Arayaburi Resort Phi Phi Krabi Reviews & Ratings

I stayed at Arayaburi Resort which is actually a new wing of the stars Bay View Resort in Phi Phi Island, Thailand, from February 1st to 5th.
I had a "Garden Grand Deluxe" room and paid 3,700 Baht (USD 97) per night.

The location is in the crowded part of the island, but in a far and reasonably quiet corner with adjacent nice and relatively quiet beach (except the long tail boats, of course).

Upon arrival to a dull, uninviting reception area, I was surprised not to be greeted by the cordial Thai greeting but by two rigid and stern, unsmiling young Europeans. The lady lectured us mechanically about all the details and strict laws and I had a hard time understanding her. She didn't like to be interrupted for questions and gave me the sensation she was doing me a great favor even talking to me. She also offered a snorkeling tour which didn't include the fins and cost twice what I eventually paid elsewhere.
The guy explained me earnestly that it was "the policy" of the Bay View to demand full advanced payment upon check in so I had to pay all in advance!

When I asked about the luggage I was told to wait half an hour, so I took it myself. The room was about 7 minutes walk from the reception area and many rooms are further.

The resort contains dozens of bungalows, either Bay View or Arayaburi.
My room was air-conditioned, new, spacious, with a balcony and clean enough though not completely maintained (e.g. holes in the mosquito nets and the space between the bathroom wall and roof were filled with squashed toilet paper). The bed was big and nicely hard. It was well equipped and 2 water bottles a day were provided, though no chairs inside. The bed sheets were stained, one set I asked to replace. Ants were all around though mothballs were seen (and smelled) everywhere.

I could easily hear my neighbors, especially in the mornings. The TV had no English news channels nor any movies, discovery, history etc. There were, on the other hand, a Portuguese, Italian and many Chinese channels.

The swimming pool was nice and clean, located in front of the jungle (not by the sea).

The restaurant (for breakfast), was a mess, food spilled, dirty tables, oily dishes, food missing from the buffet, shouts everywhere, but it was the busy season.

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Be careful with your connection to the Island, the last boat leaves at 2:30. The hotel won't help you with a room in Phuket. They will however rent your room to someone else and won't offer you any compensation (refund).

The newer and nicer rooms at Aryaburi are 10-min walk from the beach lobby but it is quiet with great views.

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We stayed here as a free upgrade from the sister Bayview resort after complaining about the awful rooms there.

This accommodation was a lot better than the Bayview, but I think that the whole resort is totally over priced. Having said that, the location is good, away from the bars and noise, and the views are absolutely stunning. The beach was beautiful, but it may have been nicer to have sun loungers rather than deckchairs and more of them.

The resort is built on a hill and you get the spectacular views from the height, so be warned, your bungalow maybe a good 15 minutes walk from reception and it was approx 40 degrees while we were there.

The pool looked rather dirty, but I didn't come to Phi Phi to swim in a pool so I wasn't that bothered.

Breakfast was fine and I didn't see any flies hovering over the food, as in other posts.

All in all, I loved the views and the Geckos and the layout of this resort. It could be a great place, but I think that the management have lost sight of what makes a successful resort and I can't see that they would get much repeat business. I witnessed a lot of unhappy people in reception, demanding their money back, and checking out. I guess maybe we were lucky, maybe we complained in a polite constructive way. There are better rooms on Phi Phi, offering better value for money, but they haven't got views that this hotel has.

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We stayed here for 3 nights in August 2006. The location of the hotel is great, quiet, but convenient and the rooms are fine, although a really long and steep walk from reception. There was a lot of building work going on.

The restaurant was quiet, but ok. The pool felt neglected and abandoned so we didn't use it much. We had to hunt for pool towels and there were never any staff around.

Our main issue with this resort was that we had reserved connecting rooms which were not available, we requested a double bed and got twins and no extra bed was provided although we had paid for one. These problems were sorted out the next day but there was no compensation for the first bad night and the attitude of the General Manager was poor.

We would not stay on Phi Phi again actually, a boat trip from Phuket or Krabi would be enough and better value.

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Review is difficult because, in the end, I did not stay there! I was booked by an agent and then found comments about the hotel mentioned that it was a steep climb to the rooms. I have some mobility problems so I Emailed the hotel to ask if they could try to book me into a room that was on the easier side. I got no response after three days so I tried again. Again no response. I rang the hotel 2 or three times and the phone rang out.

When I finally got an answer they put me on hold while they found a reservations person. I was left on hold for 5 mins and then someone hung the phone up. In order to save my holiday, I booked somewhere else despite the fact that I had already paid for the time at Arayaburi. When I arrived at Phi Phi Island Village (recommended by the way) and mentioned this, they offered to call the Arayaburi for me. The Arayaburi claimed that they had no booking in my name. When we quoted the booking number and the transaction number they simply advised that they had a blanket "no refund" policy and hung up.

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The tap water in the rooms is salt water, so you never really feel clean, but the hotel does supply drinking water (two bottles). The walk from the front desk to your room is very hilly. The pool bar had no attendant. I would go back. These were little things that could be over looked.

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