Steve Beale
We thoroughly enjoyed our 5 night stay at Kata Palm. The staff were very nice and polite, the room was good and we enjoyed the proximity to the beach. Breakfast was great. Pool and massage was very nice. Evening restaurant was good and again staff were nice.
A few points - in the restaurant at lunchtime, two of the waitresses working together could not speak any English - ok, fine, but it's a hotel that almost exclusively caters to intentional tourists. The management should not let this happen as it was very confusing trying to order. Train them, yes, but have some supporting staff on at the same time to help then learn (it's not their fault).
The "Western" dishes in lunchtime restaurant were a bit overpriced (Nuggets and chips for one!)
We did see one cockroach in the bathroom but the room service man sprayed the drains promptly and fortunately no return, but we were a little surprised (the bathroom has two drains which it no doubt came from).
Our room was right at the back of the hotel, which was an easy 5 minute walk to the breakfast area/front of hotel. Maybe we paid for that but it would be good to make that clear to guests. It felt like a very long way.
We would still go back and enjoyed it but hope they can improve on some points.
Andrea C
Hotel is situated in the busy rural area, however the greenery around the pool enhances the experience.
It is though a budget friendly hotel, with lots of restaurants around and a close spot to visit Big budha.
The bed was quite hard and the rooms are very dark. I wouldn't recommend the hotel or the area to enjoy the "holiday vibes".
After the rain, noone cleaned the floors in the restaurant, where we had the breakfast.
Kata beach nearby is very busy, unable to swim at this season, July/August, however its perfect for surfing.
Emmelin Larina Tvedt Nilsen
Overall, this hotel has some good qualities. The pool area is nice and there are several fun pools to enjoy, which was definitely a highlight of our stay.
Unfortunately, the rooms and the food were not up to the standard we expected. I became sick during our stay, and while I can’t say for certain what caused it, the day I got sick I had eaten a piece of melon at breakfast that tasted unpleasant and later had a drink from the pool bar. Given the other hygiene concerns we noticed, it left me feeling uneasy.
The biggest issue with the room was the bathroom. It had a very strong sewage smell throughout our stay. We tried pouring water into the drains, but it didn’t solve the problem, and the overall air quality in the room still felt unpleasant.
Another concern was hygiene at the pool bar. We noticed the staff rinsing the drink-making equipment with tap water and using it immediately afterward without drying it first, which meant tap water ended up in the drinks.
The breakfast was simply not good. The only thing that consistently felt safe to eat was the omelette, as it was freshly cooked right in front of us. Several people in our group, myself included, felt that some of the fruit tasted off. The melon had a strange taste, and some of the vegetables were soft and didn’t seem fresh. After I became sick, I no longer felt comfortable eating at the hotel and chose to eat elsewhere for the rest of my stay.
The staff were always friendly and polite, which we really appreciated. However, housekeeping was quite inconsistent. Some days we would receive only one towel instead of two, other days items weren’t replaced at all, and the room service varied a lot from day to day.
Overall, while the pools and friendly staff made for some enjoyable moments, the issues with cleanliness, food quality, and room maintenance mean I wouldn’t choose to stay here again, and I would advise not to stay here until they fix these things.
Kerli Leikin
Do not book this hotel! Dirty rooms, suspected food poisoning and they denied our Trip.com booking.
Avoid this hotel at all costs. This was the worst hotel experience our family has ever had.
We booked 3 rooms for 7 nights through Agoda 6 months in advance because we were travelling as a family during the extremely busy Songkran Festival in April.
When we arrived in the afternoon, the receptionist told us they couldn’t find our booking. They showed us a paper claiming they no longer accepted Trip.com or Agoda bookings. This made no sense because, while standing at reception, we checked Agoda and the hotel was still actively selling rooms for the same dates. The explanation simply didn’t match what we could see ourselves.
The reception staff were incredibly rude, dismissive and completely unwilling to help. We even spoke to the owner by phone, but received no assistance whatsoever. Instead of honouring our reservation, they tried to get us to book the same rooms directly with the hotel at a much higher price.
With Songkran being the busiest time of the year, almost every hotel nearby was fully booked. We were left with no real choice. After hours of stress and uncertainty, we ended up booking the same hotel through Booking.com, again at a significantly higher price, just so our family would have somewhere to stay.
Unfortunately, the problems didn’t end there. The rooms were dirty, smelled strongly of mould and the bed sheets had visible stains. Breakfast was also very disappointing. Although breakfast was included, staff refused to provide fruits. After eating there, several members of our family became ill with what we believe was food poisoning, be careful!
After reading other reviews, it appears that other guests have experienced very similar issues with Agoda bookings, which is deeply concerning.
This entire experience was incredibly stressful, frustrating and completely unacceptable. Poor customer service, poor cleanliness and an apparent refusal to honour bookings made through Trip.com.
I would never stay here again!!
Save yourself the stress and disappointment. If you don’t want your holiday ruined, avoid this hotel and book somewhere else.
Chang Lee
First time in kata beach so didn’t really know where to stay. This hotel only looked nice on website. It’s old, out dated and needs cleaning and maintenance updates. Huge facilities and one small old elevator. Far from front desk depending on the location of room. Some parts of pool was dirty. Rooftop pool is small but clean compared to main pool. Old, thin towels. Bed and pillows are not comfortable, painful stiff neck and shoulder.Staffs are not very helpful. Oh most important, don’t forget your room key. They will not issue you an other key, instead they will send a house keeping person to go into your room to get a key.(without myself present) For whatever the reason,issuing you an other key is something they can not do. Front desk staffs may sound sweet but basically no information or can’t help you. At breakfast, plates and coffee cups were dirty, stained. Watermelon is good.. Will not recommend this hotel at all. Yes it is about 10min walk to the beach but weather here is always hot and humid so I suggest spend a little more and stay at the beach front hotels please! It is not worth it to stay in this unfriendly , old, inconvenient place. A day after I checked into this hotel and used my credit card to paid, i started to get fraud alert notifications. Same happened to my friend. We used credit card for hotel room charges only but a day later we both started to get fraud charges. Not saying anything to do with this hotel but I thought it was weird. What a coincidence???
