Zest so I should go ahead to make request to stay in 300s level (I assume they will upgrade me to oceanview villa room, minimally instead of standard waterfront villa room)? Any feedbacks or specific room suggestion will be much appreciated.

Also, curious if diamonds get free sparkling wine in their rooms? Hotel told me there is a motorbike shop 5-10 minute away from CKS and cost 300 in case anyone want to rent bike.
washeelers747 is offline  
Old Sep 22, 2018, 4:15 pm
  #122  
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 3,673
Originally Posted by washeelers747
Thank you so much for sharing your insights. CKS told me hotel isn't busy during my upcoming stay in late October. I am HH Diamond, and would value privacy over short distance to Zest so I should go ahead to make request to stay in 300s level (I assume they will upgrade me to oceanview villa room, minimally instead of standard waterfront villa room)? Any feedbacks or specific room suggestion will be much appreciated.

Also, curious if diamonds get free sparkling wine in their rooms?
Diamonds get a basket of fruit (size seems to vary depending on various factors, I never got the largest one...) and 4 drink chits instead of 2 for golds, although I cannot absolutely recall if they were still handed out on my last stay (some cost cutting has been in effect, when CKS opened the amenities were truly luxury class, e.g. thick cotton letter paper, organic mosquito repellent spray, plush slippers, silk robes, etc.)
If you want to enjoy a bottle of bubbly in your villa, you may wish to use your 1l allowance to bring one from home, as local prices are very high (>THB4k for a bottle of e.g. Moet before markup).

Late October is indeed a quiet period, with good upgrade prospects. The last half dozen or so 200's may -deservingly, as they are somewhat higher up and isolated - be classified as retreat as well, as when I stayed in them they had the silk day robes and wooden board games which were only found in retreat villas.
The villas on dead ends are marginally quieter, as the few on the main path have a steady flow of hardly audible golf carts passing by.
Honestly I have never made eye contact with another guest while in my villa. Given the strength of the sun (pools are to my knowledge unheated, so most guests won't spend much time in them when the sun is not up), people do not spend much time hanging over the edge of their pools...
The only time you'll notice anything nearing a crowd is during the latter half of breakfast. I recommend going there when it opens at 7am if you enjoy sitting outside, as it will be cooler, quieter, and the 4 seat tables by the edge will be available to parties of 2. Many customers are East Asians, who prefer eating inside.

Incidentally, you may wish not to arrive by motorbike when you check in: depending on who checks you in, especially if local staff, that may affect your upgrade chances... I was not looking my best when I was assigned to the villa near Zest mentioned in a previous post.

One last tip: if you experience electrical gremlins such as a tiring AC unit (2 per one bedroom villa, IIRC 4 per two bedroom villa), it is quicker and more effective to remove your keycard from its holder by the door once a day for a few minutes than calling maintenance.
monahos is offline  
Old Nov 24, 2018, 2:41 am
  #123  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: GEG (Spokane, WA)
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Just arrived at Cks for a 5 night stay on points. This is our second stay here as well. We are celebrating our 16th anniversary. Marco has been promoted and personally greated us. We were very surprised to find we had been upgraded to a 2 bedroom villa. Prosecco was on ice as well as many other personal touches such as embroidered robes and slippers which are ours to keep. Very impressed for sure.
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Old Nov 25, 2018, 10:29 pm
  #124  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: PHX
Programs: AS MVP, HH Diamond
Posts: 3,259
Just finished a 4 night stay here as diamond.

Fruit basket for us was a bunch of small bananas, 3 mangoes and a dragon fruit. And Macarons. We also got the embroidered robes and slippers. Very nice touch.

4 drink vouchers usable at Azure or Zest.

Assigned rm 211, close to Zest. This is an 'upgrade' from the waterfront villa we booked(using points and free weekend night) Met Marco at the gold/diamond cocktail reception(tues and fridays). He asked if we were happy with our room. We were not unhappy at all, but commented that we know they have some beautiful villas here. He said they do like to upgrade returning diamonds to higher units when possible, but that they were totally full that day and the following day(somewhat impressive as it's the tail end of low season-2 prior nts in a Chaweng hotel and that resort seemed very quiet) He also mentioned that 5 of the two-bedroom villas are being renovated(we noticed passing by them on the paths but heard no noise from the work). Said they can upgrade us to a two-bedroom villa for our final two nights if we are willing to move. We accepted that offer.

Room 211 was pretty good for privacy. Window of room 212 peers over the wall a *little* into our pool deck, their villa is a little higher. Not a big deal really. For most of the villas, some part of the pool and/or deck will be visible from other rooms. Especially when in the pool at the infinity edge. The pool umbrella blocks a bit of the looking down from above.

Upgrade was to Villa 403. Beautiful and we felt more private than some of the others. Again, very few if any of the villas have perfect privacy in the pool/on the deck. But as another poster said, you'd be hard pressed to make eye contact with another guest on their deck/pool area here.

We are fairly fit and walked around to/from zest/pool/beach and along the buggy paths behind the 100/200 level villas for exercise. Above that you would probably need to be a super athlete.

Zest breakfast setup has changed a little from our previous visit in 2015. Now the smoothie/juice bar, dim sum/noodle cart, pancake/waffle grill are out front. I gather this leaves rooms for a few more tables, which seems reasonable. When seated you are presented a menu for ala carte egg dishes- eggs benedict, thai omelette, cantonese omelette. That's in addition to the regular omelette station and buffet. Everything still seemed quite good and many of the dishes/pastries changed daily.

The Pier- Looks like the concrete work is done but still needs a good bit of finishing-railing, boat dock/ramp. Additionally it doesn't look like they have done much of the work to connect the walkways/ buggy paths to the pier. Currently not allowed to walk past a certain point on the promenade. One of the managers at the reception speculated a Q1 2019 finish but he was new and I don't think very connected to the project.

Another manager let us know that they plan to move the fitness center to the location of the kid's club in 2019. Only 1 treadmill, 1 elliptical, 1 bike and a handful of other weight machines and a good rack of weights. Morning one the bike was out of service, morning two the treadmill was also out of service. After that we were a bit discouraged (and also under the weather) so never visited again. I get that it's not a huge resort and may not get quite the use that a big city property fitness center might, but it could use some improvement.

As written about here, Marco was great and approachable. He helps all over the facility, busing tables tables here and there, driving guests to/fro and all sorts of things. All of the other staff were really great too, always happy to help.

We dined at Jahn on our last night. We were really looking forward to this, on our previous visit we felt it was too pricey. Firstly, the location, ambiance, staff, service, and presentation are all REALLY good. But for the price we were not wow'ed by the food. There were certainly items that we thought were very good, the appetizers and palate cleansers. But the signature items like the tom yum soup and wagyu massaman disappointed us. The Tom Yum soup is beautifully presented(broth made at your table-see youtube) but was too salty for me to finish. The wagyu is seared with an iron tableside which is really cool. But I was not blown away by this dishes mixing of a very fine/expensive cut of meat and a massamun curry. I think either are probably great individually, but combined did not make it something as built up as it is in reviews. We are foodies but not really fine diners(e.g. - I accidentally ate the tiny orchid on the papaya salad appetizer), so maybe our palates aren't refined enough. Don't let my opinion spoil your experience. :-)

We had room service a couple of times, the tom ka gai and cashew chicken were both pretty good. We noted that pizza was no longer a room service option which is disappointing. Since it was one of the cheaper dishes and halfway decent hotel/comfort food I would guess it was popular and not as profitable. Now you must get your brick oven pizza fix at the poolside restaurant(Azure).

Watching the full moon set over the five islands in the predawn hours is a memory we won't forget.

Two Conrad Turtles were presented at checkout.

Overall, great experience and hope to return again.
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Ripper3785 is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2018, 4:34 am
  #125  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: GEG (Spokane, WA)
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Great detailed write up. You must have checked out the day we checked in as we are currently in 403. The only issues we have has is that the AC in the 2 bedrooms needed maintenance as it did not blow cold air. This has since been corrected with sincere apologies. We were not in the least bit put out as we were very appreciative of the upgrade.
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 6:33 am
  #126  
 
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Cote d'Ivoire
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Agreed, great TR Ripper3785 and congrats on the upgrade. Can't wait to return. Disappointed the gym is moving. I do like the current location, but agree it's in need of an equipment refresh. And, re: Jahn, agreed. Great staff/service, but food underwhelms for the $$.
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Old Nov 26, 2018, 9:43 am
  #127  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: PHX
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Originally Posted by gaugeguy
Great detailed write up. You must have checked out the day we checked in as we are currently in 403. The only issues we have has is that the AC in the 2 bedrooms needed maintenance as it did not blow cold air. This has since been corrected with sincere apologies. We were not in the least bit put out as we were very appreciative of the upgrade.
Glad you got the upgrade from the start, yes we checked out Saturday. The AC wasn't working well for us either, especially the master, so we slept in the 2nd bedroom. Did they resolve the doorbell not working issue? If you found a few boxes of those biscuit stick cookies things in the Villa, please enjoy with our compliments. Not sure where I left them or if they were taken out of my luggage along the way somewhere.

Back in the office now and hating life!
Ripper3785 is offline  
Old Nov 26, 2018, 3:36 pm
  #128  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
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Funny you mention the door bell. I don’t think I have heard it ring the whole time. I’ve been surprised by the cleaning crew a few times now. I’ll have to let them know about that too. I didn’t find your cookies unfortunately ��.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 2:19 pm
  #129  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Back in Hell
Posts: 4,178
Originally Posted by gaugeguy
Prosecco was on ice as well as many other personal touches such as embroidered robes and slippers which are ours to keep. Very impressed for sure.
Originally Posted by Ripper3785
Fruit basket for us was a bunch of small bananas, 3 mangoes and a dragon fruit. And Macarons. We also got the embroidered robes and slippers. Very nice touch.
These little touches have got Lyle Lewis written all over them. Real shame for regulars at Conrad Rangali that he has moved on from there and that he will be retiring for good soon. He really knows how to look after guests and where to draw the line as far as cost-cutting goes.
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Old Nov 27, 2018, 8:56 pm
  #130  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: GEG (Spokane, WA)
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You are correct. I do have to correct myself earlier. Marco is the currently the operations manager but when Lyle retires in two weeks (confirmed with him yesterday) there will be a new GM coming in. Marco has a few more years before he will be ready to take over as a GM. I can’t recall the name of the new GM but hopefully they will run things as well as Lyle and team.
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Old Nov 28, 2018, 12:59 pm
  #131  
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Originally Posted by gaugeguy
You are correct. I do have to correct myself earlier. Marco is the currently the operations manager but when Lyle retires in two weeks (confirmed with him yesterday) there will be a new GM coming in. Marco has a few more years before he will be ready to take over as a GM. I cant recall the name of the new GM but hopefully they will run things as well as Lyle and team.
I have an upcoming stay in December. Could you give me Marco's email? Seems like he would be the person to talk to for upgrades and stuff Thanks in advance!
rog92 is offline  
Old Nov 28, 2018, 10:49 pm
  #132  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: GEG (Spokane, WA)
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Originally Posted by rog92
I have an upcoming stay in December. Could you give me Marco's email? Seems like he would be the person to talk to for upgrades and stuff Thanks in advance!
I lost the card that Marco gave me but Zhengxi Zhao (Kim) is the resort host leader. She handles these types of requests and proactively contacts diamond members before their stay. Her email is [email protected]
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Old Nov 29, 2018, 12:46 pm
  #133  
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Originally Posted by gaugeguy

I lost the card that Marco gave me but Zhengxi Zhao (Kim) is the resort host leader. She handles these types of requests and proactively contacts diamond members before their stay. Her email is [email protected]
Thanks a lot!
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Old Nov 29, 2018, 5:32 pm
  #134  
 
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Marco's email is:
[email protected]
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Old Nov 29, 2018, 10:58 pm
  #135  
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Originally Posted by SponsorSFC
Marco's email is:
[email protected]
Thank you so much!
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