- Thailand Holidays
- Karon
- Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort
Located in the secluded cove of Relax Bay with its wide sandy beach, Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort is a secluded haven yet only 5 kilometres from bustling Patong Town with its many restaurants, shops and nightlife. The spacious guest rooms offer a modern decor, hardwood floors, private balcony, LCD TV and stylish bathroom. Ten restaurants and bars serve world cuisine, including extensive buffets, wood-fired pizza and freshly grilled seafood on the beachfront. Sample Teppanyaki at Ariake restaurant and enjoy a cocktail or two at the Sunset Bar. Guests can enjoy the extensive facilities and activities available in the resort including the two oversized swimming pools, fitness centre, outdoor driving range, Le Spa offering Thai and signature therapies, tennis courts and for the children there is a kid's activity centre.
Relax at the full-service spa, where you can enjoy massages, body treatments and facials. You're sure to appreciate the recreational amenities, which include 4 outdoor swimming pools, outdoor tennis courts and a sauna. Additional features at this resort include complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services and babysitting (surcharge). Guests can catch a ride to nearby destinations on the local area shuttle (surcharge).
The hotel presents itself professionally on the surface. The beach is beautiful, the pool is outstanding, and great credit is due to the entire team responsible for maintaining the property. This is precisely why my experience with the service at the Beach Bar was such a disappointment.
The staff provide service in a way that operates right on the borderline of what can technically be complained about. Nevertheless, the overall impression from multiple visits is one of a highly unpleasant and selective attitude toward guests.
Unfortunately, practices aimed at indirectly pressuring guests to leave additional tips on top of the already applied service charge appear to be considered standard here. Guests are left with the feeling that, in order to enjoy a pleasant evening, they must overlook a long list of "small coincidences." At times it is disproportionately small portions, at others a side dish that was supposedly brought by mistake, missing refreshing hand towels even though neighboring tables receive them automatically, or small complimentary gestures that some guests receive while others do not.
What makes this even more difficult to justify is that many of these situations occur at times when the restaurant is far from busy. On several occasions, there appeared to be more staff members than guests present. This makes it hard to attribute these issues to workload, understaffing, or operational pressure. When service inconsistencies occur despite an abundance of available staff, they feel less like unfortunate oversights and more like deliberate choices.
The seating arrangement deserves special mention. Non-smoking guests are systematically seated at tables with a restricted view, while the best seats with panoramic ocean views remain reserved for the smoking section. It is rather strange that a guest who prefers clean air is effectively being "penalized" with an inferior dining experience. In a hotel of this standard, the quality of the view should not be a reward for smoking.
Each of these details may seem insignificant on its own. However, their repetition and frequency have a substantial impact on the atmosphere and the overall dining experience for which guests are paying a considerable amount of money.
As this is the only hotel restaurant with a sea view, guests have limited alternatives unless they choose to leave the resort. This makes it even more important to ensure a consistent level of service for all guests and a stable standard of food quality. If the hotel expects guests to spend their money on dinners within the resort rather than in restaurants outside it, then it should provide them with a reason to stay. A sea view alone cannot compensate for inconsistent service, fluctuating food quality, and the uncomfortable feeling created by the attitude of the staff.
The biggest issue was neither the food nor the waiting time. It was the feeling that guests are not treated as people who deserve the best possible service, but rather as individuals who need to be subtly reminded that, without additional financial incentives, they can expect not only to miss out on exceptional service, but often even on the level of service that should be considered a basic standard for a hotel of this category.
It is a shame when an otherwise excellent impression of a beautiful resort is undermined by staff who, while superficially polite, clearly create the impression that guest satisfaction is not the objective, but merely a by-product of the tips they expect to receive. The hotel already charges a service fee automatically, and guests should not be left with the feeling that they have to pay a second time for fair treatment, reasonably sized portions, a good table location, or the basic attention that any guest should be entitled to receive.
What to say about this resort…… a complete destination in itself. Fantastic hospitality, amazing food, welcoming staff & private white sand beach. What else anybody can wish for on his holiday.
This hotel and staff are in our opinion the number one holiday destination on the planet. We have been privileged to have 16 previous visits and we will be back in January 2027. The staff, food and the facility is like no other we have stayed at. The management, could be a model for other hotels should follow. The food is out of this world and the personal touch of staff from restaurants to pool to massage second to none.
Great location, friendly staff and excellent facilities
The main feedback is we had an enjoyable four nights at Le Meridien Phuket.
The hotel is very private and secluded, the beach is excellent though families with small kids should be aware of the strong rip currents.
The breakfast offering is what you would expect from a Meridien level Marriott brand hotel, food was decent and breakfast staff were very helpful.
The spa was very high level, we both had different massages every day with different therapists and all were excellent.
The hotel wasn’t overly busy when we were there in late July / early August, so booking into one of the hotel restaurants was easy. Food was good at the three restaurants that we tried.
Clientele was a mix of European, Middle Eastern and Asian.
Journey time from Phuket airport varies a lot depending on time of day. On the way to the hotel (9pm local time) it was at least a 90 minute journey. To catch an early flight back, the same took less than an hour.
The room we had (a small suite with beach view) was perfectly adequate. It had everything you could possibly need though some of the smaller finishing touches weren’t very well thought through. For example the shower door opens outwards and it’s impossible to keep the bathroom floor dry. If you put a foot towel outside the door, it is moved as the door opens.
In terms of gripes, there were a few. Twice we had a knock at our door at 7am while we were sleeping, both times it was a member of staff delivering to the wrong room. After opening the door to him, we could not go back to sleep.
On booking, Marriott offered a list of requests and we ticked the ‘feather free room’ option as feathers make me feel asthmatic. After offering this option when booking, the staff at Le Meridien hadn’t done their part. After a ten hour journey the hope was to sleep straight away and start the short break refreshed the next morning. This was not possible as staff at Le Meridien had ignored booking details submitted through their own website.
The hotel admitted it was ‘human error’, which was a theme that ran through the stay unfortunately. There are many ways that this hotel could be improved, the first being that people do their own jobs properly. Unfortunately during a very short stay, there were quite a few examples of this not happening, which suggests the fault lies with the management either not training staff or not monitoring standards.
