Renaissance Pattaya Resort & Spa - Thailand [Master Thread]
Jul 30, 2022, 9:27 pm
#46
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: HKG
Programs: Marriott Ambassador (Titanium Lifetime), BA Gold, Ex-Hertz 5* PC, Ex-HH Diamond, Ex-BD*G
Posts: 3,059
I just stayed at this resort for ten days in July. I'd read the reviews and knew what I was getting myself in for, we stayed here despite the new courtyard opening up in central Pattaya as we had friends living a 10 minute drive away, so it was more to hang out with them. It was a family trip and the resort was perfect for this. We had a suite and connecting room in the main building and booking with the hotel via email was about 10% cheaper than the marriott website.
So, location is terrible for Pattaya, and the road is being dug up to create a new highway to BKK airport, which means for the moment, and another year or so, traffic is even worse than usual. Getting to central Pattaya takes from 30-60 minutes each way. It is pretty easy to get taxis, but you need to use Bolt, a "local" taxi app, and pay in cash with low fares, at the time it was about 10USD for the trip reach way. Grab had a small number of cars, but often gave crazy wait times or had no drivers, but did take a card payment.
However, for families it was really very pleasant resort, a good children's club with ~6 activities a day at the weekend and indoor and outdoor play area, plus a child specific play pool with slides, water guns and very shallow water. And this matches the clientele, who are mainly families from Bangkok taking a weekend trip (with Bangkok being about 2 hours away it isn't much further than Central Pattaya in terms of travel time due to a lovely high speed motorway that starts very near the hotel). As a result the hotel was pretty quiet during the week, but buzzing at weekends with lots of extended families around. The set up is ideal for young kids, 10 and under would have lots to do, anyone older would be stuck with the pool as entertainment.
The food pricing was high, and there's not much in walking distance, but if you're happy to take taxis then there are a variety of good local restaurants with various cuisines to visit within a 10km radius. Inside the hotel there is a grill restaurant, then the main 609 restaurant where you have breakfast, and that has a seafood buffet at weekends, plus a small deli and a pool bar. Food quality was high, service was good and we were happy with the meals we ate, which were the majority during the time we stayed. Worth mentioning that the restaurants all gave us a 10% discount on spending that I presume is status related.
As there were some comments about breakfast, I felt it was very brand standard for Marriott Asia, by which I mean: 4 cuisines (Thai, Chinese, Indian, western) ; separate egg chef, Noodle chef, pancake/waffle chef delivering to your table; a good choice of foods including deserts and fruit, plus 5 or 6 different types of "milk"; Some rotation of dishes on the Thai and Indian side each day; 4 fruit juices a day. They didn't run out of food despite it being busy, and there was indoor and outdoor seating. It was incuded in our room rate so didn't have to worry about pricing, but it kept us filled up for ten days.
Those worried about too many kids can use a separate adult pool, and there are happy hours with buy one, get one free offers: 3-5pm at the pool bar, 5-6pm at the grill restaurant bar. The grill itself was pretty pricey (4 adults could spend more than the room rate on steak and alcohol), but our friends said it was one of the better restaurants in the area and had an open kitchen and sea view. There was even a DJ at weekends playing some live music, not too loud though.
Whilst it doesn't appeal to me worth mentioning there are a variety of "fake" tourist sites nearby, fairly artificial, incuding a tourist floating market, a tiger temple and so on. To finish on the beach, it was small when the tide was in, but enough to offer a bit of variety. I think most people stayed by the pools.
So overall, we could be tempted to return for a family holiday where you're going to spend most of the time in the resort. But to be clear this is not Pattaya, and not for those wanting excitement or a party. There were limited status benefits, but you obviously do get points for your stay and I got a room on the top floor that may have been considered the best view for my suite.
So, location is terrible for Pattaya, and the road is being dug up to create a new highway to BKK airport, which means for the moment, and another year or so, traffic is even worse than usual. Getting to central Pattaya takes from 30-60 minutes each way. It is pretty easy to get taxis, but you need to use Bolt, a "local" taxi app, and pay in cash with low fares, at the time it was about 10USD for the trip reach way. Grab had a small number of cars, but often gave crazy wait times or had no drivers, but did take a card payment.
However, for families it was really very pleasant resort, a good children's club with ~6 activities a day at the weekend and indoor and outdoor play area, plus a child specific play pool with slides, water guns and very shallow water. And this matches the clientele, who are mainly families from Bangkok taking a weekend trip (with Bangkok being about 2 hours away it isn't much further than Central Pattaya in terms of travel time due to a lovely high speed motorway that starts very near the hotel). As a result the hotel was pretty quiet during the week, but buzzing at weekends with lots of extended families around. The set up is ideal for young kids, 10 and under would have lots to do, anyone older would be stuck with the pool as entertainment.
The food pricing was high, and there's not much in walking distance, but if you're happy to take taxis then there are a variety of good local restaurants with various cuisines to visit within a 10km radius. Inside the hotel there is a grill restaurant, then the main 609 restaurant where you have breakfast, and that has a seafood buffet at weekends, plus a small deli and a pool bar. Food quality was high, service was good and we were happy with the meals we ate, which were the majority during the time we stayed. Worth mentioning that the restaurants all gave us a 10% discount on spending that I presume is status related.
As there were some comments about breakfast, I felt it was very brand standard for Marriott Asia, by which I mean: 4 cuisines (Thai, Chinese, Indian, western) ; separate egg chef, Noodle chef, pancake/waffle chef delivering to your table; a good choice of foods including deserts and fruit, plus 5 or 6 different types of "milk"; Some rotation of dishes on the Thai and Indian side each day; 4 fruit juices a day. They didn't run out of food despite it being busy, and there was indoor and outdoor seating. It was incuded in our room rate so didn't have to worry about pricing, but it kept us filled up for ten days.
Those worried about too many kids can use a separate adult pool, and there are happy hours with buy one, get one free offers: 3-5pm at the pool bar, 5-6pm at the grill restaurant bar. The grill itself was pretty pricey (4 adults could spend more than the room rate on steak and alcohol), but our friends said it was one of the better restaurants in the area and had an open kitchen and sea view. There was even a DJ at weekends playing some live music, not too loud though.
Whilst it doesn't appeal to me worth mentioning there are a variety of "fake" tourist sites nearby, fairly artificial, incuding a tourist floating market, a tiger temple and so on. To finish on the beach, it was small when the tide was in, but enough to offer a bit of variety. I think most people stayed by the pools.
So overall, we could be tempted to return for a family holiday where you're going to spend most of the time in the resort. But to be clear this is not Pattaya, and not for those wanting excitement or a party. There were limited status benefits, but you obviously do get points for your stay and I got a room on the top floor that may have been considered the best view for my suite.
Last edited by littlevoices; Jul 30, 2022 at 9:34 pm
Jul 31, 2022, 8:20 pm
#47
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: DAY
Programs: UA 1K 1MM; Marriott LT Titanium; Amex MR; Chase UR; Hertz PC; Global Entry
Posts: 10,157
I just stayed at this resort for ten days in July. I'd read the reviews and knew what I was getting myself in for, we stayed here despite the new courtyard opening up in central Pattaya as we had friends living a 10 minute drive away, so it was more to hang out with them. It was a family trip and the resort was perfect for this. We had a suite and connecting room in the main building and booking with the hotel via email was about 10% cheaper than the marriott website.
So, location is terrible for Pattaya, and the road is being dug up to create a new highway to BKK airport, which means for the moment, and another year or so, traffic is even worse than usual. Getting to central Pattaya takes from 30-60 minutes each way. It is pretty easy to get taxis, but you need to use Bolt, a "local" taxi app, and pay in cash with low fares, at the time it was about 10USD for the trip reach way. Grab had a small number of cars, but often gave crazy wait times or had no drivers, but did take a card payment.
However, for families it was really very pleasant resort, a good children's club with ~6 activities a day at the weekend and indoor and outdoor play area, plus a child specific play pool with slides, water guns and very shallow water. And this matches the clientele, who are mainly families from Bangkok taking a weekend trip (with Bangkok being about 2 hours away it isn't much further than Central Pattaya in terms of travel time due to a lovely high speed motorway that starts very near the hotel). As a result the hotel was pretty quiet during the week, but buzzing at weekends with lots of extended families around. The set up is ideal for young kids, 10 and under would have lots to do, anyone older would be stuck with the pool as entertainment.
The food pricing was high, and there's not much in walking distance, but if you're happy to take taxis then there are a variety of good local restaurants with various cuisines to visit within a 10km radius. Inside the hotel there is a grill restaurant, then the main 609 restaurant where you have breakfast, and that has a seafood buffet at weekends, plus a small deli and a pool bar. Food quality was high, service was good and we were happy with the meals we ate, which were the majority during the time we stayed. Worth mentioning that the restaurants all gave us a 10% discount on spending that I presume is status related.
As there were some comments about breakfast, I felt it was very brand standard for Marriott Asia, by which I mean: 4 cuisines (Thai, Chinese, Indian, western) ; separate egg chef, Noodle chef, pancake/waffle chef delivering to your table; a good choice of foods including deserts and fruit, plus 5 or 6 different types of "milk"; Some rotation of dishes on the Thai and Indian side each day; 4 fruit juices a day. They didn't run out of food despite it being busy, and there was indoor and outdoor seating. It was incuded in our room rate so didn't have to worry about pricing, but it kept us filled up for ten days.
Those worried about too many kids can use a separate adult pool, and there are happy hours with buy one, get one free offers: 3-5pm at the pool bar, 5-6pm at the grill restaurant bar. The grill itself was pretty pricey (4 adults could spend more than the room rate on steak and alcohol), but our friends said it was one of the better restaurants in the area and had an open kitchen and sea view. There was even a DJ at weekends playing some live music, not too loud though.
Whilst it doesn't appeal to me worth mentioning there are a variety of "fake" tourist sites nearby, fairly artificial, incuding a tourist floating market, a tiger temple and so on. To finish on the beach, it was small when the tide was in, but enough to offer a bit of variety. I think most people stayed by the pools.
So overall, we could be tempted to return for a family holiday where you're going to spend most of the time in the resort. But to be clear this is not Pattaya, and not for those wanting excitement or a party. There were limited status benefits, but you obviously do get points for your stay and I got a room on the top floor that may have been considered the best view for my suite.
So, location is terrible for Pattaya, and the road is being dug up to create a new highway to BKK airport, which means for the moment, and another year or so, traffic is even worse than usual. Getting to central Pattaya takes from 30-60 minutes each way. It is pretty easy to get taxis, but you need to use Bolt, a "local" taxi app, and pay in cash with low fares, at the time it was about 10USD for the trip reach way. Grab had a small number of cars, but often gave crazy wait times or had no drivers, but did take a card payment.
However, for families it was really very pleasant resort, a good children's club with ~6 activities a day at the weekend and indoor and outdoor play area, plus a child specific play pool with slides, water guns and very shallow water. And this matches the clientele, who are mainly families from Bangkok taking a weekend trip (with Bangkok being about 2 hours away it isn't much further than Central Pattaya in terms of travel time due to a lovely high speed motorway that starts very near the hotel). As a result the hotel was pretty quiet during the week, but buzzing at weekends with lots of extended families around. The set up is ideal for young kids, 10 and under would have lots to do, anyone older would be stuck with the pool as entertainment.
The food pricing was high, and there's not much in walking distance, but if you're happy to take taxis then there are a variety of good local restaurants with various cuisines to visit within a 10km radius. Inside the hotel there is a grill restaurant, then the main 609 restaurant where you have breakfast, and that has a seafood buffet at weekends, plus a small deli and a pool bar. Food quality was high, service was good and we were happy with the meals we ate, which were the majority during the time we stayed. Worth mentioning that the restaurants all gave us a 10% discount on spending that I presume is status related.
As there were some comments about breakfast, I felt it was very brand standard for Marriott Asia, by which I mean: 4 cuisines (Thai, Chinese, Indian, western) ; separate egg chef, Noodle chef, pancake/waffle chef delivering to your table; a good choice of foods including deserts and fruit, plus 5 or 6 different types of "milk"; Some rotation of dishes on the Thai and Indian side each day; 4 fruit juices a day. They didn't run out of food despite it being busy, and there was indoor and outdoor seating. It was incuded in our room rate so didn't have to worry about pricing, but it kept us filled up for ten days.
Those worried about too many kids can use a separate adult pool, and there are happy hours with buy one, get one free offers: 3-5pm at the pool bar, 5-6pm at the grill restaurant bar. The grill itself was pretty pricey (4 adults could spend more than the room rate on steak and alcohol), but our friends said it was one of the better restaurants in the area and had an open kitchen and sea view. There was even a DJ at weekends playing some live music, not too loud though.
Whilst it doesn't appeal to me worth mentioning there are a variety of "fake" tourist sites nearby, fairly artificial, incuding a tourist floating market, a tiger temple and so on. To finish on the beach, it was small when the tide was in, but enough to offer a bit of variety. I think most people stayed by the pools.
So overall, we could be tempted to return for a family holiday where you're going to spend most of the time in the resort. But to be clear this is not Pattaya, and not for those wanting excitement or a party. There were limited status benefits, but you obviously do get points for your stay and I got a room on the top floor that may have been considered the best view for my suite.
Shame that there really isn't a good Marriott option for Pattaya itself. I drove by the new Courtyard, and looks nice enough from the outside, but is way too far North for my use.
And you have confirmed what I feared, that the Renn is really way too far South.
Will keep in mind for a more sedate getaway though. Cheers!
Mar 20, 2023, 1:03 am
#48
Join Date: Sep 2019
Posts: 79
I am currently at the Renaissance Pattaya Resort & Spa - Thailand and was excited to use the "Adults only" Pool, which is the only Pool (out of 3) supposed to be used by Adults only..
However, every day since my check in, there were kids playing in the pool with a very loud behaviour.
So today I decided to contact the Marriott Team about this, however, to my surprise I got this reply:
Is this a normal behaviour at Marriott's Resorts? They just should "act like an adult"?
However, every day since my check in, there were kids playing in the pool with a very loud behaviour.
So today I decided to contact the Marriott Team about this, however, to my surprise I got this reply:
Is this a normal behaviour at Marriott's Resorts? They just should "act like an adult"?
Mar 23, 2024, 3:12 pm
#52
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: HKG
Programs: Marriott Ambassador (Titanium Lifetime), BA Gold, Ex-Hertz 5* PC, Ex-HH Diamond, Ex-BD*G
Posts: 3,059
I've continued to stay here a few times a year, nothing much has changed, which is a good thing, though there was a new American GM who seemed very hands on, should make it even better. I feel that it is busier at the weekends than during the week.
Not sure about how much of the 2for1 cocktails you'd get on a business trip (only available 3-5pm from the pool bar), but think it will be fairly simple. My only real observation is that it seems upgrades are unlikely for any time that incudes a weekend stay, as they often sell out of the premium rooms to paid guests.
Do you have any particular questions?
Not sure about how much of the 2for1 cocktails you'd get on a business trip (only available 3-5pm from the pool bar), but think it will be fairly simple. My only real observation is that it seems upgrades are unlikely for any time that incudes a weekend stay, as they often sell out of the premium rooms to paid guests.
Do you have any particular questions?