MAI Samui Beach Resort & Spa

Beautiful resort, squeaky clean & lot of options in the breakfast buffet. Pancakes and eggs were delicious, and local thai food options were pretty good too.

Mai Samui Beach Resort still carries the aura of what must have once been a truly grand property. The location is beautiful, with direct access to the beach and a layout that feels spacious and inviting. The grounds and architecture hint at its former glory, and the staff remain warm and accommodating, doing their best to make guests feel welcome. That said, the resort is showing its age. Rooms and facilities could benefit from a revamp — some areas feel dated, and the overall upkeep doesn’t quite match the luxury image it once projected. While the basics are covered, the experience lacks the polish and freshness expected from a high‑end beach resort today. In short, it’s a place with great potential and a wonderful setting, but it’s overdue for modernization to bring it back to the standard its name suggests

We stayed at Mai Samui for the second time, having last visited in 2017. We had been looking forward to coming back for years, so unfortunately, our expectations were very badly disappointed almost from the moment we arrived. We had read several recent reviews mentioning problems with check-in, even for guests who had booked through *** or Agoda. We had made our reservation through Agoda two months in advance and had a confirmed booking. We arrived at the hotel at around midnight, but the receptionist told us that she could not find our reservation. I showed her the Agoda confirmation on my phone, which she photographed. We were then given a temporary room in a different part of the hotel from where we had originally booked. We were travelling with our six-year-old child and had informed the hotel about this in advance. We specifically asked for an extra bed, and the hotel confirmed by email that the extra bed would be provided at no additional cost. The temporary room did have the extra bed. The following day, we asked to be moved to the room we had originally booked, which was closer to the beach and swimming pool. The receptionist told us that we could move, but that we would have to pay an additional *** per night for the child’s extra bed. When I explained that I had written confirmation from the hotel stating that the extra bed was included in the room price, she simply said, “Oh, okay,” and confirmed that we did not have to pay after all. This whole situation was very confusing and unnecessary. Unfortunately, the problems did not end there. Breakfast was included in our rate, but it was exactly the same every day, with virtually no variation. More importantly, there were constantly shortages of plates, cutlery and glasses. The hotel provides paper cups for drinks, which felt completely inappropriate for a hotel of this standard. Food was also frequently running out and was replenished very slowly. When we asked staff to bring more plates or cutlery, the response was often so slow that we sometimes had to eat food that should be eaten with a fork using a spoon instead. The rooms were also cleaned very superficially. We sometimes asked for fresh towels but did not always receive them. In such a humid climate, towels do not always dry properly, and during our stay of more than two weeks we really needed them to be changed regularly. There was also a lot of sand in our room. Of course, some sand is unavoidable when staying by the beach, and we made an effort to leave our flip-flops outside, but the sand was not cleaned properly. The toilet seat did not fit the toilet properly, which made it very uncomfortable to use. The bed was also extremely squeaky. This was the case in both rooms we stayed in, which unfortunately confirms what other guests have mentioned in their Agoda reviews. The beach itself is relatively clean and well maintained, and the sun loungers are comfortable. However, the beach bar is often unattended until around 11 a.m. or noon, and sometimes there is no one there at all. There is also very little atmosphere around the pool. The pool area is almost completely lifeless during the day, despite the hotel clearly being quite full in the evenings. There is practically no activity, and sometimes music is played, sometimes it isn’t. For a resort of this size, the atmosphere around the pool is painfully dull especially when you travel with children. There is simply nothing to do there! The pool is surrounded by a lot of greenery, so of course leaves and flowers naturally fall into the water. However, they are cleaned out very slowly. We also noticed a significant change compared with our previous stay in 2017. Back then, the pool had a much higher water level and functioned as an infinity pool on both sides. Now the water level has been lowered considerably. The pool filters also appear to have been covered with some kind of orange material, meaning that the pool does not seem to be continuously filtere

Nothing worked ie shower no pressure at all just a drip I bar that closed a 6:30pm swimming pool needed a lot more water I feel sorry for the staff having to make up excuses for everything wrong