Santiburi Koh Samui

We are here for the 4th time already and everytime they never disappoint us! We stayed in the 2-bedroom villa next to the beach and u can hear the waves from the villa, it’s heavenly. Rooms are nice, cleaners always make them spotless every time. Service is excellent, everyone has lovely smiles/greets, very helpful and initiative. Breakfasts are great, the Thai restaurant for dinner is excellent too. Location is convenient, lots of convenient stores and pharmacy in walking distance We will definitely come back!

After an initial hiccup the end result was a very comfortable and enjoyable stay. We initially booked one of their modern Grand Reserve Pool Villa, but close to the arrival date we received several offers including for a room upgrade to a “Grand Deluxe Pool Villa” for a small premium per night per night. We asked about differences - told it was more traditional but much bigger 285m2 vs 215m2 with a bigger pool and extra lounge area outside but still a king bed. When we arrived all seemed well and enjoyed a swim in the large pool. At the end of the evening we sat on the bed - to find it was rock hard like nothing I’d felt before, not just firm but actually solid. Tried to get used to it, as we had a firm bed at home, but it felt like sleeping on the floor. The next morning I talked to the manager and she apologized and immediately arranged for us to check out the original Grand Reserve Pool Villa. The bed there was normal, firm but very comfortable - so she arranged an immediate transfer for us there and refund of the upgrade price. It is night and day. The Grand Reserve Villas are the future of Santiburi - lovely spacious modern design, great lighting, large private pool with waterfall feature, loungers with huge canopy, much quieter area than 60x numbered traditional villas (which are also near the kids activity center), very comfortable living rooms with a very large flat screen TV with high quality picture (unusual in a resort or hotel) and Yamaha soundbar. There is also a large TV in the bedroom. There is an HDMI socket in the wall to plug in your iPad or computer, and you can also connect to the soundbar via Bluetooth to enjoy great sound quality too. The other highlight was breakfast. Lovely breakfast area with terrific food. They don’t ask your room number, everything for breakfast is included and top notch. The on site Thai restaurant Sala Thai was superb - both the food and the genuinely friendly and professional service. The spa is also excellent - beautiful inside - I recommend the Posture 90 minute for guys with lower back problems. The Beach House offers great service and good food (Thai but also great burgers) and cocktails (good Martini) with options to sit at a table in the sand, or under a modern canopy for more shade. Areas for improvement would be to move the gym building to a much more central location - it’s really a bit of a hike under the sun to get there. Also the beach furniture could be a lot nicer and grander. There are plenty of standard sunbeds, but only a larger loungers they group very close together in one area (unnecesssrily since there were areas of beach not used - maybe more convenient for the staff) and they only have one curtained bed which you have to rent for a whole day together with a large set amount of alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks. That is not an optimized way to run a 5 star beach area - I’d suggest they take a look at Belmond Naphasai Koh Samui nearby to see a great beach experience with a long row of curtained beach loungers which are free to reserve, with waiter service. I’d suggest they bulldoze the older 60x numbered large villas and build more in the style of the Grand Reserve villas - so so much nicer, it really is their differentiator (while Belmond Naphasai do their beach area better, they should look at Santiburi Reserve lodgings, since Belmond’s sea view lodgings are not aging well at all). Then it would all be perfect.