Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket

The first thing that hits you as you arrive is the beautiful location. Centara Grand is set in a hillside cove of the Andaman Sea. Check-in is relatively straightforward, although a little rushed. They also require a deposit of A$500 which seems quite steep. Then reality sets in. The room is shabby with a marble top table with cup rings and various other marks. Sliding partition doors are covered in hand marks. The bedside lamp doesn’t work. The bathroom has loose fittings and the shower has some sort of mould in the corner. There was a small TV on the wall which must have been about 12 years old and literally took 5 minutes to “warm up”. Housekeeping is obviously a very low priority here, as two of the seven days we were here we had to ask for the room to be serviced. When it was serviced it was done in a very slap-dash manner. Bed-making skills were not to the fore (see attached pic.). The exterior also has problems. Tiles in the lift were broken and the shade cloth screens over the sun loungers were filthy. Clearly in need of a deep clean or, more likely, a total refurbishment. Food was OK without being anything special and breakfast choices were a bit limited. There is a shuttle service to the nearby town but has a charge of A$10. Bit of a cash-grab in my opinion. To be clear, we are talking about an alleged 5-star establishment with a room rate of A$500 - 600 per night not a $100 per night roadside Motel. On the positive side, the restaurant staff were excellent. Always bright and cheery. Special shout out to Nat and Top in the Coast Bistro who were always attentive and helpful and nothing was too much trouble for them. All in all we had great expectations of Centara Grand based on other reviews but we were left very disappointed. Can’t recommend.

Sunday brunch but everything was excellent with top note of service team lead by Ice , Su, Yada, Pui Price was value with a lot of food and very value for free flow package drinks

Sunday brunch was very nice food was superb, lobster with black risotto, selection of cold cut , especially foiegras , kid club free enter when you join brunch here Khun Ice and his FB team Su, Yada, Pui are excellent service 🎉🎊🍷

We stayed at the Centara only for 2 nights, and it was perfect. Our original hotel was awful ( see other review) so we booked here for the remaining days of our holiday. With direct access to a wonderful sandy beach, and large pools. Our room was huge with a whirlpool bath on the Balcony. There is also an adult only pool which was perfect. If we came back to Karon we would book here again.

I booked the resort with great expectations, which started to dwindle as soon as we arrived, there were no welcome drinks despite enquiring about it (the package mentioned the same, rather they gave us coupons) nor anyone had the courtesy to offer a face towel, almost everyone would travel from Phuket airport so its expected as guests would be exhausted. No information provided on kid’s playroom/ games parlour or any kids activities- we had to rely on the slow app for the information. Views were excellent from room although the room had heavy mold built up, curtains hardly clean, cushions with suspicious stains and to top all of this there were insect/ termite droppings on the floor which were attented but it kept happening. Food exp, the events were good, despite giving an advanced notice of 24 hours for a birthday cake, we got a bun sized over priced cake with complementary origami. A little empathy and hospitality would have gone a long way.