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[QUOTE=Nixonbd;1754911]Neither is what I would consider a "nice" hotel. Penthouse is the better of the two; for location and debauchery. You can take 10 girls up if you want.[/QUOTE]I love the Penthouse hotel.
Great location 100 m from beach, 5 min walk to walking street.
But most of all I love the big Jacuzzi rooms.
These recent negative reports about Areca have me worried about my next trip in a few months.
Is the hotel starting to not offer good service?
I just booked a super deluxe Evergreen room on Agoda with free cancellation. I got a great price. It is my back up plan. I had already booked a 90 sq meter party palace 1 bedroom condo apartment with a large Jacuzzi on the balcony at View Talay 6. The problem is that construction on a new hotel next door may begin at any time. Workers are already in the process of clearing the land. If I am lucky, construction will not begin until October and VT6 here I come. But if construction begins before my trip, I will happily stay at the Areca.
Biffduff's report was the most significant recent critique. The front desk should have notified him about his girl. That was a major front desk oversight, but the problem would have never come up if his girl had just lined him that she was in the lobby. ALL my girls line me as they arrive at my hotel so I can come down and escort them back up to my room. While on the subject, although the Areca is guest friendly, it is only girl friendly for 1 girl at a time. There is a joiner fee on the 2nd girl if you take 2 girls up to your room. Wifi is not that important to me. I can always get a good signal by the pool or in the lobby. The important elements for me remain; a clean quiet well sized room, a good pool and convenient location. The Areca has all this and more at a competitive price. I'd rather party at my VT6 palace (at over twice the price), but I will make out fine at the Areca if that is the way the dice roll.
[QUOTE=Lou32;1755032]These recent negative reports about Areca have me worried about my next trip in a few months.
Is the hotel starting to not offer good service?[/QUOTE]I spent 5 days, a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't impressed. Staff was not rude, but nowhere near friendly either; stood out against brilliant, caring and professional services I had in Chiang Mai and Bangkok before I arrived in Pattaya.
I had to queue up for breakfast 2 mornings, as the small dining room in the Evergreen tower was over crowded and way too small. No apologises, they just told me to wait by the front office.
Also during breakfasts the mixed my orders for omelette, coffee etc with other guests' orders more than once. They seemed disarranged.
A 3rd morning me and a girl I had overnight ordered breakfast as room service, as we were late, being busy with activities that got us hungry! When room service arrived, almost half an hour later, the dishes were lousy, eg the tea pots we ordered were just the same shit tea bags they put as complimentary in the rooms. The food was not only uninspiring but also cold. So we dressed and went out to have some better food.
The first days I went to the poolside bar 1-2 times daily, reading emails and the like. The staff didn't even bother to service me, I had to repeatedly ask for drinks before I had any servings.
A particular receptionist at the Evergreen front office was a bit rude towards a girl I had with me over two full days (she had to ID check every time we came back to the hotel, that's OK and she was fine with that). She's a non-pro, hairdresser, from Issan, dressed quite conservatively etc, and very polite herself. I was embarrassed by the receptionist's ignorant behaviour towards her (raising her voice, no "kha" and so on, I don't speak Thai but it was obvious that she disliked my girl).
The internet is on / off. There are bridges / extenders in all rooms, so it's the main AP's that fall out. You can see public "test" networks for all their SSIDs, which tells me that they have long term issues.
I really like the location right at LK Metro, don't know if there are other options around, maybe Intimate / Tim Boutique. I spoke with a guy who stayed at LK Metropole, he wasn't impressed with that either (worn out, defective water taps etc.). I don't think I will go back to Areca next time (Autumn).
[QUOTE=NattyBumpo;1755052]I just booked a super deluxe Evergreen room on Agoda with free cancellation. I got a great price. It is my back up plan. I had already booked a 90 sq meter party palace 1 bedroom condo apartment with a large Jacuzzi on the balcony at View Talay 6. The problem is that construction on a new hotel next door may begin at any time. Workers are already in the process of clearing the land. If I am lucky, construction will not begin until October and VT6 here I come. But if construction begins before my trip, I will happily stay at the Areca.
Biffduff's report was the most significant recent critique. The front desk should have notified him about his girl. That was a major front desk oversight, but the problem would have never come up if his girl had just lined him that she was in the lobby. ALL my girls line me as they arrive at my hotel so I can come down and escort them back up to my room. While on the subject, although the Areca is guest friendly, it is only girl friendly for 1 girl at a time. There is a joiner fee on the 2nd girl if you take 2 girls up to your room. Wifi is not that important to me. I can always get a good signal by the pool or in the lobby. The important elements for me remain; a clean quiet well sized room, a good pool and convenient location. The Areca has all this and more at a competitive price. I'd rather party at my VT6 palace (at over twice the price), but I will make out fine at the Areca if that is the way the dice roll.[/QUOTE]I'm writing this report from a super deluxe Evergreen room, and the Wifi is now fantastic. This is my eighth stay here, and they recently upgraded their entire Wifi system. I agree that their Wifi was just fair to pathetic in the past, and on each of my previous stays when I complained, they put a router in my room that was connected to the LAN port by the desk. It did help a bit, but the real problem was that they had only one password for the entire hotel, and hundreds of devices connected to it. I myself bring an iPhone, an iPad, and a Kindle. When I logged on I could see at least 6 or 8 different Evergreen networks because each floor had several different ones, and the whole system was confusing and severely overloaded. And each time you tried to log on you had to enter your user ID and password again.
So in preparation for this trip I bought a travel router to plug into the LAN port in hopes that it would somehow simplify the process and that I wouldn't have to keep entering my ID and password.
But when I checked in Thursday morning they handed me two different passwords. I asked why, and they said that you now use a different one for each device. So when I got to my room I plugged in my router, and there was no signal at all. It was 4:00 AM, and I had just travelled for 32 hours from the USA, so I just went to sleep figuring that I would deal with it in the morning.
Well, good news in the morning. There was still no signal from the LAN port, so I decided to try their Wifi before I called the front desk to send their IT guy to my room, and I got a very strong signal, and instead of seeing 10 different networks named Evergreen. There were just 3; Areca Wifi, Areca Outdoor Wifi, and Areca Wifi Test 2. 4. I noticed a bunch of new antennas mounted to the tops of the buildings and atop the April Restaurant, and I had a great, fast connection. Problem solved.
I've been using the system for 5 days now, and it's been just seamless. All devices working as they should; speed is quite good; and not a single dropped signal yet.
I do notice that the speed varies a bit depending on the weather and time of day, but I think that's the nature of the beast. I see the same variation wherever I travel. I think it has a lot to do with the amount of traffic on line.
There are 2 of them near beach road, Are they any good? Or anyone has any recommendations for good hotels that are sort of walking distance from beach road.
I have stayed in Flipper house and it was so so. Want something newer and more quitter.
[QUOTE=Soldierb11;1754941]I love the Penthouse hotel.
Great location 100 m from beach, 5 min walk to walking street.
But most of all I love the big Jacuzzi rooms.[/QUOTE]Thanks to you and Holmes for the replies. I am surprised that someone would suggest the Penthouse over a Hilton. I may stay there a night or two just for the experience but the website and everything about it seemed a little off. I will avoid Secrets. I should start booking stuff this week and let you know!
To the others I am aware of where Ankor what is, which is why I said I will likely spend a few days there as well. Thanks for the tip there though.
[QUOTE=Oterri;1755507]There are 2 of them near beach road, Are they any good? Or anyone has any recommendations for good hotels that are sort of walking distance from beach road.
I have stayed in Flipper house and it was so so. Want something newer and more quitter.[/QUOTE]I believe there are 6 of them near Beach Road and they are all in noisy areas.
Just read this thread to find what you're looking for. There is one quiet soi with some nice hotels that is mentioned quite often here.
It seems to me you're asking a lot of questions without reading the forum first. And that's what a forum like this is meant for after all.
All, finally planned for my first visit to Thailand. Coming from India and I plan to head to Pattayya directly from airport on 8th. Will be there for 3 nights. Read lot of pages on this forum and shortlisted the below:
1) April suites. Only downside looks like the 2 k fee. Any idea if it is GF. Checked the GF sites etc but couldn't find much info.
2) Basaya beach hotel. Getting a good deal, please advise on the current state of the rooms cleanliness etc.
3) P72 - read it is between thick of action.
4) Dxpress apartment. Please advise on this. This looks good on agoda.
Also, any seniors who would be willing to take out sometime for a night out please let me know.
[QUOTE=Princearain;1756183]
3) P72 - read it is between thick of action.[/QUOTE]Is in Walking Street, in front of Lucifer. Cheap place.
[QUOTE=ChristianG;1756200]Is in Walking Street, in front of Lucifer. Cheap place.[/QUOTE]Thanks for your response. Will strike it off my list. As I do prefer a neat and comfy place. Do you have any view on the others I mentioned please let me know.
[QUOTE=Princearain;1756290]Thanks for your response. Will strike it off my list. As I do prefer a neat and comfy place. Do you have any view on the others I mentioned please let me know.[/QUOTE]You lists hotels then slam the first guy who gives you his opinion. I'd do more research if I were you, don't expect more cooperation from guys here with that attitude.
[QUOTE=Breadman;1756309]You lists hotels then slam the first guy who gives you his opinion. I'd do more research if I were you, don't expect more cooperation from guys here with that attitude.[/QUOTE]Breadman, I didn't slam him. If you read closely, or atleast what in interpreted, since he said it is a cheap place, I took his opinion and struck it off (the hotel) my list. I thought he said don't go it as it is a cheap place. Sorry didn't get your disconnect.
[QUOTE=Princearain;1756312]I took his opinion [/QUOTE] Your interpretation of his opinion is incorrect.
[QUOTE=BadDances;1755536]Thanks to you and Holmes for the replies. I am surprised that someone would suggest the Penthouse over a Hilton. I may stay there a night or two just for the experience but the website and everything about it seemed a little off. I will avoid Secrets. I should start booking stuff this week and let you know!
To the others I am aware of where Ankor what is, which is why I said I will likely spend a few days there as well. Thanks for the tip there though.[/QUOTE]Bad dances. I love Hilton hotels and stay at them everywhere but not in Pattaya. The Penthouse is I would say a 3* hotel compared to the Hiltons always 5*. But when I'm in Pattaya it's time to party and be raunchy and the Penthouse rooms have jacuzzis big enough for me and 2 girls, mirrors on the ceilings and walls, sex swings and more and that's why I stay there. You will still have a great time at the Hilton if you choose there.