lovtofly3

The in room dining breakfast(room service) for Plat. or guests who are staying in villa's and rate include brfast is ONLY during off season when baan thai is closed for brkfast.
Off season is whenever the hotel decides to close Baan Thai in the AM and may vary this year.

Starwood Lurker II

Now now... all thanks to every1 who has alerted me regarding the ambiguity of the words used at our website.

This issue has been rectified.

"All villa guests enjoy exclusive benefits, including personal butler service and choices of a la carte breakfast by the lagoon or buffet breakfast at Cafe Lilawadee. (Breakfast benefits are applicable for guests staying with breakfast package only.) "

I hope this offers a clearer answer to your interpretation.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Online Forum Coordinator(AP)
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

gleff

Thyetus, thank you for getting this clarification. Sadly two different friends booked oceanfront villas at this hotel, including one for their honeymoon. They're on rather tight budgets (which is why they chose this hotel in the first place -- the apparent value), and factored in breakfast as included based on the very clear statements on the hotel website that villa guests received breakfast as a benefit.

Starwood Lurker II

Hi gleff,

Have they left the property or they will be honeymooning over there pretty soon?

It's never too late to try asking the prop nicely for exceptions. Drop me a note if needed.

[email protected]

Thyetus Lee | Online Forum Coordinator(AP)
Starwood Customer Contact Centre (AP) Pte Ltd

llbean

Hi
Looking to make a quick trip to Thailand - probably about 5-6 days.

We want a nice place, relaxing. We really want a plunge pool and be on the beach! I am SPG gold but by no means limited to Starwood.

-Would this be the most economical place to do it.

- We are not restricted to Phuket but want a nice beach?

-Will SPG gold get me any advantage at this property?

Thanks!

Colin

I spent a good amount of time researching this. LM Khao Lak is for sure the best value for a beacfront villa. Just checking for May, you can get a Oceanfront Villa for USD225++ per night on a 4 night plan. Far better than Banyan Tree, Chedi, Trisara, or on one of the nearby island. Dollar for dollar, just incredible value.

The downside is the food is horrible and the area/hotel is boring boring boring. But to relax in a villa with your lover, then by all means.

llbean

Is the food really that horrible???

gleff

No. The breakfast buffet is nice. The food is certainly not great. But it isn't disgusting or anything like that...!

And I have to agree, dollar for dollar I haven't found any place that can match it in terms of the facility you can get for your money... an oceanfront villa with private pool for ~ $250 all-in using, say, the z6r promo.

I found the staff good/helpful, the spa to be quite lovely (though not impressed by the spa waiting area). The pools are nice.

All around I do highly recommend the property. But I'd never book just a plain 'ol room in the main hotel. That's not the point of this resort.

Sam P. Goodman

We just returned from 8 nights in Thailand, 5 of which were spent at LM Khao Lak. We were on a Cash and Points stay at the old Cat 2 rates so we resisted the temptation to book a villa and took our chances with a decent Plat upgrade. We were upgraded to a huge suite on the second floor that was plenty nice for us as it was easily over 1,000 square feet and included a small kitchenette, 1.5 baths, a dining area, living room, large closet/dressing area, and two balconies. We quickly got over our villa envy. We were given welcome drinks at check-in and cold coconuts arrived in our room shortly after we were escorted there. We also received nightly canapés that were just ok. As Platinum, we were given free daily breakfast at either the main buffet or the smaller restaurant on the lagoon. We dined at both and were quite happy with breakfast. Great variety and both locations were well staffed. We had all other meals offsite so I can’t speak to lunch and dinner at the resort. We mostly ate at Rim Lay down the beach. The two of us could have an excellent Thai meal of three dishes and a couple of bottles of water for about $10 USD total. $20 if we ordered a whole fish and dessert. The menu was extensive and we enjoyed trying different items. The staff are very friendly and they were usually full for dinner. We also used their laundry service (25 Baht for most items) and they came back clean, pressed, and folded as if done by the resort. There are a few other places north of the LM. We ate at one of them and it was also very good. Slightly higher prices, but also larger portions so it was a wash on that front.

The LM is beautiful. The staff to guest ratio seemed high and the service was good, though not as polished as that received at the Sheraton Laguna in Phuket. It reminded us a bit of the Haciendas in Mexico. Attentive service provided by locals who mean well, but are still finding their way at times. The GM greeted us at check-in and we saw him daily around the resort. I heard him mention that they were at about 50% capacity.

We enjoyed a nice mix of quiet time at the resort as well as using it as a base for trips to Khao Sok and the Surin Islands—both amazing. We used Asia Web Direct to arrange our transfers (cheaper than through the resort) and excursions and were very happy with them. We’ve been trying to figure out our next exotic tropical vacation, but are weary that it won’t be able to measure up to this trip. We may just go back to Thailand and spend a few more nights in Khao Lak.

chompion

gleff, couldn't agree more. My wife and I enjoyed Suite 001 for our honeymoon and enjoyed the experience thoroughly and fully... in-suite spa services, villa bbq, etc. The Indian restaurant on the property was quite good too.

Colin

Funny. I would say the Indian restaurant food was inedible and the Korean restaurant was horrid. I love Thai food and I did enjoy the Thai lagoon restaurant, but it got old on my 8 night (extended due to BKK riot closure) trip.

gleff

Heh, I didn't actually try the Indian or Korean places in my 6 night stay, I must've survived on the Thai restaurant and room service

Thunderroad

^^^Great review, SPG. I've been meaning to post about our wonderful stay at LM KL for 11 nights in late January/early February, but you saved me some effort in that I'd echo just about everything you said. I'm pretty sure we stayed in the same suite, which I was able to bag with points and an upgrade from a smaller suite. (Suites weren't available for points until a few weeks beforehand in the wake of the Bangkok airport take-over that's put a definite damper on tourism.) And we ate at and loved the same cheap, delicious little restaurants on the beach.

One thing I'd add is an emphasis on how great the beach is. No, it's not pure white sugary sand. But it goes on forever to the north, with just a smattering of eateries and hotels along the way. A two-hour stroll each way, or a one-hour power walk. I'd do it just about every morning, sometimes stopping at a nice little place called Hadson's Resort for breakfast near the end of the beach before turning around. To the south, just past the excellent Rim Lay (which I agree is also good for laundry), there are some rocks that you can walk past at low tide or clamber over (if absolutely necessary) at high tide, and then another long stretch of beach with several eateries not too far past those rocks.

If you're a couple, as we are, you want to make sure to book the Spa wing rather than the Family wing of the hotel. As others have noted, avoid the ground floor rooms, which tend to smell kind of funky, and also ask to avoid a room right over the gym/ping pong/kick boxing area, which can be noisy. Also, be aware that the place can get lots of small mosquitoes in the evening, so you may need to lather up. They seemed to like me more than my wife. The only upside of the little critters is that on the couple of evenings I got bitten it wasn't itchy by the next day.

I can understand folks' complaints about the food not being good at the hotel. A couple of room service meals were pretty poor, though we did like the meal at the Italian restaurant. Anyway, given the great beach places, we didn't eat much at the hotel and thus didn't find that a problem.

In the grand scheme of things, though, these are all quibbles. It's a beautiful resort with very nice rooms (even the regular ones, which we took a look at) in a very special spot.

It's a bit of a YMMV type of thing. If you must have absolute five-star service and English fluency, this place may not be for you--though I should add that we found the service very good and the fluency more than adequate. Or if you want to be walking distance to a town and/or a big party scene, it also won't fit your bill. But for what we like in a beach vacation--an extremely nice property with equally nice rooms (and, I would add, a few shops to pick up things you might need for the beach, a good travel agent who has lots of tour options, an ATM on-site, etc.); plus great little places for a cheap meal or massage right on the beach so that we're not trapped by overpriced, bland hotel food; plus a generally relaxing, quiet scene; plus that wonderful, mostly empty beach (which I hope doesn't get overdeveloped in coming years!)--Le Meridien Khao Lak was the best we've found.

Other bits and pieces: A nice though small gym, well air-conditioned with about six or seven exercise machines plus some weight machines. The town of Khao Lak is nothing really special--mainly a strip of shops along the road--but has some decent shops, good restaurants and a relatively large place to buy booze,wine and food if you're so inclined. If you don't want to depend on booking the hotel shuttle to take you into town, Rim Lay can arrange for a taxi to pick you up at the hotel lobby and take you into town (or other places, for that matter).

I was given a print-out by the staff of the various kinds of rooms at the place. I'm not certain this is 100 percent accurate, given that some forum discussions of the hotel that I've seen here and at Tripadvisor indicate slightly different information. Still, perhaps this will be of some use to folks going there in the future. All numbers in parentheses are square meters. I add some editorial comments.

Total of 243 rooms, suites and villas.
70 Deluxe Garden View Rooms (40). These are the ground floor rooms. Best to avoid these due to the frequent reports of moldiness.
134 Deluxe Pool View Rooms. (40) Same as the Garden View, but these are the rooms on the second and third floors. The third floor would be slightly preferable, I would imagine, but I don't think most of them have actual panoramic views because the palm tree tops are too high. Though obviously not as nice as the Deluxe Suite we stayed in, they're still fine. I'd happily stay in one of these on a return visit if we couldn't get upgraded.
2 Junior Suites. (80)
6 Deluxe Suites. (108) What we stayed in.
10 Lagoon Villas. (80)
9 Pool Villas (200)
7 Oceanfront Pool Villas (210). I took a look at one of these. Very, very nice. If we weren't so delighted with our suite, I might have asked what it would cost to upgrade to this. Pool is bigger than a plunge pool, though not nearly big enough to do laps.
1 Deluxe Oceanfront Pool Villa (484).
2 Oceanfront Residential Poor Villas (660). These are the only ones described to me as having 2 bedrooms each. The other villas have one bedroom each.

Well, I said I didn't have much to add to SPG's review, but I've certainly gone on and on. Like SPG, we may well go back there. And I don't say that lightly; we love just about all of our vacations, but rarely talk about returning to the same place. LM KL is a wonderful exception to that rule.

Sam P. Goodman

Yes, we also enjoyed several long walks on the beach in both directions. Sand was soft, yet firm and easy to walk on. Millions of beautiful shells and small crabs scampering everywhere. Also, we swam out to the floating raft once, but once out there noticed we were surrounded by numerous small jelly fish. After freaking out and calming ourselves down, we swam back without incident. I'm assuming they were relatively harmless as they didn't seem to bother us or the many other swimmers in the water. Or maybe we were just lucky? We also encountered a lot of small mosquitoes in our room on arrival. I killed close to a dozen the first day and they didn't seem to be much of an issue in the room after that.

llbean

Thanks..sounding good.

Is there any benefit they profit for SPG gold?