mario33

1) It depends on your expectations of a LC property. Apart from the lack of a property balcony, the physical property is fine with me; not great but acceptable & certainly better than many other LC properties. The complaint on this thread is from someone who stayed in an unrenovated room, so its not reflective of the overall standard.

2) Its not only the monkeys, but a whole lot of wildlife.

3) Service is inconsistent , but management is trying hard to improve.

jaejaez

Thanks Mario.

how would you compare it to say... Nusa Dua Bali or the Sheraton Grande Phuket?

mario33

The renovated rooms at the Laguna Bali is slightly nicer, but the Andaman 'all new' bathrooms are better . The newly renovated room at the Sheraton Grande Phuket (that I have seen) is more plush but it may be more suited for a city hotel.

Its actually quite difficult to compare like for like; at the Laguna Bali plats tend to get upgraded to a suite or studio which are very nice spacious rooms, but at The Andaman you get the same smallish room & your upgrade is on the view (or the extra lanai). A studio (or suite) at the Laguna Bali would be much more comfortable than a room at The Andaman, but you wont get the spectacular seaview at the Laguna Bali.

VanMan

Are Plats never upgraded to suites at the Andaman?

mario33

Unrenovated exec suite (rain forest view) - yes

But it appears they are closing the south wing again, so these suites may not even be available for the next few months.

BHSA

I just checked in to this hotel today with a friend for a 4 day retreat after 2 weeks on the road in Asia, for some R&R, and had even put in some extra money to go for a so called deluxe room with a sea view.

First some positive things about this resort.
Location with the swimming pool and the beach is just marvelous and while waiting for our room to be ready we really enjoyed the environment.
In addition the restaurant and pool staff are professional an service minded, while having lunch our order where taken by the department head of food and beverage and he was very service minded and come up with a lot of suggestion for what to do etc...

When we finally got our "Deluxe Seaview" room, after waiting for a couple of hours we arrived at the location around 13.30. We are to friends traveling together and we had specifically booked 2 Single beds and I was surprised that beds where connected but separated with pillow.

After some discussion with the reception we where told that this was the only set up they had in the hotel, but it was possible by rearranging the room and beds to get at least a 30 cm glitch between the beds. My question is when they allow you to book to single beds why don't they at least set up the room so that they are 2 real single beds and not just 2 single bed as a double bed ?

The room it self was really worn down large scratches in the wooden floor and at some areas of the floor the dark brown floor was scratched down white.

The furniture as well was worn down and in my room the door to the cabinet fall down when opening the door and the door to the so called balcony doesn't open at all. as of now none of these things have been fixed, this must have been a problem before I cheked inn so why wasent this taken care of before i was assigned the room ?

For a hotel that are a part of the "Luxury collection" I had much higher expectations.

And of course the where no Gold member recognition at check inn no question about late check out etc...

Summarized f it hadn't been for the fact that they have a 7 day cancellation policy I would have been out here tonight and found a another starwood property to half the price.

Updated :

After staying here for 4 days I was totally changed in my opinion about this hotel see post below for further comments, take this post as just bad start and me forgetting to not post anything before getting things in a distance.

mario33

The Four Points is not due to open until July, the Westin is sometimes priced higher & the Sheraton is only marginally cheaper. I would be very interested to know which Starwood hotel you were refering to .....

Regarding the beds; its 2 single beds pushed together if you book twin beds.The Andaman is not the only hotel with this set-up ......

BHSA

I had booked a sea view room at the Andaman to the nice price of around 1200 MR pr night and when I checked online I could get a seaview room same size on the Sheraton for around 650 MYR pr nigth witch in my mind is approx half the price.


It might bee that The Andaman is not only hotel with this setup but based on my experience the last 5 years with more or less weekly traveling, mainly Europe, its the first time where the hotel when booking twin beds and 2 people staying there that they haven't fixed it in advance at least.

But some times the first expression of an hotel can be changed and after have stayed there for 3 nigths I must admit that that even though this hotel had is flaws in the start I learned to realy enjoy it. The staff expect for 1 or 2 persons was so helpful and service minded, they made us all feel special. And as mentioned earlier the facilities was perfect and the private beach with boats etc made us want to never leave.

Didn't hurt either that the management with the GM in front daily had walk troughs amongst the guest just to show face and talk with people and take care of problems people had.

After 4 days at this hotel my only feedback is that the room was a little worn down but what do you care when the rest of the facilities are so good, you don't need to be in your room except for sleeping or changing.

I will be back next year

camsean

BHSA, I'm glad things improved for you.

Leumas

Have booked this using my Gateaway awards, but not too late to change...

1) Do Platinums still get breakfast comped?
2) How are upgrades for Platinums? Look like suites aren't likely?

yosithezet

I'm considering burning some FRNs here as well. Any recent information is appreciated.

Also, as the rooms sound kinda small. Is there room for a roll-away for a child?

mario33

The L-shaped sofa can be converted into 2 small beds, similar to the arrangements at the LM Chiang Mai.

Leumas

Just returned from my stay, booked 3 rooms, 1 using FRNs, the others using cash.

Excellent service all round, even had a personal welcome from the GM. Remote location, and you need to arrange transport to/from the airport or if you want to go somewhere.

I received a suite, but was told there was only 2 suites in the entire hotel. But they also upgraded the other 2 rooms from the base room type to ocean view. However, half the resort is under renovation, but perhaps there will be 4 suites when the work is complete. The golf course is also being worked on and only 9 holes are available. There was no noise issue.

The beach is pretty (looking down from the hotel) and there are lots of wildlifes around. On closer inspection, the beach is actually quite dirty, and each morning, there's staff picking up rubbish. The rubbish comes from the ocean and not from the hotel. The tide is also quite noticeable. There's next to no beach at high tide - the ocean pretty much goes right up to the resort. It's difficult to swim in the ocean because the bottom is very rocky. I tried to walk in one day and had difficult to gain a solid footing. There are other water-based and land-based activities that you can register for. The Kids Club deal is also worth considering.

Full breakfast (and it's a good spread) is free for Platinums. Free wifi (regardless of status) is available in rooms and at public places of the hotel (I didn't pick up any signals at the pool though).

Lulu

Leumas,

A few quick questions. Is your suite in the north or south wing? Has it been renovated? How is the view, sea view or rainforest view?

Thanks

Leumas

I'm not sure which wing nor whether the room was renovated, sorry. My guess is it's the south wing. The room is in decent condition even if it wasn't renovated.

It's sea view. Anything below level 4 (the top level) won't get a decent ocean view.