The Mantra Hotel Kata Noi

It is very cheap for the rooms which are nice

That there is not really a common area

Very helpful staff and great location close to beach

Rooms with very limited windows...one was large and still very good. Following year got a smaller stuffy room.

Location nearby beach, shops and some nice restaurants. The balcony is beautiful, the room is spacious and there are enough hangers (which often is not the case in hotels). The staff is very friendly and helpful. I especially like the housekeeping time as it is limited to 2 hours every day so you can plan when you leave the room and don't have to wait long hours.

It probably hasn't been cleaned under the bed for a long time but apart from that everything is very clean.

Location, location, location. It was a 5 min walk to the beach. The hotel is located about 100 meters off the main road via a side street. There's a great value restaurant next to it (Ta Restaurant), where the food is more local. The coffee shop, 4 Blocks, serves great roasted coffee. Just outside the hotel in the side street is a fresh fruit stall - refreshing option (with chairs/table alongside hotel wall). Along the main road, there are many eateries, small retail shops, and many ATMs. Note that The Mantra will put a 4% service charge if you pay the balance of your hotel bill via credit card. By using the ATMs, and declining the ATM Provider's exchange rate, and just paying the 250 THB transaction charge, I was able to secure THB at almost the spot rate (I have preferred status with my US bank).

1. No elevator, and steep flight of steps. You will have to carry your own bags up (we had two flights of steps). 2. We stayed 4 nights, and by the second night, could begin to feel some back pain. We thought it was the day's exertion but on giving feedback to hotel, they provided a soft mattress top for our last and fourth night. That really helped. 3. We had arranged for a taxi transfer as we were arriving late at night (10.30pm). There wasn't a proper hand-off in communicating this, and we arranged our own transfer. The reception wasn't manned at that time, and while they left a folder on the reception desk with our room card key, they forgot to provide the main entrance key fob. Their written instructions were not clear as we were attempting to assess the entrance with our room key. We were on WhatsApp with them by this time, and again, communications was not clear. Fortunately, another couple were getting back to the hotel and opened the main entrance door with their key fob. This was past mid-night. I saw it was a "fob", not a "card" key,