Selina Serenity Rawai Phuket

This is my first time in a Selina and I'm really enjoying it so far. The people are very welcoming. They have made me feel comfortable and safe since my arrival, especially being a solo female traveler. The entire establishment is well maintained. The activities are pleasant. The location is perfect for me according to my routine: a gym, a co-work space, the swimming pools. Plus the food is delicious. What better!

We chose the hotel mainly as it was pet friendly. When we arrived we were greeted warmly by the male Indian reception staff. There was another Thai staff on reception and she was quite rude to the guy. We decided on our room type and then the Thai lady went out back and appeared with another Thai lady. She took one look at me and said sorry we don't allow big dogs. We all looked and Wylie (6kg Westie) and laughed. But she was very serious. She said we only accept small dogs, under 5kg and your dog is a big dog. She told us that it was hotel policy and it was noted on the website. I looked on the website and I couldn't see it anywhere. We told her that we'd travelled to many countries across the world and never been classed as a big dog. Other than that what difference does it make if the dog is 5kg, 6kg or 7kg? What difference does that extra kg make? We stood our ground and they said they'd check with the general manager. They took a picture and sent to get approval. They came back a few minutes later with approval. Whilst this was kind of good news, it didn't really give us a good first impression. We felt that the Thai staff were very rude to both us and the other receptionist. In hindsight we probably should have just walked out. As there weren't so many pet friendly hotels in the area we ended up booking the room. The cabana rooms are set around the garden area, rather than in the main building. The room itself is converted from a shipping container and when the reviews say they are small they aren't lying! The room itself is tiny. For us that wasn't a problem as we only had a small backpack but if you had any luggage at all there is almost no space for it. The decoration of the room is done out nicely and modern in a bohemian type style. It was also very clean. The rooms look out onto the garden and have one big blind. With the blind open it's not very private as the whole side is made of window. But with the blind down the room feels really claustrophobic. For the price paid, I don't feel that it's very good value at all. We were determined not to let that spoil our stay so we headed down to the restaurant. The restaurant itself is really nice and follows on from the Bohemian vibe. There were quite a few people working there as it is a co-working space too. So it seems popular with nomad types and seemed a lot of single travellers. The vibe we got was that it was an upmarket backpacker/nomad place. They had various activities on during the day such as Thai lessons, bingo, yoga etc. Some were free and some paid. They were trying really hard to get people involved but we just wanted to keep ourselves to ourselves, it wasn't really our kind of thing. But we felt like we were keep being hassled to join in which we didn't like. Location is nice, directly on the beach so you have a lovely view over to the neighbouring islands. The food was pretty good, although prices were on the high end. The pool area was also nice. Breakfast was really good. It was a la carte selection and had lots of healthy choices like smoothie bowls etc which were huge! After the terrible service from the Thai staff at reception we were hoping it would get better at the restaurant. Whilst the staff there were friendly the service was shocking. We sat for most of the day at the restaurant ordering food and beers but we had to go and ask to order every single time. The staff were all just hanging out at the back chatting amongst themselves. They never checked if we wanted more drinks etc even when our drinks were clearly empty. We weren't the only ones complaining either. Overall, we started with a really sour taste in our mouths re the dog policy. This really put a big downer on the stay as we felt like we weren't that welcome. I don't think that Selina Rawai is pet friendly. The receptionists were rude (bar the Indian guy who was lovely and helpful) and the service staff weren't providing much of a service. There's a lot of room for improvement in a lot of areas for this hotel unfortunately.