Melati Beach Resort and Spa

This hotel is quite unfriendly to Asian‑looking guests. When my friend came to visit me, a white individual told the hotel staff that my friend was not a registered guest. At that time, I had no mobile‑phone signal and could not receive my friend’s messages to send over the room number. The hotel staff proceeded to turn my friend away. โรงแรมแห่งนี้ไม่ค่อยเป็นมิตรกับคนหน้าตาชาวเอเชีย เมื่อเพื่อนของฉันมาหาฉัน คนฝรั่งบอกพนักงานโรงแรมว่าเพื่อนของฉันไม่ได้พักที่นั่น ในขณะนั้นโทรศัพท์มือถือของฉันไม่มีสัญญาณ จึงไม่ได้รับข้อความจากเพื่อนและไม่สามารถส่งหมายเลขห้องให้ได้ พนักงานโรงแรมก็ขับไล่เพื่อนของฉันออกไปเลย

We booked a family pool room however due to significant structural failings the room is not sealed, every room with a sliding door to a pool or the outside has gaps - top, bottom and both sides, the wood of the doors have warped so leave big gaps. This means that mosquitos get in every single day. I could fit my whole hand in the gap between the door and the wall meaning this is a significant issue. I don’t book a 5 star hotel for it to be open to the elements. Not a lot of point wearing mosquito spray when you may as well sleep outside.
Raised this with management who are well aware of this issue in all their pool and high end rooms. They to their credit, tried to seal all the gaps.. with wood strips, sticky tape and brush seals… however every door (there were 8 in the room including front and back doors, as they also had gaps) had this issue, so it was like using a band aid to fix a leak. Two separate visits by maintenance and a very keen manger to find out when we are leaving so they can remove all fixings for the next poor person. Once they realised they couldn’t fix it, their interest disappeared… We got bitten multiple times every night and in the end felt sick from all the plug ins they had in the room.
They offered us a room upgrade to their top presidential suite and then while “checking it to see if it had the same issues” conveniently was booked by someone else. They comped us a meal at their fireworks show and then tried to decline us 2 drinks which came with the package.
Love Sunbed wars around the pool? This is the place for you, all beds taken by 10, there is an adult pool but no help if you have kids. The beach had a few beds but not all had cushions on/ looked tatty. Maintenance around the resort isn’t great, missing or precarious tiles on roofs, wood on steps around the resort hanging off with nails pointed out and don’t go in your private pool wearing anything white it will turn yellow, my sons hair also started to turn green, this is due to the high mineral content in the local water supply, used to top up the pools. (Don’t be fooled it’s not just your pool) they scrub the edges of the main pool to try and remove the yellow ring that stains. It was very prominent in our room pool. However we have experienced it travelling before, so aware nothing can be done, as per other reviews noted here, where it’s clearly mentioned. Not 5 star, looks good, if your ok with the above - then the staff are lovely and it’s ok, prices are high as out the way from restaurants but there is a lovely restaurant next door which also do laundry and were great (just keep pure white shirts etc aside and wash at home) - sweat/ sun cream and local water again can cause yellowing. The massage place was also fabulous and a lot cheaper than the hotel.
All in all, a huge amount of money per night when the basic requirement of a sealed room is not possible. I definitely wouldn’t take a baby or young child here for risk of being bitten at night and it causing illness.
We had stayed in 6 hotels before this one across Thailand, mainly fantastic 5 star hotels and it was the only one which we felt uncomfortable in. Yes the grounds are green but this isn’t the reason for the bites… we got more mosquito bites asleep in our room than the entire time we were in and trekking in the Thai jungle! We only had 1 bite in the day around the hotel, the issue… the rooms!
And no we didn’t downgrade once they couldn’t sort it fully, for us, or clearly anyone in these rooms (we only had a few days left) as this was meant to be the relaxing part of the trip… with our own private pool!! Overall it was poor not worth the money, book elsewhere.