Good facilities for children, but very disappointing rooms and customer service
We chose The Sands Khao Lak mainly because it is presented as a high-quality family resort with excellent facilities for children.
We are travelling as two families, each with two children aged 3 and 6. We booked Family Slide Rooms in the Aqua area, at approximately 3,940 THB per night.
Unfortunately, the room we received was a major disappointment.
The room felt old, tired and poorly maintained. There were cracked and worn surfaces, visible signs of neglect, dust and sand on the floor, and a strong unpleasant smell of dampness/mold that was noticeable as soon as we entered.
The room also had very poor sound insulation, and we could clearly hear activity from outside.
However, what turned a room problem into a very negative experience was the way the situation was handled.
We spent approximately three hours on our arrival day trying to find a solution. We had to approach the staff more than once, and initially felt very little empathy regarding the condition of the room.
At first, we were told that the hotel had no available rooms in other areas and that they could only move us to another room of the same type in the same section. For us, that was not a real solution because the issue was the condition and atmosphere of that room category itself.
I then said that if there was no suitable alternative, I wanted to cancel the reservation.
The staff member called the manager again, and only a few minutes later we were suddenly told that another room was available in a different area of the resort.
We were shown a Family Room in the Lagoon area, which was newer, but it was also a cheaper room category than the one we had already paid for. We asked either to receive the price difference back or even to receive hotel credit for the difference. Both requests were refused.
We then asked to see a ground-floor room with pool access. Despite the inconvenience, the hours already lost and the condition of the original room, the hotel required an additional 2,500 THB for the stay.
We asked whether the hotel could waive this relatively small upgrade charge as a gesture of goodwill. They refused.
Because our booking was made through a travel agent, staff also repeatedly tried to refer us back to the agent instead of taking responsibility for the condition of the room we were physically given at the hotel.
In the end, we paid the additional 2,500 THB ourselves simply because we wanted to stop dealing with reception and start our holiday.
There are also issues in the replacement room that we would not expect from a resort at this level: the main bed is uncomfortable, the water pressure in the bathtub is extremely weak, and the children’s sleeping area is much smaller than it appears in the hotel’s promotional photos.
To be fair, the water park and facilities for children are genuinely good, and this is clearly one of the resort’s strengths.
But for us, good children’s facilities do not make up for poorly maintained accommodation and, especially, the lack of effective customer service when a genuine problem is raised.
The most frustrating part was not that a problem existed. Problems can happen anywhere. It was that we had to spend around three hours dealing with it, were initially told there were no alternatives, and only after requesting cancellation did another option suddenly become available.
Families considering this hotel should check very carefully which building and room category they are booking. The actual condition of some rooms may be very different from the impression created by the hotel’s promotional photos.
I have attached photos showing the condition of the room.
