SriLanta Resort and Spa in Lanta Island

The room was spacious and reasonably clean. Just a heads-up, since it's by the water, watch out for mosquitoes. The hotel itself doesn't have much in the way of entertainment. When we arrived, our assigned room was quite a walk from the pool. You could call a buggy, but the path is really rough, just a dirt road. Breakfast was also very limited and not good at all.

The resort sits in an excellent micro-location, with accommodation plus office/reception in a leafy forest on one side of the road and the restaurant, bar and pools on the other side by the very nice beach, connected by a tunnel. It could be - and, accordingly to one returning guest we met, was indeed in the past - a high-quality resort. However, many of the facilities are seriously run down and below par. So is the level of service.

Facilities: The beachside pools are dated, poorly designed (no ladder or steps at all into or out of one of them!), and of unreliable levels of cleanliness. The surrounding grassy area is ill-kept. The restaurant is very run down; and is (unsurprisingly) poorly patronised apart from the included, okay-at-best breakfast. The stairway leading down from the road to that area is frankly a disgrace. On accommodation, our Star Path room was old-fashioned, sparsely equipped and very down at heel - avoid! The rooms in the recently renovated blocks are more modern and better. However, our daughter's family in one of these suffered two or three serious electric shocks from their 'luxury' jaccuzi bath; and they also had no hot water for two days, requiring a change of room.

Service: Communication was very poor. I sent the resort at least four emails, including reminders, asking some simple questions, but received no reply or acknowledgement to any. Front desk staff were nice, but often ineffectual. Restaurant service was leisurely at best (apart from the two lovely Filipinos who were the front line with diners). The one redeeming feature was that the manageress did grant our family some discounts to compensate for the problems we experienced.

All in all, I cannot recommend this hotel. It needs serious work, both materially and on stafffing, to come up to standard. Look elsewhere if you can.