Mantra Samui Resort- Hotel Review

We were put on an earlier flight by Bangkok airlines. We had booked a car from the Mantra Samui to pick us up, but they had our old flight times so were obviously not waiting at the airport to pick us up at the earlier time.

We tried call the Mantra Samui from the airport which was a shambles! The phone number they had on an email they sent me was wrong. At one stage we had 3 airport staff helping us to find the number. The Mantra Samui car arrived; we stood around for a while (with 2 other couples) then got shoved into a taxi van to be taken to do the hotel. We had booked the “hotel Luxury car” If this was luxury, we had booked at wrong hotel.

When we arrived we were then told the Mantra Samui “luxury Mercedes” was out on maintenance. Maybe I was mistaken but there is a paint peeled Mercedes right in the parking lot??? I guess they did email me a month ago to say it was on maintenance but who would have thought it would be there for over a month?

On the  Mantra Samui website it advertises being checked in with Ipads to cut back on paper usage. You aren’t checked in with Ipads, checked in is paper based. We found this was one of many things the websites says this hotels offers …but it doesn’t actually offer it.. While this may seem petty, it is one of the reasons we booked this hotel, for its modern and sleek features.

Room –

Check in felt a bit unorganized  they had 3 couples checking in at the same time as us and things just seemed a little rushed and confused. We were then taken up to our room on the 1st floor…. I was sure I emailed to request a high floor. Once in the room, I emailed “Woody” to make sure we weren’t being charged for this “Luxury” transfer and to ask why we weren’t given a higher floor as requested. I emailed because speaking to the reception staff was impossible as they barely spoke or understood basic English.

While we looked around our room we heard the door open to find the front desk staff ushering another couple into our room! They saw us and realized they were in the wrong room and quickly rushed back out again. Note – The outside doors don’t lock properly but there is a small latch which we weren’t even told about.

We were then moved to a higher room a short time later. The rooms are quite nice a queen size bed on a platform, a couch and tv (that doubles as a PC and entertainment hard drive, It does look like the movies have been downloaded and some only have “sample”). The bathroom is nice, it has a his & hers sink and a rainfall shower. The Amenities were good, they offered a toothbrush and toothpaste as well as mouth wash and other handy bathroom things.

In both rooms we found hand and finger prints all over the walls and areas where housekeeping have attempted to clean these areas which has just made things worse. I don’t know what could be done to fix this, probably not the fault of the hotel.

There is no guest compendium in the room. I guess management thought the little blue pamphlet they hand out at check in with 3 bits of information (numbers to call, yoga times and how to access the internet) would be all that the guests need. The rest you need to work out for yourself as to what it is this hotels offers.

The wifi is temperamental at the best of times. Anytime you away for too long you need to log back on then close all of our browsers otherwise it doesn’t work properly! Very annoying!!

The  Mantra Samui offers a laundry special of $900Baht for as much as you can fit into the bag before you check out. If you go down the road leading up to the hotel, there is a place offering “express” laundry service for $80Baht per KG. Maybe the hotel should use this service and cut the cost back.

Service at Mantra Samui–

What service? It is basically non-existent in this hotel! The staff are too busy socializing with each other to pay attention to any of the customers! When you ask for some service they think it’s so funny and yell in Thai to their colleagues.

The  Mantra Samui is obviously aimed at younger people and that is saying something when we are in our late 20s!. Most of the staff are young and think that work is a time to socialize with their colleagues instead of doing the job they were hired to do.

Many times we would walk into the restaurant to stand there and look like idiots waiting to be seated (we were never sure if we were supposed to seat ourselves or be seated). We found when we did get our own seat that we would be never be served. We would sit at our table and watch the staff behind the bar playing with each other and being silly (like pulling each other’s pants down or cuddling each other). We also notice many other people walk into the restaurant with the same look of confusion on their face.

On our last day we went down for breakfast and stood there for a few mins, then walked to a table on the way passing a member of staff who acknowledged us. We sat there for 5 mins waiting for someone to come ask if we wanted a coffee or offer us a menu…..waited…waited..waited…. finally I went up to one of the staff members who was having a good chat and laugh with 3 other staff members and asked if we could please get some service, she giggled then started yelling and laughing at her colleague and pointing at us. Who knows what was said but no doubt it was something rude! Someone finally brought us a menu and that was the last we saw on any of them! We went us and helped ourselves to the buffet and left … the menus still sitting on our table when we left! I don’t expect much but I do expect people to do their jobs!

Some English lessons really are needed throughout the whole resort!

Pool –

The pool  at Mantra Samui has a lovely, it had great views and a swim up area for the bar. It’s not huge but it was an okay size for the resort. We did notice many people left their towels and belongings on the sunbeds for hours without being there but there always seemed to be enough beds for people. There is an extra sun lounge area, it seems to be the place where all the damaged bean bags go to die…

There is no pool service (waiter coming around taking orders), you can order at the bar and they bring the food or drinks to you but the empty glasses and plates just get left there for hours and hours. I can’t say in the several hours we spent at the pool did we see the area being cleared by any staff.

Food –

We are both big “foodies” we enjoy good food and drinks. The food was mostly very nice! The pizzas were very yummy.

The staff threw a 1 hour cocktail party which was nice. You got to make a cocktail and there was some free food. It was supposed to be a meet and greet with the managers but I didn’t really see any management other than the bar manager there..

Our last night was very disappointing. We had dinner at the restaurant, I had the Bolognese and my husband had the Carbonara. Both very tasteless. My husband did mention that the Parmense cheese on his tasted “funny” as it had gone off. We have travelled to many countries and my husband always tries the Carbonara in every hotel or resort we stay in and he was very disappointed in this one.

For desert we ordered the panacotta and chocolate soufflé to our room to enjoy while we watch a movie. The chocolate “souffle” was average at best, it had a very odd taste and made me feel really sick afterwards. It was also not a soufflé, it was more like a hard chocolate sponge cake. My husband had the panacotta and was seriously disappointed in it. He ended up eating 2 spoons of it before putting it aside, he said it tasted like it has been sitting in the fridge for days (you know when something has been in the fridge for a few days and it starts to taste like everything else in the fridge…)

Spa –

We went to the spa on our first day as I have had very bad back ache. We got a back massage and manicure. We sat down in the reception area, they offered us a fruit drink and then 3 people just stood there staring at us… awkward! We were then asked to go change and lead into the massage room. The massage was okay but at no time did anyone ask if we had any injuries or “how is the pressure” Needless to say I think I left in more pain than I arrived in, anytime I reacted as the area was painful, the therapist would just giggle and continue, even after saying please be soft or not as hard, she again just giggles and said okay and continued at the same pressure…

We were then told to go get changed and come back to the same room for the manicure. I came back and sat down, they covered me in a towel and opened the curtains. The view is lovely but there is a stair case leading to the rooms above the spa that is built in front of the spa window. it is a bit awkward having people walking up and down the stairs staring at you! I would suggest that the hotel invest in some one way tinting or screening these windows.

We tried to talk to the massage therapists; we asked if it was always cloudy/misty outside. They looked at us blankly and asked in the receptionist whose answer was “I don’t know”. Awkward hour and a half…

Location –

It’s up a bit hill in the middle of nowhere, to get anywhere you either need to pay for the hotel car/ taxi or catch their shuttles (we will get to that in a minute!) The resort itself is pretty hilly but I disagree with reviews that complain about it. Unless you are elderly or very unfit, walking around the resort isn’t that difficult. Think of it as exercise. Plus you almost fall off the back of the buggy going up the hill anyway. We were aware of its location when booking, we booked this because of the serenity of being away from the noisier areas.

Staff worth special mention –

The only okay person was the girl behind the bar at nights. But at times she as a little strange too, starting a conversation then walking off.

General Summary –

Most staff don’t speak English or understand it. I understand this is Thailand but the majority of guests were from Australia and other English speaking countries.

When we asked if they could assist with posting a package back to Australia they told us they don’t post packages only postcards. I find this irritating as 1. This resorts goes on and on about making your stay amazing and happy to assist with anything and 2. You’re up a giant hill, it’s not like I can stroll down to the local post office without paying ridiculous taxi/hotel car fees.

One night, we booked the hotel shuttle to take us to the Fisherman’s Village at 4pm and to bring us back at 8:15pm. When we got off the shuttle we were told by the driver they will have a pick up at 8:30 not 8:15. So at 8pm we get to the entrance to see the shuttle driving past us. We waited til 8:45 and no shuttle. We finally caught a taxi after waiting 45mins! When we arrived I told the reception staff that they can pay for our taxi as we were booked into the shuttle and they just left us there. We didn’t seem to be the only people who were left there as another taxi load of people drove up and said that they thought they had missed the shuttle when they waited and didn’t see it. We were told by the front desk that they have limited seating and a limit to how many times they can pick people up. What is the point of booking this service???

Things the hotel says it offers on the website (what it actually offers) –

• Converted Vintage Volkswagen Coffee Minibus is actually now a tour stand/junk collector
• Luxury Mercedes… rusting, paint chips Mercedes in the driveway
• Soap menu – no information about this in the rooms (then again no compendium…)

The moment we left this resort was such a relief, which is disappointing as I spent hours reading the fantastic reviews and getting really excited to come to a hotel that stood out so much from others to be so bitterly disappointed! We had a better experience “dining under the stars” at Hansar in Bophut for 3-4 hours than we did in the 5 days we stayed at the Mantra.

Please understand that I am not just complaining for the sake of complaining, we truly had an awful stay. I can’t say we will ever be back which is so sad because this resort has so much potential!