Hotel di Pantai Sairee, Koh Tao

We had an awful experience at the Seashell dive centre attached to the hotel, and are now out of pocket for 22,000 baht for courses that we couldn’t complete due to the behaviour of the centre manager. We booked and paid upfront for a day of fun dives and 2 AOW courses. After an awful experience where I became very cold and sick on the fun dives due to poor weather conditions and inappropriate kit, we asked to be refunded for the AOW or to wait until conditions were calmer. The manager said that we could not be refunded but could wait for calmer conditions and we extended our time by another week in order to wait for things to calm down. However, the following day we popped into the centre and the managers attitude was completely different, he was rude and difficult and following some very unpleasant interactions with him over the following few days, we took the decision to not go forward with the course. One of the instructors who witnessed the managers behaviour apologised on his behalf giving the excuse that he was in a bad mood as had broken up with his girlfriend ! It was evident that once he had our money, that he had no interest in delivering our course or providing any level of customer care. On the fun dive, kit was poor, with a thin shorty wetsuit provided that was not suitable for the weather conditions, no boots, fins that were too small as they didn’t have any other sizes. Our instructor however was dressed in a full wetsuit and boots etc as said he tends to get cold. There was no provision of snorkels despite PADI guidance stating that these are an essential piece of safety equipment and no basic first aid care / procedures provided for cold, sick customers. When we asked for snorkels, we were told that they are unnecessary and just get in the way. The manager has refused to give his name and diver number despite repeated requests which raises further alarm bells and he ignored all initial emails and messages. Finally, we received a response whereby he said that we had booked onto the course on 3 occasions and not attended. This was completely untrue as no date had been set for us to do it at all. The hotel (who we paid for the course) have not responded to any emails or messages in relation to our complaint and couldn’t have been less interested when I raised it with the reception staff at checkout. My advice is that if you go to Seashell hotel, please AVOID the dive centre. You might be ok if everything is straightforward and you get a good instructor, but if there is a problem then don’t expect any level of care or compassion. We had travelled to Koh Tao to do some fun dives and complete our AOW courses. Our experience at seashell dive centre has ruined our trip to this island. After some detective work, we have established that the dive centre managers name is Hasan Can Toker . I wonder what his reasons for hiding this are ! Again, not the actions of a professional and transparent dive centre manager. As for the hot

The service at the Tarna Align resort is impeccable. They keep you in touch via Whatsapp and are incredibly welcoming and helpful. Golf buggies take you anywhere you want to go into Sairee and then bigger vans for the pier. They provide good amenities eg toothpaste. We stayed in a Villa Sea View room which had absolutely stunning views and a great balcony. It was a short trip into Sairee for walks in the day or for night time activities. The only downside was the room. 1. It was incredibly dark with all the lights on at night with no option to have brighter lights on. 2. The bedside table is a small floating shelf next to the bed and sloped downwards so in the night things would fall off onto the floor. 3. The only way to control lighting and air con was by a panel on one side of the bed which meant if one person fell asleep the other person had to try and get out to get to the panel. 4. Beware of the glass door to the toilet- we both walked into it and bruised ourselves as it was so clean and see through. Could benefit from stickers on it to prevent this. 5. The fridge is right behind the bed and very noisy so we had to unplug it at night to sleep

Unfortunately we were very disappointed with our stay here. The location of the hotel is amazing, on the beach along a very busy ***** of restaurants and beach bars which was great. However, the hotel itself was sadly a let down. The hotel keep whistling birds in cages just outside the hotel rooms so expect to be woken at all hours by birds whistling louder than we could believe. The room we were in was very basic to the point where the only plug socket was by the front door, so to dry my hair I had to stand at the front door with no mirror or chair… The shower was a fixed height (very low) so my partner had to be on his knees to wash his hair and I had to bend significantly despite not being very tall. The room was very dark with basically no natural light at all throughout the day. The bedding was just a thick blanket, that I imagine isn’t washed between guests, in between two loose sheets so the blanket kept coming out of the sheets. The toilet was very temperamental and wouldn’t always flush properly. One positive is that the air con was strong however to circulate the air we also had the fan on and this made an annoying screeching noise when it turned to a certain point, which again, woke us up during the night. We didn’t have breakfast because we had a look at what was on offer and decided to go elsewhere as there are lots of nice local places to eat. The staff also weren’t the most pleasant and even got our dates confused when we checked in. Sadly wouldn’t recommend this hotel.

Leider können wir die mehrheitlich positiven Bewertungen nicht Teilen, vor allem bei diesem Preis nicht! Wir wollten eigentlich 4 Nächte im Blue Tao Beach Hotel bleiben, aus diesen 4 Nächten sind wir aber nur 3 geblieben. Das Hotel bietet wirklich nicht was es verspricht. Sauberkeit: Als wir ankommen hatten wir ein kleines Willkommensgeschenk, also ja, das Geschenk waren verschiedene unidentifizierbare Flecken auf dem Bettlaken. Dazu war es im ganzen Zimmer feucht und die Handtücher haben extrem gestunken. Es wirkte, als das Zimmer nicht wirklich gereinigt wurde bevor wir angekommen sind. Frühstück: Das Frühstück ist im Hoteleigenen Restaurant. Man erhält pro Person und pro Frühstück ein Coupon. Der Coupon berechtigt jedoch nur für eine Speise, einen schwarzen Kaffee oder Tee und einen kleinen Orangensaft. Das Gericht reicht aber eigentlich nicht aus wenn man gestärkt in den Tag starten will. Das Frühstück ist geschmacklich OK aber nicht wahnsinnig vor allem bei diesem Preis vom Hotel ungenügend. Man würde erwarte, dass man verschiedene Speisen bestellen kann aber dies ist nur gegen Aufpreis möglich. Lärm: Das Hotel befindet sich im Zentrum, was völlig klar ist, dass man nicht mit absoluter Ruhe rechnen kann. Jedoch hat das Retsuarnte von 07.30 bis 00.00 sehr laute Musik, was dazu führt das man den Bass im Zimmer hört. Dazu kommt das das ganze Gebäude sehr ringhörig ist und man jeden Gast hört wenn er nach Hause kommt. Auch hört man die Wecker der anderen Zimmer und man hört sie sogar wenn sie im Zimmer miteinander reden. Freundlichkeit: Das Personal ist sehr unmotiviert und unfreundlich. Im Restaurant wirkt alles sehr umkoordiniert und teilweise wartet man sehr lange auf das essen. bei uns war es an einem Abend so, dass meine Partnerin das essen bereits hatte und mein Hauptgericht kam 20 Minuten später, was gar nicht geht... Alles in Allem war unser Aufenthalt im Blue Tao sehr unbefriedigend. Vor allem bei diesem Preis erwartet man definitiv mehr. Eigentlich sehr schade weil die Lage des Hotels sehr gut wäre. Dies führte schlussendlich dazu das wir früher als geplant weitergereist sind, weil wir uns wirklich unwohl gefühlt haben.

The location is nice and quiet, walking distance to other restaurants through the beach. The beach is very nice, clean and good for kids especially when the tide is low. Our Cabana was spacious, beautiful, although a bit dark. The water pressure was low and we didn’t have hot water. We asked them to fix it but it didn’t happen on time before our check-out. We stayed for two nights. The pool has a waterfall, and it looks a little run down. Nice view to the sea from the pool, though. The breakfast (included) was ok. Fruits, bread, but not many options for vegetarian/vegans in the menu. Dinners were good. Overall, a beautiful hotel, kind staff, great location, maintenance response could be better.

The location is near the end of the beach, so it's a bit of a walk to get to the ”main area”, but the distance is easily walked along the beach. This is also somewhat of a blessing, as it reduces the noise level at night. We stayed in an AC bungalow, which was nice. However, the shower had very poor water pressure, and there are no curtains on the windows, despite the fact that the other bungalows and rooms can look directly in on you... We had to find cardboard to cover them... They have a restaurant on site, which is priced higher than some of the restaurants in the main area, but *most* of the food is good (not great), and the staff are really nice, so we ate there relatively often (as it was better than walking back and forth to the main area). Despite some relatively minor annoyances, we'd happily stay there again, depending on the price.

I stayed here with my friends for 4 nights and we were quite worried when we saw bad reviews on here after booking but we had a great experience from start to finish. The staff were so lovely and helpful when arriving at the hotel and when needing to book a taxi or boat. We were offered the option to either pay a deposit or leave our passports and they helped with our bags to the room. The rooms were all really clean and showers were great and had hot water. It’s very close to the beach and also had a great pool. Wifi worked really well and had no issues with our stay here at all. The only negative would be that our balcony happened to be over quite a busy street so was sometimes noisy at night.

Ban’s is one of the biggest diving center in Tao. We had standard room with ac. Everything worked very well, making up the room was daily, if needed. Hotel has many swimming pools, but daily time pools are only for divers. There are laundry (1kg/50baht), restaurant, diving center, motorbike rental, Ban’s shops and everything you need for a diving holiday. Hotel area is HUGE, so be ready to walk if your room is up in the hill. About 15min walk from the harbour.

Auf den ersten Blick eine wunderschöne Bungalow-Anlage in einem sehr gepflegten Garten. Leider muss der Service in diversen Punkten besser werden. Ich war in drei verschiedenen Bungalows und das WiFi ist in einigen Bungalows nicht erreichbar. Auch wird die Geschwindigkeit nachts stark gedrosselt, Telearbeit ist somit nicht möglich. Einige der Bungalows haben ein Problem mit Gekkos und Nagetieren, die sich im Dachgerüst einnisten und sehr laut sind. Diese können nur durch den Einsatz sehr stark riechender Chemikalien temporär verscheucht werden. Ich musste nach einigen Tagen mein Bungalow verlassen, weil der Geruch nicht auszuhalten war. Leider wurde mir nicht proaktiv eine tierfreie Unterkunft angeboten, erst nach mehrfacher Beschwerde. Interessant ist dass jede Reinigung 500 THB kostet. Normalerweise ist bei Hotels im Preis die Reinigung enthalten. Der Müll wird nicht geleert, erst nach zigfacher Aufforderung. Mir wurde ein riesiger schwarzer Müllsack vor mein Bungalow gestellt, in dem ich den Müll wochenlang sammeln sollte, weil keiner der Angestellten bereit war, den Mülleimer zu leeren. Die Freundlichkeit der Mitarbeiter lässt bis auf wenige Ausnahmen stark zu wünschen übrig. Sehr untypisch für Thailand.