Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort

Incredible hotel, very well maintained, especially the gardens. Staff were very welcoming and would go above and beyond to help. Location was great. Room was fantastic and I’d love to have the bed at home. Lots of nice little gestures like leaving notes on your bed after turn down service. The only reason I haven’t given five stars is the crazy high prices for drinks and food. Outside of happy hour drinks are about 350THB (£7), ice cream was a similar price and the ribs night was over £40 per person. Spa treatments were around £100! As a comparison, Fisherman’s village has restaurants just 5 minutes from the hotel that all sold mains for max £12 and drinks were around £4. The market had cocktails for just 100THB (£2.50).

The beautiful fountain at the entrance, open airy reception, spectacular gardens with lily ponds, torches all around the ponds and pool at night, majestic entrances into the spa treatment rooms resembled what you would expect from a five star hotel. Our overall experience however was more like two stars. We stayed in room 130 which is one of two rooms advertised as beachfront sea view rooms. May 11th-15th. The good: - Most of the breakfast staff and the staff at the hotel pool bar in the evening seemed genuinely friendly, not to mention the lovely gardeners and security staff that we met on the pathway every day. They always greeted us with a big smile. - The receptionist that took us to the room was lovely. She seemed warm and friendly, communication was clear and informative. She was a trainee so I hope she doesn't end up adapting the attitude of the rest of the reception staff. - The private pool was nice, although we were hugely disappointed with the lack of sea view. - A nice extra touch was the beach sandals in our room that we found the day we were leaving. It would have been nice to know the first day. - The bed was super comfy. - The spa looked astonishing especially at night with the torches lit. All the staff including the ones who didn't give a good massage, were wonderful and super friendly The bad: - Where do I begin?; My first (and continued) impression of the reception staff was that they seemed ingenuine and arrogant. The interaction with them was very superficial. Conversely, the gardeners had the attitude that I would expect from the "face of the company". - The room is advertised as "beachfront superb sea view room". The only way to get a glimpse of the sea is when you stand up in front of the room. When you sit on a chair and are in the pool you have a garden view. On top of that, the hotel has added a huge sign right in front of the little sea view that you have when you stand up. Normal price for this room is around 600 USD. We got it cheaper because the hotel matched a cheaper price we found online but it's still not a cheap room! - There was construction work in front of the communal pool which covered 2/3 of the stunning sea view that you normally would have. In that respect we were glad we had our own pool but we were still disturbed all day long with the loud noise from the construction work. It's completely unacceptable to not inform hotel guests about this in advance. They should inform guests either when the booking is made or by e-mail when the date for the work is set. - The breakfast buffet was just ok and didn't have a great selection. The cold cuts and cheese were not chilled and must be a health hazard. I've never seen sweaty cheese like that. They only had the cheapest fruit available ; papaya, sour pineapple and melon. You find mango in every fruit stall in Koh Samui but it's not served in a five star resort! It's shocking that the selection is not better when you pay as much as you do in Anantara. The poor guy at the egg station looked hot and sweaty, he was most of the time alone and had to service a huge line of people when it was busiest. No wonder he sometimes mixed up the orders and didn't get the eggs cooked right. Most of the bread didn't look nice and fresh but the sourdough bread was superb. - The rooms are dated and the bathroom layout is ridiculous; you never feel like you're alone in the toilet because half of the glass walls are completely clear and there is no door to the bathroom. There was far from enough electrical outlets. - The gym seemed old, no nice view. I was looking straight into the wall when I was on the treadmill, but more importantly I did not feel safe there as a woman. It took at least 10 minutes before I saw a staff member. I think he came from a room in front of the bathroom but the door was always closed so it didn't seem like anyone was there. There were only two men in the gym and they both had the shirt off, which is not really what I want to look at in the gym and it's not hygienic, sweat dripping everywhere. There should be visible staff daytime and a clear dress code stated on the entrance door. All in all the gym was very uninspiring. - The Spa; we had booked a 90 min thai massage when we arrived in the afternoon. My massage was only ok and my husband's was great. We received a 60 min complimentary massage in the evening, which was very bad for both of us. My husband had the same lady who gave an amazing massage the first day. I have had a lot of massages in my life and this was one of the worst. I will write a more detailed review of the spa but you expect the very best for the price that you pay. Needless to say, this all put a huge damper on our stay in Koh Samui. It really should be against the law to falsely advertise like this. It was too late for us to find another hotel when we arrived, as the other options with a private pool that we had looked at were already booked. The only "compensation" the hotel offered was a 60 minute massage that turned out to be one of the worst massages I've ever had. It's embarrassing. When we were checking out I had a proper conversation with a reception manager who did seem genuinely interested in our feedback and agreed that our experience was not ok. Major changes across the board has to happen in Anantara Bophut if they want to raise the standard to a proper five star. No excuse that the pictures are old. If you are transparent customers will be positively surprised instead. I wouldn't recommend anyone to stay here, change your reservation while you still can! There's so many other actual 5 star hotels to choose from. Note: we stayed 3 days in Anantara Riverside Bangkok after this and the experience was like night and day.