Baan Bamboo Resort

When we got there we were disappointed right away. The pictures from the booking site look really good, but when you're there it's obvious the place isn't taken care of very well at all, from the garden path to the bungalows themselves. My room had a serious stink to it, coming from the drain pipes in the bathroom. My tv didn't work but the owner didn't fix it or compensate for it, and others in our group were missing things that were promised in the booking, such as tv's or other furniture. The beds were also not very good; they give you only one thin cover but no sheets, so you're lying on top of the mattress itself. Wifi was spotty at best and barely worked. The staff, aside from the owner, were quite nice even though they didn't speak much english, so most things had to be deferred to the owner. The owner has a general hostile attitude. If you complain about something that is wrong, he gets upset and doesn't want to do it, then says he doesn't care if you stay here or not. The place right next door to him had a similar set up with bungalows but was much nicer visibly, though we cannot actually vouch for the place, and they even had a small restaurant for coffee and breakfast, which our place did not have. We went there a couple times for coffee or breakfast and they were very friendly people. We wished we stayed there for sure.

We went to Khao Lak for scuba diving at Richelieu Rock and the Similan Islands so we weren't too focused on spending time in a nice hotel however, we were not expecting the terrible experience we had. Upon our arrival we had issues with the 3 rooms either not matching the description on booking.com or being filthy. When we confronted the owner about the issues he became very angry and immediately threatened to cancel our rooms which would have left us in a panic to find another hotel that could accommodate a group of 6 at 10pm in a small town in Thailand. Since we felt like we were at his mercy we accepted the room as it was with the one condition that he would bring us a couch so our group could have some seating as we hoped to have quiet gatherings in the one "upgraded larger room" after our long days of scuba diving. The story worsened when 3 days went by and the man did not bring the couch he said he would. We confronted him as politely as we could asking if the couch would come soon? he said no, but he suggested an alternate "solution" that we cancel our booking on booking.com so the website would refund him the commission they charged him for acquiring customers through their site. He mentioned how he did this all the time to get people discounts. But really the refund would give him back 10% of our full rental (roughly $150.00) and then he said he would give us a $35.00 discount to appease us. Since he clearly was not going to bring us a couch we first thought we were ok with the idea of sucking it up sitting on the bed and floor in the room and getting a token refund for our troubles...then we realized that if we cancel the booking we would lose the option of leaving a review of the hotel! Well we didn't want to lose that option and one of our party wasn't too happy with resorting to fraud to get a couple bucks back. Now before we came to that conclusion one of our group had already gone online and attempted to cancel the booking as we were told to...but it turned out we couldn't even do that because our arrival date had already passed 4 days ago. So after some back and forth amongst ourselves we decided to try and reason with him we raised the issues that his advertisement for the room on booking.com was inaccurate, that he failed to provide the couch he promised, that there was supposed to be a seating area with tables in the upgraded room which there was not, and although he said we could have cancelled our booking to get a discount even if we still wanted to we couldn't have done that...so we calmly suggested he should give us something for our troubles...this final discussion which became a huge argument took place very late again, and this time he threatened to call the police if we did not leave his "resort" in 30 minutes! Well we refused to be intimidated as we did nothing wrong so we just waited in our rooms and sure enough the police arrived in about 30 minutes and after some difficult discussions (because of the language barrier) The Police officer sided with us alowing us to continue our stay (YAY!) he stated that the owner was being ridiculous for calling the police over such a small matter. We later found out that we were very lucky that Thai police almost never side with foreigners. But we were six professional people, well mannered, well dressed, we were never disrespectful or unruly, we were essentially mild mannered people that did not like being taken advantage of. We never got anything for all our troubles, except a crazy story about the first group of foreigners that got sympathy and favor from a Thai policeman. The rooms overall were dreadful, there were no sheets on the beds just a rough mattress cover, the AC made horrible noise, the bathroom drains were usually clogged, looked and smelled fairly disgusting. The room had clearly not been properly cleaned in a long time if ever...the Television (although we hardly used it except for just before bed) worked only half the time as the cable must have had a short...We spent a month in Asia, stayed in Hostels, Hotels (cheap ones and nice ones) Spent time in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand....and this was the worst hotel, nothing positive about the place can be said at all (The owner of this hotel also had two other hotels under the names Summer house 1 and summer house 2....avoid Baan Bamboo or these two other hotels for any other places unless you want to deal with this man. In the end the crazy owner registered us as a no-show on booking.com so we could not leave a review (what a scam) and unfortunately booking.com has not replied to any of our communications regarding what happened so we are leaving a review here on trip advisor in hopes we can save others from an experience like we had. Who wants that on vacation???? Thanks for reading.

Stay here for 2 nights after another resort nearby. Baan Bamboo Resort features basic rooms with private balconies. With free Wi-Fi, the property is only a 5/10 minutes walk from Bang Niang Beach. Clean and simple room are equipped with air conditioning, a TV and a refrigerator. and bathrooms are fitted with shower facilities plus you will see all furniture is made of bamboo. The owner own another Resort which is across the road with short walking and you can dine at Summer House Resort Restaurant which serves thai dishes and snarks there. Out of the hotel turn right about 50 meters away there also 2 local thai eatery and a convenient store. Turn to the left just 2 doors away there is a resort that have a restaurant too. The owner/staff is nice and helpful. The only things is place need to well kept a bit like garden and surrounding(beside lots of mosquito). The surrounding is quite air con work fine as well. Need to get a bike to go around which is easier for those whom like to stay here. Don't expect so much for the fine p[rice a paid for the stay. Afterall, you are not going to stay in the room all the time. Getting out and back from the main street(where shops and restaurants around there) prepare to pay 100 baht per way. Anyway, is a good experience for me as a SOLO. If you love partying this is not your place.