Le Blanc Samed Resort

The first thing I noticed was that all attending employees were drinking beer in the morning. Not a great start, I guess. We got a 'fan' room (that somehow included an air-con unit) for 380 baht a night for four nights. Seemed a bit steep until I read other reviews; I am used to pay about 200 to 300 baht for crap rooms without bathroom and airco, but here I got both for a little bit more on this (quite expensive) island. The woman in charge tried to sell us a fan room for 500 baht, and an aircon room for 700, but eventually she caved and became rather hospituous. The shower is cold and there is no drain in the bathroom, just a hole in the wall (be happy to have a bathroom, see pics for shared utilities). There are a lot of mosquitos, but if you bring a mosquito net (like me;)), you'll be fine. Furthermore, the resort is a dump. Just dont pay the 400+ baht (I've seen as much as 4500 baht per night in reviews here) during the rainy season... It is close to the beach tough, and we got extra towels free of charges to use on the beach.

As an owner/ operator of a similar chalet type accommodation business in Australia, I have to pass on this feedback: So the power was apparently cut "on the whole island", (said staff), due to storms. Le Blanc's generator was not working so on my 1 and only night in Ko Samet, I sat in my room from roughly 7pm to 1am in total darkness, sweating and blindly fighting of mosquitos. After a few hours I called to discuss getting a refund so I could move to a hotel with generator power but I got no answer. So I toughed it out until the power came back on at about 1am. (I was almost asleep by then mind you). The next day I went to management and asked them if they are going to offer their guests some type of compensation for what happened. Ok, it wasn't there fault that the power was down on the whole island. -I get that. But it's their fault for running a facility with a broken generator that leaves it's guests, who have paid good money to enjoy their holiday, to sit and sweat in the darkness for 5 hours. There simple reply was "No". Yes, I paid a relatively low price for the room but it doesn't matter if its 1000 or 10,000 Baht per night. -You just cannot operate a business like that and allow that stuff to happen without even considering offering your guests some type of compensation. I explained that I would happily offer this back in Australia if our guests had to endure a similar type problem. Be it a bottle of wine, a partial discount for the night or a breakfast voucher at a restaurant. Whatever, just something. Ko Samet, as you will read on Trip Advisor and other review forums, has changed a lot and sadly, it seems to all be very dog eat dog, money, money now. It is as it is right but for a crappy, dirty, dogs breakfast like room, (which was "the last one available" -yeah right!!), overlooking a noisy, busy road I suggest you keep walking on to the next few bays and you will have some much, much better options to look at. Cheers folks, hope this helps.

I've been to the beautiful island of Koh Samet 3 times now, twice on New Years Eve so are fully aware of inflated new year prices (2500bt +2700bt for 30th and 31st December). Three of us (2 separate rooms) went to Le Blanc Samet resort on a recommendation and it turned into a nightmare. On arrival the staff were so disorganised that in my opinion all of them need to trained immediately in basic customer services. The main issue we experienced was the water was off on New Years Eve for the whole day - No toilet, shower etc. We planned to go out for the day on the beach and in the sea , so not being able to shower in the morning was manageable, but when we needed to be able to shower for the New Years Eve evening there was still no water - even though we had been promised 100% it would be restored in the afternoon. Trying to find out why the water wasn't back on was difficult and after about an hour of being pointed in various directions we were getting no where. One of the 3 of us was Thai and even they were being treated rudely. There was NO offer of using a employee's room to shower, alternative solution, Nothing... New Years Eve and they didn't care!! We ended up looking for another holidaymaker who would let us use their shower. We cannot thank the people who helped us in allowing us to use their shower enough, but the stress Le Blanc resort and staff caused us over-shadowed what should have been a great night out. On checking out there was NO apology offered, NO refund offered, NO feeling that they were bothered in the slightest - They had our money and couldn't care less. My friend is much travelled to Thailand and went to the tourist police, who tried to sort it out. Eventually we were offered an insulting 500bt between us..... DO NOT STAY AT LE BLANC SAMED RESORT...