Khaolak Emerald Beach Resort and Spa

Staff are friendly, beach restaurant is good and close to the pool, and, naturally, the beach. Some rooms are tired - you can tell that cupboards and bed bases are just built from plywood. There's newer rooms too, but we got an old one.

Arrived at the hotel early (10:30am). Room was not ready yet as the check in time is 2:00pm so we decided to head to beach and pool. At 2:30 I headed back to get a room key. I went to our room and the housekeeper informed me it wasn't ready yet. I went back to the front desk (btw - it's hot and a long walk). They called someone and said the room was ready now. I went back to the room and was informed it still was not ready (3rd floor and no elevator). I went back to the front desk. After an apology, my room was changed to one a few doors down from original room. I headed to the new room. Guess what? Housekeepers working on room and informed it was not ready. Back to the front desk. Informed that I needed wait for 15-20 minutes for the room. Not a great way to start my stay. The manager said there was nothing she could do, I just had to wait. No offers for a drink or anything. I get that the room was not ready when we arrived. I didn't expect that it would be ready. But now it is 3:00pm and they don't have a room out of the 270 on the property. Finally got into the room. Bags showed up within minutes of getting into the room which was great. Again, 3rd floor with no elevator so I was impressed they hauled the bags up there so fast. My son has had to go to bathroom and waited until we got into the room. He informed me the toilet does not work. No water to the room. Location was good and beach/pool was nice. Kids staff was great. Property is tired.

It started badly from the first night. No hot water in the bathroom, so I had to sleep with no shower, with the same clothes i had from the flight. The breakfast is the poorest quality, plus they accepted a group of loud Chinese tourists just for the breakfast who invaded the whole place and made a mighty mess. I asked for towels which were not provided as usual, I had to call 3 times and wait one hour to get them. For the complimentary water which was forgotten by the housekeeping, I called and begged 5 times and still no-one showed at the door. This was clearly badly trained equipe who didn't take seriously their duties. The house keeping woman growled at me when I asked for a soap, I was just dumbfounded and mesmerized at the absolute blackness of professionalism. To be brief, i would never recommend this hotel to anyone I know except my worst enemies ( fortunately I have none ). It really ruined my precious holidays and of the most biggest disappointment I ever had of any hotels I stayed in my many many trips.

Stay away from this property. It looks dated and service levels are poor. As we checked in, we realized that the AC in our villa was not working. It was only After 5 frantic calls and 3 visits to the reception, that they could fix it. When we told the hotel manager that we are unhappy with the service and like to check out asap, we were told its not possible as the reservation is through hotels.com. So we ended up paying 900baht for this kind of an experience!

So bad WIFI in the rooms. Plus, the pools were not so good for the kids. Our son got injured when swimming, because of the repairment of the pool was so bad. The breakfast was also bad. But the beach and the hotel overall was OK.

Hotel ok ... Good swimming pools .... Restaurants and right on the beach ... Nice and quiet .. No water sports to spoil the view ... Big problem with the wifi in the room ....

The stay started off a little rough - we received the wrong room (a family suite instead of a king sized standard room), and required to wait another hour until our actual room was ready. Which wasn't terrible, but there was no offer of a drink at the bar on the house while we wait, or a percentage off dinner at the resort, which is usually what we get when a room is delayed. However, the rooms were massive, but the beds were hard. But the beach was wonderful, and the breakfast is very Thai - do not expect traditional western breakfast selections here! That being said, there's plenty of places to eat around the resort if you don't feel like what they have that night. Also - this very much a family hotel, which we missed when selecting the hotel as me and my boyfriend would have preferred something a little more "couple-friendly", but overall, it was nice.

Got a discounted rate because low season right now and the place pretty empty. Room large and clean. Breakfast was included and very good. Beach spot nice; swimming pools pretty good; didn't do any activities in the hotel. There are restaurants, shops, corner store, bars, and trips vendors in walking distance; nothing fancy but very convenient. Clientele at this time in the season was on the older side. Would recommend if it fits what you looking for.

Breakfast was really bad! My 5 years old child like pool and water tubing so much ( unfortunately this tubing system often was broken).

I guess as it was low season that gave this place a sort of dismal atmosphere! Everything was as Expedia showed, but it felt a sad place.The staff (and most of the guests) didn't smile-that doesn't include the great man at the luggage area! There are numerous restaurants and small shops nearby,so we didn't opt for the 350 Bht breakfast. We found most items about 25% more expensive than in Phuket. Our party decided we would not stay here again,it is a bit isolated even though the main town is only a 40 bht song khew trip 0r 150 by taxi, and the hotel does a free shuttle twice daily, there isn't much to do locally. Elephant rides are close, but everything else requires transport to major cities. (ie James Bond Is., Simian Isles) Our advice, take a good book, and use this place to laze by the pool with beers bought from the mini marts!