Manathai Resort

The Manathai is a really beautiful small boutique hotel. I stayed there for 3 nights with two friends at the newer wing, which was fabulous. We booked a deluxe room, which turned out to be a duplex, with a living room and balcony on the first floor and a bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The entire place is just gorgeous, from the lobby to the restaurant to the pool. The staff are friendly and try their best despite their poor English. The restaurant is really nice, but I recommend that you venture out to eat at the local restaurants where the food is much cheaper and more authentic. Also highly recommend a massage at the Twinpalms spa next door. The only downside is that it's a bit difficult to get to Patong for shopping and nightlife, but the hotel offers a shuttle that takes you to town at 7:30 pm and picks you up at midnight to bring you back. And while the hotel is really nice, the surrounding area is not, but I think that applies to all the hotels in that area. All in all, it's a great place and good value for the money you pay, so I definitely recommend it.

Having read the reviews on this site, we had high hopes that the Manathai would deliver above and beyond. Unfortunately in reality we were presented with a very good looking hotel, dissapointingly let down by poor service not entirely up to the standard promised. Firstly the hotel is divided into a new and old wing. Placed in the old wing in a twin room, we were very disappointed with the rather old looking fittings, cupboards and bathroom. Within 20 minutes of entering the room, the safe was deemed broken and communicated to a front desk, who throughout our entire stay failed to be manned by a person who could speak and understand english 100%. After the first night, we were transferred to a better, new wing room, which was fabuolous. Should we not have been transferred it would have been very difficult to know what the new wing offered in better quality, design etc - I doubt I would have come back for a 2nd visit. The inhouse restaurant meal was disappointing, very simple, cold and pricey. For the remainder of our break we opted for the Twin Palms next door's 'Catch' restaurant which was infact better than its internal restaurant 'Oriental Spoon - also v. over priced for the quality'. The remainder of our stay was hampered by more 'safe' breakages, poor front of house standards particularly when trying to organise late check out, the front reception very rarely being manned and ultimately the final insult, being charged 700THB for a pair of slippers in the hotel room - unbelievable. The beach club also totted by Manathai, (good location of 5 minutes) looses definite ground to the Twin Palms beach club and area - the umbrellas, beach chairs and ultimately the entrance to this 'beach club' leave alot to be desired, v shabby. Overall, a hotel needing to very much master its service levels considering the prices charged, currently very amateur, letting down a small boutique hotel that has the potential to be a great stay venue. if your considering staying here, ask to be based in the new wing and preferably room 635!

I booked with i-escape.com and went with Three Children to Phuket to enjoy a beach having been in Hong Kong staying in the Shangri-La Island hotel, and have only a positive comparison in terms of service.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Manathai during the "low" season (mid-July), so the hotel was pretty empty and very quiet. At first, we thought we were the only ones staying there, but other guests surfaced later in the week. The entire Manathai staff was incredibly friendly and attentive (although the Australian tour desk operator who organizes excursions was on vacation himself at the time of our stay - we managed to book a speedboat tour to Phi Phi through another staff member, Joy, anyway, so not really a big deal). The woman who cleaned our room was great. The hotel decor is also impressive and breakfast was cooked to order because there were so few guests. The Manathai is located on a small street that includes a very small number of restaurants and shops (check out the winebar Envision) and it is within walking-distance to the upscale hotels Twin Palms (great food, drinks, and beach-side club) and the Chedi - if you're interested in a fancier experience. The area is not at all bustling like Patong Beach, though. The beach is across the road from the hotel (you walk down a foot path), so it's rather private and, again, quiet. You can't rent jet-skis or do much else except take a dip on this beach. At least you don't have to rent chairs for a fee like on Patong - the Manathai has its own little beach area reserved. No real complaints about the room, except that it was a bit smaller than we expected, there was no shower curtain, and there was very poor lighting in the bathroom - one learns to adapt ... Overall, we enjoyed our stay there. My boyfriend wants to spring for the (more expensive) Twin Palms next time, though. They have a huge pool.

We had arrived on Phuket and expected to stay at another hotel however when we saw the room we changed our mind. We went looking around the surin area and a local recomended Manathai Resort. We had never heard of it. The place turned out to be a great surprise. We checked into a pool suite where we had a small private pool. The room was decorated in style with a garden in our shower and really unique tiles on the floor.My wife liked the toiletresthey had in the room. Outside of our room there was a sala where we dined and drank in the evenings and it seemed like we had it all to ourselves. We went to the restaurant in front of the hotel Weaves (not sure if they are connected) and it was very nice. We ate Thai most of the time so we wanted something differant and the restaurant offered both. They also had one of the best wine lists we saw in Thailand (I like wine). There is a business center which is nice and a tour desk that the girl was nice enough to recomend day tours for us. Surin beach is nice but the water can be a bit rough so be careful there are some ok restaurants in the area as well that you can walk to. There were some little details at the hotel that were not perfect, but overall it was a really good "boutique" hotel

Stayed at this hotel on a friend's recomendation with my wife. The area Surin beach is quite nice and not crowded like our day spent in the city area Patong. Absolutely loved the design, friendliness of the staff were great! We were urgraded to a pool suite and it was probably the nicest room we stayed in our whole time in Thailand. Business center and wireless in rooms was a welcome as some hotels we stayed they didn't have wireless in the room. The restaurant was absolutely fantastic, we ate at many places in the area but we thought this was the best restaurant in the area. Breakfast was good and plentiful. Our stay was a fantastic surprise and we will be back

I would like to start by saying I dont make a habit of writing harmful reviews,-but given my experience at this hotel I feel matters like this should be published. My husband and I booked a Junior suite at this boutique hotel located in Surin Beach. The hotel is in a great location. The staff is friendly and attentive. The suite was nice (bathrooms could be cleaner). ...but overall the room was elegant and comfortable. Our suite was twice as much ( over $200. per night) as the other rooms given we had a private deck to the pool,---- which happened to be closed 1 1/2 days we were there. If you have traveled in Thailand, you know this is a higher end price to pay for accomadations in this country. We chose to pay the extra price because we wanted a safe, comfortable and relaxing place to spend our vacation. On our last day there, we informed the hotel of our late night flight. They said we HAD to check out at 11am, but we could store our bags in their locked storage area. We called the bellhop to collect our bags, he did so and brought them to the storage area. We paid our bill in full and then arranged to have the hotels private car bring us to the airport when we returned from our day out. Upon collecting our bags from the "locked" room...I noticed my internet tablet missing from my bag. I notified the woman right away, they asked we look inside the room for the computer. Upon doing so, we then realized it was not a LOCKED storage area!!!. While in there, a staff member came thru the room via another back entrance!! They then asked us if we wanted to check our original room, (hich they had previously told us was booked and that is why we had to check out) After much discussion with the staff on duty, the Manager --Dusit came to speak with us. He promised this would be remedied by the next day. We had to leave to catch our flight. We did so with the Managers word he would take care of our stolen item and he would be communicating with us via email. I emailed him as soon as arriving back to the states, a few days later he did saying he would further investigate. It has been two weeks and still no response or action has been taken. I feel that if the hotel is too take responsibility of our luggage it should have been kept in a locked, secured area as we were told. Further, the manager should not have promised to take care of the computer in order to get us to leave to only then ignore my emails and requests to remedy this.

Manathai is right next to Twin Palms, but why is twin palms much better than manathai? It is really about those smaller details that dfferenciates from others; Firstly, i have to say i like physically manathai than twin palms, it has a smaller boutique feeling with a really cosy design, loved the chandelier in the lobby! However, i think we prob got the worst room in this hotel, its very small, and they took off the bathtub that is so obvious with the marks on the floor, and that creates problem for shower; if they took off the tub, they should seperate the toilet and the shower....so everytime we showered, the toilet paper is wet... We are prob also next to the maid's room, so its very noisy almost all the time, espeically in the morning. The breackfast is, i have to say, REALLY BAD! the choices are prob less than the choices i have at home, its not what you will expect during vacation... Gym has not much machine there. And as alot of people already mentioned, the construction is constantly going on. I love this hotel, i really do, but small details matter!

The Manathai Resort Surin Beach is fabulous it has a great location the staff are exceptional and the Junior Suite I booked was lovely. I have stayed in twenty odd 4 and 5 star hotels in Thailand and this hotel compares favourably with the best. It has it's flaws but they are too small to worry about. A truly memorable stay at a wonderful hotel.

Really stunning hotel near the beautiful Surin beach. Our room was a good size and was well decorated. I went with my boyfriend and I must say it was the romantic location. The food was excellent and the staff were very friendly and helpful. I will definately come back next year.