m0hamed

I've lurked their deals for years. And from what I can gather from customer reviews (factoring many are unseasoned travellers) is that if you make the booking and require no further assistance it works well.

It's when you need to change it or require some intervention issues seem to arise.

Many properties offer half or full board. We used to stay at the Westin Siray Bay annually since it opened until it began to fall apart around us because of the build quality. One year I saw they had a package with meals for half or full board. We booked full board but ended up skipping lunch. Who can eat breakfast, a 3 course lunch and a 3 course dinner?! I later discovered it's quite common on TA or wholesale packages like LE.

Some *wood properties put these offers on their website but often you would need to email in house reservations direct.

Anyway, I am less skeptical because of the stature of these resorts. It's not a small independent property. They could allocate less desirable rooms, however booking a higher room category should overcome that.

Within an hour of booking VB reservations team reached out, confirming the benefits and asking my flight details for transfers so it looks so good so far.

yosithezet

I'm sure you will really enjoy your stay. VB is a great property.

I'm assuming that no points can be earned with these stays, but look forward to hearing confirmation from your upcoming stay.

jjakobv84

Perhaps -- it is bookable on marriott.com as well, but the price can vary. Some dates match LE, other dates are significantly higher on marriott.com.

LIH Prem

I too was wondering if an LE booking would be a qualifying booking or not.

The titanium benefits were terrific, including a great upgrade and choice of the full breakfast menu, including as many entrees and items as you wanted, including those french oysters. Other breakfast inclusions were for a more limited menu. (they accidentally gave us the more limited menu one day until we asked about it and swapped it back for us.) I posted the menu somewhere upthread.

-David

Dr. HFH

Don't the prices on LE also vary by date?

m0hamed

somemale

Considering here, the W or the Ritz. My two most important factors are the breakfast and beach.

It seems the Vanna Belle has the best beach? However I like a traditional but vast variety for the breakfast buffet. Anyone have any pics or comments on this?

VCURamFan

I stayed at both VB and Ritz last January. The service at the Ritz was so horrific and bizarre that it was the first hotel I've ever checked out of early. That being said, the breakfast there was amazing and among the best in the world. The beach flat out sucked, and to make matters worse the pool near the beach was understaffed and full of small children. The beach at VB is ten times better than the Ritz. Breakfast at VB was very good, but not as good as Ritz, service level at VB more than made up for that small difference.

somemale

Thank you for the first hand information! Will definitely help me in making my final decision.

Frab1

Currently staying at Vana Belle and think it is merely okay for the >€400 per night it costs us (13,500 THB per night). We booked the Jungle room and got upgraded to the premium ocean room, which gives us a view of the ocean framed in two high walls, but otherwise nothing special.

Beach and pool are good and so is breakfast spread and the dinner options in the hotel, we tried the Thai restaurant Kiree and the Italian restaurant Panali for dinner, gym is okay and does the deal. Bonvoy status benefits (I'm Titanium) are nothing much besides one cocktail per person in the afternoon and I guess the room upgrades where we did not get anything special as most of the hotel is booked. The bed is comfortable and the functionality of the room works, which is not always the case for every other hotel. Also nice to see that they have a digital weight scale that is not out of battery unlike in so many other hotels.

On the flipside, the rooms are not suites but rather one bedroom with a couch in front of it, the pool in front of the room is pretty small and it is difficult to swim in it as half the pool is something like a step in the water that you can sit on, so I've hit my hands on that step quite a few times that I tried to swim. While the food spread for breakfast etc. is good, they did not have the oysters or some basic desserts a couple of days in a row, so don't bank on the menu if you're just staying a few days - however, I expressed our frustration to the F&B manager and they invited us for a seafood platter for dinner and made sure they prepare the stuff we wanted specifically for us, which was a nice touch, but again, at >€400 per night should not be required. The bathroom is an open bathroom right behind the bed and the shower and toilet are surrounded by dimmed glass windows, so it is not possible to preserve some sort of privacy when using the facilities unless you are okay to see silhouettes of your travel companion on the pot. Staff tries, but English skills are limited for most. Not blaming them, but is that really a "luxury collection" experience?

What annoys me a bit is that at this price only limited stuff is included and they still charge for additional things, like Thai cooking classes, Yoga (they charge 500 THB per person), etc. While the prices are not that high, especially for dinner, at this price level you'd expect more on offer.

It doesn't really feel like luxury, but it should feel like that for >€400 per night. Probably the experience is much much better if you get one of the villas by the beach, but again some of them are right next to the beach and some of them hidden in the jungle, so you need to be lucky.

Overall, for that price I was expecting more and I've stayed at better SPG beach hotels in the region like The Andaman in Langkawi.

Kacee

Noted repeatedly throughout this thread. You were surprised?

Um, you're in Thailand. I've never had any problem with staff's English here. It is IME par for the course in Thailand, which means basic communication is never a problem, but more complex issues you typically need to speak with someone at a supervisory/management level. And I will add that one of the things that VB is most notable for (IMO) is the overall warmth and friendliness of the staff.

I'm afraid your subjective expectations may not be consistent with the current market. Luxury resorts in Thailand are no longer the bargain they once were, especially if chain affiliated. Even independent properties like Poppies in Chaweng (which is far less luxurious than VB) now have rack rates in the 10-12k THB range (i.e., very close to what you paid at VB).

Dav77

never been at this Vana Belle, but I wouldn’t change the Poppies even at half of its price...

Frab1

Kacee, I am not looking for a bargain, but I am comparing this to other properties in the region as well as to other global holiday destinations for >€400 and have to say that this property is overpriced for what you get. Especially factoring in the limited status benefits that you would get at other chain-affiliated hotels. Might be Koh Samui in general, but in any case I think there are better destinations out there now that I have been here.

I've been to Thailand multiple times before and well aware of English levels and like I said not blaming the staff, but at some price level I'm starting to expect more and this is ultimately management having to act. After all, this is a Category 8 hotel and not a backpacker hostel, so they cannot avoid comparison to global standards.

Edit: I just saw above in the thread that summer rates can be half of ours, so that would seem more reasonable to me.

Kacee

I don't disagree that on an absolute value basis, the upper tier Marriott resorts on Samui (VB, W, RC) are overpriced a good part of the year (and I'm pretty sure I've said that in a number of threads).

It sounds like you paid around 13.5k THB for the Jungle Suite (and then got an upgrade to the Premium Pool suite). That's right around the value ceiling for me. The property has spectacular views, a good location, a very solid hard product, and is extremely well maintained by a very large staff (check out the W to see what happens in this climate when you skimp on maintenance and gardening). Keeping all that in mind, I don't know that VB is overpriced relative to comparable options in Samui or Phuket. You are definitely paying a premium for easy access via the international airport.

And no, I wouldn't pay the 35k THB per night VB is currently charging for a base room over New Years.

Frab1

Agree. We actually chose Koh Samui as it was the only "closer" beach destination from Hong Kong airport without having to transfer and excluding the Philippines as we had been earlier this year. So, you are probably right on the premium.