The Icon Place at Central Pattaya in Pattaya

Very Disappointing Checkout Experience After a 12-Day Stay

We stayed at "The Icon Place 1 @ Central Pattaya" hotel in Pattaya for 12 days. While the stay itself was acceptable for a budget property, the checkout experience was extremely disappointing and unprofessional, which unfortunately overshadowed the entire stay.

My husband and I are frequent visitors to Thailand because we genuinely love the country and its people. Thai hospitality is usually warm, respectful, and welcoming, which is why we keep coming back. Sadly, there are always a few outliers who damage that reputation, and "The Icon Place at Central Pattaya" reception staff unfortunately falls into that category.

At check-in, we were asked to deposit 300 THB but no receipt was given, which already felt unusual. In all our previous stays across Thailand, this has never happened before.

At checkout, the reception said they would check the room, which we agreed to. One staff member suddenly snatched the key from her colleague and insisted on checking the room herself. This itself felt unusual, because in most hotels room inspection during checkout is typically handled by housekeeping staff, not the reception desk. In this case, a receptionist suddenly took the key from her colleague and insisted on checking the room herself. After a few minutes she came back claiming we must pay 500 THB because the towel and bed-sheet were “dirty.”

When we asked to see the issue, she took us to the room and pointed to faint black marks. We told her that first we are not responsible for these marks in the first place and second we showed her that these marks could easily come off with water, after which she quickly reduced the charge from 500 THB to 150 THB.

Guests are not expected to inspect linens like forensic investigators during their stay. Minor marks can occur in hotel linens, particularly in budget properties.

When we asked to speak with the manager, the staff member told us there was no manager and that she handled everything herself. This was surprising, especially for a property that claims to be a 3-star hotel. It raises a genuine question about how star classifications are being applied, because basic hospitality standards normally include some form of management presence or escalation point for guests. Even many 1- or 2-star properties typically have a manager available to handle disputes or guest concerns.

The discussion unfortunately escalated into raised voices and dismissive behaviour from the staff member.

For transparency, this incident has been documented with photographs of the towel and bed-sheet as well as a video recording of the interaction at reception. If the black spots she referred to are difficult to identify in the photos, that reflects exactly the difficulty we experienced when trying to locate them in the room as well. For the sake of documentation and transparency, I took photographs of the areas in question. This review is written so that hotel management has an opportunity to review the incident internally, particularly regarding:

* the deposit procedure without receipt
* the dirty linen charge policy
* the practice of reception staff conducting room inspections
* the absence of a visible manager in a property claiming a 3-star classification

A final note to the receptionist involved:

Short-term tactics like creating minor disputes with guests to extract small amounts of money may seem trivial in the moment—perhaps the equivalent of making a little extra “ice-cream money.” However, practices like this damage the reputation of the hotel and the hospitality industry as a whole.

I decided to write this review not because of the small amount involved, but because ignoring such behaviour allows it to continue. When small unethical practices are tolerated, they eventually normalise larger ones. Accountability and professionalism are what prevent that cycle.

Bad smell
Bathroom was old and sewer stinks really bad. We have to keep bathroom door closed all the time.