This resort on the beautiful island of Phuket
has two distinct sides. One, a beautiful property surrounding a picturesque
lagoon- the other, a literal garbage dump. All of that drama, coming up. You see, this trip wasn’t supposed to be
this way. You could say I had high hopes, but they were
very specific high hopes. High hopes in the way that you book an expensive
hotel in Tokyo and the rooms look a little bit dated- from the last century even, but
you know the condition will be pristine and the service, the best of the best. Originally, I had this Banyan Tree booked
for a family holiday in December of 2020- that trip was canceled but I was thrilled
to finally get to go this past November. Very briefly, where are we? Phuket, the large and beautiful island in
the southwest of Thailand is known for it’s beachfront properties. But today we are going to focus here a bit
inland. In 1984, a couple from Singapore began buying
up land in this area eventually mounting to around this much land. The Banyan Tree is located just inland here-
surrounded by the Laguna Golf Club and various other resorts part of the same group, mainly
Angsana and Cassia. The Laguna Resorts Group which controls a
significant chunk of land on the island opened it’s flagship resort, the Banyan Tree in
1995. I
personally don’t follow golf and had no idea I’d be staying there while they’re
hosting the Laguna Championships, but that wasn’t a problem- besides the giant signs
everywhere. The entrance features a long driveway leading
to a circle surrounded on three sides by the Golf Reception, Pool & Spa Reception and on
the left side, Hotel Reception. The resort’s namesake Banyan Tree smack
in the middle surrounded by lotus ponds and very ironically, a time capsule. Ironic because you will soon see, the entire
resort in and of itself is a time capsule waiting to be opened, aired out and glued
back together. Design wise and in line with my expectations,
the reception area had an older design but was well maintained and had a homey feel when
entering. Soon after that, it took a turn for the worse. Checkin was an absolute mess. I booked this stay with American Express Fine
Hotels & Resorts which among upgrades and early check in included subject to availability
also included a $150 property credit. Not to be confused, this property credit was
part of the rate and paid for. Amex allows each resort to choose their own
amenity to offer- which is expected to have a $100 value. Some offer spa treatments, some a food & beverage
credit, some a fixed meal- and the most generous of them, a full property credit and in this
case worth $150. Earlier that morning, I called the resort
to ask what time I could check in, not asking for an early check in- just a realistic time
I could arrive. I was told 1:00pm and I arrived a few minutes
after that. While checking in I was told I’d been upgraded
two categories to the Signature Pool Villa and had a $150 credit which I could use towards
dinner at Saffron. I questioned this, as it was a full property
credit. After the Customer Service Manager who was
checking me in tried to explain that “property credit” meant a credit to be determined
by the property and ten minutes of back and forth, finally they agreed to honor the credit,
for any expenses except those by third parties. Fair enough. I was told my room would be ready in ten minutes. Ok. Over the next 25 minutes sitting there, I
started to notice some things. For example, the beautiful dupioni silk uniforms
that the reception staff were wearing were literally falling apart. Some edges were frayed and some literally
had holes in the backs. A few moments later, a young local woman arrived
holding multiple uniforms balled up in her arms. She walked up to the reception desk and was
directed to sit across from me. My best guess is she was a former staff here
to return her uniforms- the fact that this was being done in the main reception area
was just strange. After those 25 minutes, I asked about my room. Five more minutes. Ok We will get back to the villa in a moment
but first let’s take a look at the primary pool area. Keep in mind all 220 rooms here are pool villas
so there was never anyone at this admittedly beautiful melange of pools. You’ve already noticed, this was not a great
review. I have over 40 previous reviews published
on Youtube and I’m confident that my prior videos will speak for themselves in showing
that I don’t make videos for negative dramatic effect or approach any property with a malicious
bias. That said, let’s take a look at my first
villa. I was only here for around an hour, so please
excuse the quick filming. Upon entering the overwhelming feeling was,
everything just felt tired. Upon closer inspection though, this place
was dirty, unsafe for children and absolutely falling apart. First off, the dust. Everything above eye level had a layer of
dust on or in it. The lamp shades had more dust the higher you
went, especially in the seams. Then there’s the rust. Essentially every iron or metallic surface
in the room was rusted out. The sliding doors could not be moved on the
track without particles falling and even if you could shut the doors, you couldn’t lock
it- the locks were rotted through. Then there’s the mold and just stains in
general in a few places throughout the villa- inside and out. And the most comical of all, the disrepair
and the super cheap attempt at fixing it. These doors, because of the rusted metal and
rotted wood would not close, so they added plastic door sweeps- which were popping off-
to keep the bugs out, I guess? The photos show it more clearly. Then there was the water pressure and lack
of hot water, which was fixed after calling. And then the obnoxiously loud AC unit, also
fixed after calling. Put all of these pieces together with the
$345 price tag and I called the front desk asking for a supervisor or manager to come
to my room. A few moments later, one came. I pointed out some of the things I’ve shown
you and was told, this is one of their “classic” rooms, but they had a “modern” room they
could give me instead- I didn’t mention why I called for a supervisor, but she came
to the room with the new key already. The new room was somehow a category below
this one, but still one above my booked category. That room, 656, admittedly was much nicer-
but as the assistant manager drove me to the new room- quite a ways away, I realized the
problems at this resort were not just contained in villa 202. Let’s go on a little tour. The resort is truly a construction site. Clearly they know they need to remodel their
rooms as much as I do, but the way in which it’s done is sloppy and without a care for
the guests who are staying in the area. A large sprawling property like this one,
to me it would make sense to work section by section, but no, it almost felt purposely
random. The construction staff also slept in some
of the villas under remodel, I have no problem with that- but they were loud and spent their
evenings talking loudly and playing music on the outdoor salas. Remember that garbage dump I was talking about? Well, here’s part of it. Right now we are directly across from the
Wedding pavilion on the north side of the lagoon. I show you the resort sign just so you can
understand I’m not lurking around anywhere, this is the way I was driven to my villa and
the only way to walk to the beach from this side of the resort- it’s literally a massive
pile of construction and landscaping garbage. I’ve never seen something on this scale
at a resort before. For a quick bit of context. Here’s the resort. My first villa was here, my second villa here. These are the places where construction materials
were scattered about, here’s the garbage dump and now we head to the pinnacle of deception,
Sands. I’m paraphrasing because it has since been
removed from their website, but at the time it advertised Sands as a breezy beach bar
where you could enjoy views of the sunset from high above. Yeah, ok. Let’s remember, this is the beach bar at
the original, the flagship Banyan Tree property. That brings us to the beach itself, which
you must exit the resort and cross a small road to access. On the resort map, it says the distance is
10 meters, you can be the judge of that. The beach however was nice with plenty of
room to spread out. Note though, Banyan Tree does not have a presence
on the beach. If you’d like some loungers you need to
be a customer at one of the nearby restaurants- or perhaps just pay a flat fee. Now, let’s take a look at that new room. This is a Serenity Pool Villa, added to the
property in 2019. I know it was 2019 because if you check the
reviews for Banyan Tree on any website, anytime someone complains about the condition of the
room, management replies with, quoting here: “Our villas are more classic in their design
than some of the more modern accommodation that have been built more recently. On the other note, I am thrilled to let you
know that we also have the brand new Serenity Pool Villa which opened in 2019 and it has
different design comparing to your villa type. Perhaps you can make another visit to enjoy
this.” And for all of those other reviews that praise
the resort endlessly, assuming they are all genuine reviews- I honestly don’t know what
to say. My visit was a moment in time and clearly
the issues didn’t appear overnight- but yeah, don’t understand all of the praise. The Serenity Pool Villa was smaller but well
outfitted. If these were the only kinds of villas in
a resort with beautiful grounds, I'd have nothing to complain about. They had many of the modern conveniences that
the older rooms lacked and were at least, not completely falling apart. The next morning when I was just about to
step in the shower, I heard a knock on the door- I didn’t worry, just assumed they
didn’t notice the do not disturb sigh… but would then see it. Nope, they opened the door, I screamed, they
said “minibar” I screamed again and the door closed. Didn’t really need any coffee after that. The outdoor area is compact but nice enough
and at least the plants here are green and the walls, not covered in mold. I also enjoyed that there was a separate hot
tub. Not so common in private pool villas. I realized later there was also a nice screen
door tucked away to the side. By the way, if you need a map you’ll have
to request a paper one brought to your room- otherwise you’re supposed to refer to the
map on your not so high def TV. For how much better this room was though,
it wasn’t without fault. Some mechanisms were already breaking, they
attached the wall sconces before removing the plastic so it’s still covered in plastic. The curtain in the bathroom is already covered
in mold and their fancy smancy electric toilet wasn’t up to the job. Wanting to be as safe as physically possible
for dinner, I ordered all Thai food from room service. The flavors were muted but ok. But the glasses they sent were sticky and
covered in who knows what and the napkin I swear was older than I am. So, the next morning. It’s a new day! There will be almost no complaining today! Until checkout that is. Let me take you on a quick tour of what seems
like a land far far away. Over this bridge, we find ourselves in the
enchanting world of the Banyan Tree Double Pool Villas. These villas have their own separate listing
on most hotel booking sites- though they share the same common areas with the rest of us. As I’m writing this I am check prices for
a random day in April. On that day the normal villas start at $284
and these newer double pool villas start at $590 and go up to over $1700 per night. The area is however, so much nicer. It is serene, beautifully and naturally landscaped. The regular area, especially around the Serenity
Pool Villas was cleared of all trees and then some replanted after construction. Here, there was effort put into preserving
the original trees, which makes it feel so much nicer. Back to reality, I knew breakfast was somewhere
around the reception area but genuinely didn’t know where. At 6:30, there were no staff there, literally
I mean none. I politely called out the back room, nothing. I went to the front driveway and found a security
guard who showed me the way. Since they were hosting the Golf Competition,
I assumed the signs pointing this way for Staff and Official Dining meant it was only
for them. Oh well. Anyway, the restaurant, The Watercourt was
dated but well maintained. The spread of food was standard and acceptable,
but nothing special and below what I was expecting. I ordered an omelet, ten minutes later I went
back to see if he forgot. Nope, it was sitting behind the counter under
a heat lamp. There were five servers and two tables including
me. Outside we have the lagoon which is genuinely
beautiful and a unique feature to a resort such as this. The last time I saw such a nice lagoon at
a beach resort was probably at Zannier Bai San Ho in Vietnam. Let me show you the rest of the dining venues. First, this is Saffron. In their words, a place to “experience a
culinary journey through exotic Thai flavors in a contemporary yet classically elegant
Banyan Tree setting. Saffron is only open for dinner and does have
a dress code, keep in mind. Next up is the lobby bar. I do realize it’s early morning, but it
is kinda hidden in plain sight. And finally- you may not have noticed we walked
through it already, we have what was known as Taihei. Now on their website it’s being referred
to as Veya- open for lunch and dinner also with a dress code and serving what seems to
be fusion vegetarian food, “a place that brings together all who desire to eat well
to enjoy conscious and plant based cuisine… it’s dishes weave Asian and Mediterranean
culinary influence with ingredients that respect the land.” In front of The Watercourt, there are facilities
where you can take kayaks or paddle boards out into the lagoon and back behind the pools
is a well equipped fitness center as well. That brings us to what is normally the end
of the tour, but we still have checkout to talk about. While at the hotel I had some laundry done. I tallied everything up before handing it
over and gave an itemized list. Including tax and service, I totaled it at
just under 1700 baht or $51. At check out they tried to charge me more
than double at 3900 baht or $118. I asked to see the breakdown of the cost,
they were supposedly looking for it in the back room. They came out five minutes later to again
try to explain how it was correct and overall I owed them a net 800 baht. I simply asked to see the bill. They never produced the original slip. Eventually after ten minutes the same Customer
Service Manager who checked me in came out from the back, snatched the bill and took
2000 baht off. Still over charging but now was within my
$150 credit so it didn’t matter. And that brings us to The Flip Flop Score. The room design. I’m going off of the layout and concept
in general- it gets a seven. For room condition, that first room negates
the second- no points. Service, absolutely horrible and the scary
part is- it’s not necessarily because of a lack of leadership presence. I feel like the majority of people I dealt
with were managers- but never the GM. There is clearly a much deeper problem here. No points. For the common areas- I’m talking about
the pools, fitness center, reception areas I gave a nine. The grounds on the other hand, no points for
the amount of garbage in plain sight. For cleanliness, taking everything into account
but it’s hard to excuse mold at a four. The F&B Venues are fine, but uninspired and
just feel like the same collection of furniture in different rooms- I’ll assume that beach
bar is gone already, a six. Food quality, also fine at a 7. Amenities, talking about the drinks and products
in the room, water sports available, etc at a nine and finally the beach which is nice,
but a bit far removed at a seven. Overall, a gut wrenching 49/100. I stayed at a total of fifteen hotels and
resorts on this trip. This was the third most expensive and by far
the most disappointing. Spend you hard earned money elsewhere and
avoid this place at least until the full remodel is complete- whenever that’ll be. All of that said, I do hope you found the
review useful and fair. Thanks for clicking that like button, even
if you don’t like the hotel- and subscribing, it really helps the channel out. See you again soon with two flight or hotel
reviews every week.
