"I'm in a Thai hotel, and the prices are like in Monaco... I definitely wouldn't stay here again!" — Niemann Criticizes His Thailand Vacation

Hans Moke Niemann

American GM

“I’ve probably stayed in at least 10 Ritz-Carltons all over the world. This hotel left a lot to be desired considering the price.

I think the average night for 2 weeks was about $550 to $600 per night. That price for New York or Paris would be normal, but for Thailand in a resort, you would expect something quite nice.

A few things, the rooms are quite old. There were areas in the previous room that weren’t painted. And to our surprise, we entered the room and someone was actually painting…

Obviously, it’s quite hot and humid, so there were serious issues with the air conditioning in the bedroom. There was one air conditioning unit that was incredibly loud. The bathroom had no air conditioning, it was incredibly hot. And then the living room only had a fan.

One night the air conditioning went off and I woke up in the middle of night at 3 AM sweating because it was so hot. And the fan was incredibly loud, making it hard to sleep.

Although it’s a new hotel, it wasn’t really that well-maintained. It’s also quite large. In the previous room, we had to take a buggy, like a golf cart, to go over to the pool.

And that service can be unreliable. Sometimes it’d come in a few minutes. But one time after leaving dinner, I waited for almost 20 minutes just to get a buggy.

About the food, I will say that the restaurant quality of the food was very high. But the prices were absolutely insane. A normal dinner at The Ranch, which is their best restaurant, would be a minimum $250 for two people. A 300-gram ribeye steak would be about $100.

That’s not even New York prices. That’s not even three Michelin star level price. For a resort, it’s incredibly ridiculous. On top of that, there’s a 10% VAT and then 10% service charge added. So, it’s 20% extra to all your bills.

The food was very good, but one day we waited 40 minutes for our food at the Indian restaurant. All of the restaurants are just incredibly expensive. It’s quite surprising for Thailand to have prices of Monaco. I’ve been to restaurants in Monaco, Hong Kong, some of the nicest restaurants in the world, and even their prices aren’t this ridiculous.

I definitely wouldn’t stay here again. Price is absolutely ridiculous for what you’re getting. Perhaps I would come to one of the restaurants if I was in Koh Samui again. But generally, the Ritz-Carlton was very disappointing.”