Anantara Phuket Villas

We booked this hotel expecting 5-star service, but the breakfast experience was far from it. On one morning, coffee was simply never served to our table. The next day, our group of seven was only offered a table for four. The staff member said she would arrange another table for us, but then completely forgot about us. We ended up eating while standing. When I raised the issue with the manager, instead of an apology, I was met with a dismissive, “Look around, it’s busy.” I explained that we had arrived 30 minutes earlier, but were overlooked while other guests who came later were served first. The “solution” offered was to add just two extra chairs to a table meant for four — still not enough space for us to be seated comfortably. For a hotel claiming to be 5-star, this level of service is unacceptable. The disorganization, lack of attention to guests, and the manager’s rude attitude left us very disappointed. Breakfast should be a pleasant start to the day, not a frustrating ordeal.

This hotel is either hoping you only care that is was featured in a hit US TV Series, or they are not interested in guests ever returning. Fair warning, this hotel is nestled in amongst a number of Vacation Club/Timeshare locations (including their own offering), so my assumption is they are used to that type of guest and service is provided along those lines. Villas are nice, need some minor repair and upkeep, but overall the quality is good. Restaurant service is good and food quality is good. Villa pools are not temperature controlled, so when the temperature drops you may not be willing to swim, especially with small children. Housekeeping is not good, despite leaving the villa early and putting the "make up room" light on, the room was only attended to late in the afternoon. On once occasion nothing had been done by 4:30pm! The fact that you book a villa, means you are going to be staying in the room more than usual, so would expect the services to geared around that - this is not the case. Beach is unusable, due to the season, but that would have been good information to know before you book and part with your cash. Main pool is under repair, with little facilities and also seems not to be temperature controlled. When I made enquires about upgrading rooms, pool temperatures, etc, you get very quick and short responses like "not possible" or "all villa pools are the same" (which was not the case when I peaked into some other unoccupied villas). Despite filling in numerous booking and pre-check in forms, none of that information seems to flow through to amenities in the room or even when the management tried to make amends for the service issues. For example, I was traveling alone with three kids (as mentioned in the booking and pre-checkin and checkin forms), yet the room was still setup with amenities for the standard two adults and two kids. When they wanted to provide us with some compensation for the poor service, they offered Afternoon Tea, which may be great for a couple, but not something 3 young kids are remotely interested in. Overall I would recommend avoiding this hotel and seek other offerings from this brand others on the island. This is not the Anantara Experience you will receive at there locations in Thailand or globally. They have a standard approach to everything, just seems to be the wash, rinse and repeat the of resort.

Anantara is one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited and stayed. The staff are amazing and friendly and make sure you have a wonderful stay. Two staff in particular are amazing. P J and Fern go the extra mile to help you and they always make you feel welcome and valued customers. Very well done to Anantara Mai Khao and we look forward to returning next year. Thank you to all the wonderful staff.

Lovely villa resort no doubt. Cannot fault the high quality of the accomodation and everything else.... except... When introduced to our room the service staff said items in the refrigerator were free (mineral water, beers, soft drinks) and we asked if this included the hard liquor sitting on top of fridge. It didn't she said. My wife and I both understood this to be the case. So we spent our time helping ourselves to the mini bar items we were told were free. This perception was reinforced by the lack of signage or even a price list of how much each item cost. Imagine our bemusement when we were charged nearly 3,000 baht when checking out for items which we believed were free. We decided not to quibble the matter and accept it was a simple misunderstanding... No big deal. But the process for checking what exactly we had consumed from the mini bar really dragged on way longer than it should have and we were starting to worry we'd miss our flight. In the end it turned out ok. But the staff didn't offer us anything even although we quickly accepted the misunderstanding without wanting to make a fuss. Language barriers aside, there's no excuse for not even having a pricelist. Unfortunately this experience was in keeping with the rest of our Phuket trip - suprise fees at every turn. Free mini bars have been a trend for a while now. With the exception of wines and spirits, most complimentary minibar items are very cheap to provide. The profits gained from selling them so not outweigh the feel good factor guests get from a modest selection of free refreshments.

Great experience here – super friendly staff, excellent breakfast although it’s a bit far from downtown but it’s really peaceful.