My sister and I stayed at CY Condo for 3 months, between mid-January and mid-April of 2015. During that time, we had 6 friends visit us for a combined total of 6 weeks: for 2 of those weeks, we rented an extra room at a daily rate, and for the other 4 weeks, we rented a room at the monthly rate. All of the rooms we got were "deluxe" rooms on the 2nd floor, with one double bed, private bath, kitchen with fridge, and HDTV. The monthly rate (8,000 baht) is a massive savings over the daily rate (800 baht) -- if you're staying for more than 10 days, you're probably better off getting the monthly rate. The terms were month-to-month: they had no 3-month, 6-month, or 1-year lease requirement, like most places we looked at.
We knew we'd be renting a motor scooter, and we were specifically looking for something removed from the city, so in that regard, this place met our needs well. It's about a 10 minute drive from the old city, and we liked the fact that there wasn't much hustle and bustle around it. It's definitely not in a touristy area.
If you stay here, you will need to access almost everything with your own vehicle. There is one eating place a few minutes walk down the road, which is open for lunch, and there's a grocery store (brand new when we were there) a few minutes walk down the road on the other side of the condo. Beyond that, there's a 7-Eleven, a Tesco Lotus Express, a collection of night-time street vendors (between the stores), and a few coffee shops across the canal, a couple more minutes walk away. We got food from the street vendors on many nights, and usually only found Thai locals there -- very authentic and decent food.
The condo was immediately impressive, in large part because it was brand new. We were surprised to find that construction hadn't entirely been completed yet. Though this didn't impact our stay too much, there were a few times that I found a massive crane outside our window! There are many residents who stay here, but it eventually became apparent that this place wasn't fully booked by any means. It was hard to determine how many rooms are actually ready for tenants. The upside of this was that it was really easy for us to get an extra room when our friends came. I also think that's why the room rates are fairly low -- very reasonable for what you get.
We really liked how nicely the deluxe rooms were designed, and although each one had the same contents, each had its own unique style. The look of the rooms made it pretty easy for us to like the place well enough to choose it for our 3-month stay. However, as we started living there, we realized that most of the furnishings are fairly cheaply-made, and in addition to that, the builders often took shortcuts. These were minor issues that I'd say are typical of the construction quality we saw in Thailand, and they wouldn't have changed our decision to stay there, but I do wonder how well this place will be looking in 10 years.
I work from home on the computer, so internet access is very important to me. Like an idiot, I didn't check the internet before signing the lease, although I knew the condo offers free wifi. We had been looking for a place for days, and I think in the excitement of finding a place within our budget that we actually liked, I just forgot to check it. Anyway, I immediately found two problems: 1) the free wifi is fairly slow, at a consistent 2 Mbps speed; 2) there was virtually no DTAC cell coverage for our phones. Fortunately, we were able to move to a room on the south side of the condo that did have cell coverage, and the consistency of the wifi at least made it bearable. Using Skype is possible; however, don't expect to stream HD videos over it.
The biggest problem I faced was internet related. About halfway through our stay, the wifi went down (thank goodness I had the cell service as a backup). That was no big deal, except that it stayed down, for one day, then another, then another, then one week, then two weeks! During this time, we kept subtly asking about it, but we didn't want to seem pushy. We'd learned that nothing happens quickly in Thailand. I don't actually think they started working on the problem for an entire week, and then it took them about another week to get it fixed. I ended up having to pay more for my DTAC internet, and their lack of responsiveness on this issue alone drops this rating from 4 to 3.
There are plenty of amenities that this condo offers. In addition to our room's amenities, we had access to the pool, workout room, a communal Thai-style kitchen, and a couple coin-operated washing machines in the basement. They also have a coin-operated clothes dryer, but that wasn't working for our entire stay. The washing machines were high-capacity (8kg) and could do almost all of our clothes for 20 baht, which we then hung to dry in our room. The one amenity that I really missed was a microwave in our room (though there is a microwave in the communal kitchen). To compensate, our room had a hot water heater, which we used to boil and refrigerate all of our drinking water, rather than hauling water from the water machines around town.
The pool looks amazing, but we didn't use it much in January and February, and most other people didn't either. It is unheated, so it was too cold for me... let's just call it "refreshing". In March and April the weather and pool warmed up, and we used it a lot, as did many other people. The pool is not exclusive to the condo, as the townhouses to the west also have access to it.
One of their weakest points is most certainly their cleaning service. I'm not generally a super clean person, so if even I notice there's a problem, then that's saying something. Our monthly rate included two cleanings (daily rates include daily cleaning)... quite honestly, I'm being generous to even use the word "cleaning" -- I think "tidying" is a more accurate term. One thing they did well was clean the sheets and towels and make the bed. They were also good at coming on time on the correct day: we could schedule the cleaning if we wanted to, but we never had to ask for it to be done. There was usually a trio of very nice women who would do the tidying, and after they were done, things in the room generally looked in order. However, hardly anything would actually be clean. They used very flimsy brooms, and mostly just pushed dirt around... there was always a significant amount of dirt and hair on the floor after they finished. They used a wet mop on the bathroom floor, but again, there were mud streaks when the floor dried. If there were any splatters on the bathroom mirror, you could be sure they'd still be there after the tidying service. We didn't expect them to wash dishes in the sink, but they did make an effort -- unfortunately, it appeared that they simply rinsed them off and put them on a towel. To make matters worse, we could never be sure what would be left in the room. We quickly realized that they were throwing away the remaining hand soap on the bathroom counter or a toilet paper roll if it was low (neither of which they replaced), so we learned to hide all of our supplies before a "cleaning". Also, although we always got sheets and two towels, nothing else was certain: sometimes they wouldn't replace our bathroom mat or our hand towels -- it was truly perplexing. It also appeared that the rooms had never been thoroughly cleaned since they were built -- in most of them, we found drywall dust on some of the walls. We ended up purchasing a broom and cleaning supplies, and we cleaned the room ourselves.
Before we signed the lease, we had the option to forego bi-monthly cleaning for a 500 baht reduction in our rate. Despite the abysmal cleaning service, I think we would have still paid for it, only for bedsheet cleaning, which would have been difficult to do ourselves. I am only critical of their cleaning service as a warning to others... we did not comment on it when we were there, and I don't expect it to change. But I do mention it because some people really care about cleanliness, and if you're that kind of person, then this place might not be for you.
Everyone working at the condo was always nice, though only the condo manager (Dear) spoke English. The language barrier made things difficult sometimes, but everyone always tried their best and did everything they could to help.
For someone staying here, there are a couple nearby gems you should be aware of. About 1 km north of the condo, on the east side of canal road, there is a 7-Eleven. Every night, there is a roti vendor who sets up in front of the 7-Eleven, and he is, BY FAR, the best roti vendor we found. His name is Ali and his roti is always exactly the same, and amazingly good. Do not pass up the plain roti for 10 baht. Also, the drink vendor in front of the Tesco Lotus (across the canal from the condo) makes excellent drinks. They were always consistently good... milk teas, iced coffees -- basically everything was high-quality.
Overall, there were definitely some downsides, but if we could do it over, we would still have chosen to stay at CY Condo, mostly due to the price and somewhat remote location. There were enough upsides to counteract the downsides, and in the end, we had a great time.
AI Summary
