Mai Holiday by Mai Khao Lak

This is first and foremost a family orientated hotel, as the giant Teddy bears at the main door indicate. There are 4 large pools accessible to children and one smaller one serving the adults only section. While the swim up bar here is a nice feature, the limited outside seating space and only 20 sunbeds for potentially 200 adults means that few guests can actually enjoy this area. Those with swim up rooms have more space but are mostly shaded. The rooms are lovely and spacious with separate sitting area and balcony and the bed was huge and very comfortable. Wifi is a problem, very weak signal and constantly dropping out. Maybe because the adults only section is furthest from reception? It's a 7-10 min walk along the hotel service road which is always in full sun so not pleasant. If you're lucky you might get to flag down one of the buggies, but during the day they're usually transporting luggage for guests checking in or out. From reception it's 5 min walk to the beach which we loved, day and night. At the hotel the buffet restaurant charges £17 per head. At the beach we spent 2-3 hours over food and cocktails for approx £20 for both of us. If it hadn't been for the beach area I think we'd have been really disappointed and bored with our week here. Breakfast is a good selection but busy and noisy due to all the kids. Why not serve breakfast for adults only in the sky bar/restaurant? Staff are friendly and helpful although check in was chaotic. We arrived at 3pm after a 2.5 hour transfer and it took an hour before we were allowed to our room. At one point we counted 13 staff behind reception but it was only when I spotted the manager and spoke to him that we were actually given our room key. This is probably a good choice if you've got young children. Lots aimed at them day and evening. But I wouldn't recommend for adults only as the same thought and attention has definitely not been put into their holiday experience .

This hotel is poor: Took approx 1 hour to Check-in. No arrival wet flannels or drinks provided so had to ask for them, (other guests had received them). No Wi-fi available for 2 hours after arriving. Free meal ticket which we were entilted to was not supplied, we had to ask for it. Upon entering the room, the toilet was blocked. The shower was not working hot wate only, no cold water. the room was very very dark, had to use a torch to do my make-up. Dressing table stool was very very low, couldn't even see the top of my head in the mmirror, had to drag a side table from another part of the room to sit on. No English channels on the TV except for one motor racing channel!! no english news channels!! Fridge barely cold & was not chilling the water. Shower tiles were very roughly grouted over & heavy mould in the tile grout. Once they got the shower working it ran hot/cold inconsistently whilst in yuse. Room whcih as in the reception block was very dated & in need of refurbishment. No feeback form was available!! My advise if you end up staying at this hotel is to go to the stalls on the beach to eat/drink.