Page Contents

• Hat Yai Accommodation Listings Page 4
  • The Great Hotel [more]
  • Green View Hotel [more]
  • Haad Kaew Resort [more]
  • Hansa Venetian Hotel [more]
  • Hat Yai Central Hotel [more]
  • Hatyai Holiday Hotel [more]
  • Indra Hotel [more]
  • International (Inter) Hotel [more]
  • In Town [more]
  • JB Hotel [more]

Accommodation - Page 4

Comments: The longer I stay in Hat Yai, the more the central area of town drives me nuts. When I first arrived it seemed vibrant and exciting but now I stay away as much as I can unless I really have a reason to go into that part of town.

I have a house so don't need to use Hat Yai hotels but if I did this one would be one of my top choices and one of the main reasons is that it's a long way from the centre of town. At the time of writing (March 2006) it is the newest hotel in Hat Yai that I am aware of and it is very nicely fitted out.

The reception is gorgeous and the rooms are very well appointed. Because of its location the rooms are a bargain price. Long term rentals are also available making it a fairly attractive proposition for lengthy stays in Hat Yai.

I think there is some kind of an ownership connection with Wanthana Mansion described below. I was told when it was being built that it was going to be an apartment building but when it opened it opened as a hotel. Perhaps the room rental business in Hat Yai is saturated now?

Plentiful tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis are available to get into town or you can walk but I guess the walk would take around 20 minutes or more. Bear in mind this place is further out than JB Hotel and JB lay on free tuk-tuks into town for their guests.

If you don't mind being a little way from the action this place really is a Great Hotel.

Guest Comments: No guest comments yet. Be the first to comment. Send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: The Green View is a standard mid-price range Hat Yai hotel located away from the central tourist district. However, the walk into town only takes about 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can hail a tuk-tuk or motorbike taxi. The cost should be Bt20 unless the driver tries to overcharge you, as they sometimes do with foreigners. You will often find motorbike taxis waiting just outside the hotel.

The hotel is very near to all the food vendors on Suphasarnrangsan Road so in the evening there are lots of eating options nearby without having to go into the town centre.

There isn't too much more to say. This hotel may suit people looking to avoid the tourists around Lee Gardens, or it could be an alternative if all the hotels in the centre of town are busy.

Most Malaysian tourists stay as close to the centre of town as possible. During busy periods, such as Malaysian holidays, New Year, Chinese New Year, Songkran, etc, the hotels in the centre of town fill up very quickly but the hotels outside the centre (even just a little way out) often have vacant rooms.

Guest Comments:

• Checked in on Saturday 30th July 2011 for one night. Check in was quick, the rate was 600 baht with a deposit of 200 baht (refundable). My passport was not taken and I was given 2 breakfast coupons which is very good even though I requested for a single occupancy.

  The room was on the 5th floor, 525 and facing the other side of Sangsri. There is actually another block facing the main building but without an elevator. Parking space for both cars and motorbikes ample although there is no shade for my rented bike. The room that I stayed had a renovated bathroom because it is a bit bigger minus a bathtub. Only 1 bar of soap and shampoo came with a shower cap. The shower worked well, 2 towels were in the bathroom and everything worked.

  The room itself did not came with a proper chair although there was a sofa-like chair just beside the bed which was very comfortable. I mean the bed was soft yet just made my sleep bearable. It is actually looking quite worn and since the bed was using up space, you can only watch the television from it or by sitting on the plastic sofa. 2 bottles of water in that plastic container were given daily. The cabinet and the dresser is against the wall thus the space is a bit limited. The windows are of the sliding type yet you cannot open it as it was padlocked, a sure risk in case of fire. I do like to slide it open for a bit of fresh air but it might be because of previous customers who might have let the windows wide open.

  The tv offers satellite channels and 1 channel from Malaysia. This hotel appears to be used by local Thais but I am sure during the peak holiday season, the tour buses will stop by because I have seen during the March holiday a few tour buses from Malaysia parked here. The hotel has no arrangement with the tour agencies in central Hat Yai and I also noticed many Thai Muslims staying here. The breakfast in the morning was rice, porridge, 3 cooked dishes like mixed vegetables, fried eggs, kaprou gai and a selection of horlicks, coffee and tea. Par-teng-koh was also served although the toaster was not used as I did not see any bread served but maybe since their coupon states that breakfast is from 0630 hrs until 2300 hrs means the menu will change every 3 hours. I was pleased with the rice and mixed vegetables.

  The dining room was very simple and the local Thais were very quiet and tend to eat in a group yet do not linger... worlds apart from the mad scene at Lee Gardens Plaza at breakfast time with the Malaysian and Singaporeans eating as if the food would finish.

  I was not asked when I am going to check out like some hotels although the cleaner on the 5th floor did ask me about my time to leave but I am sure she wanted her work to be made easier. I checked out at 11.50, the 200 baht was refunded, one of the staff with a tie, asked me when I am coming back again (a first in Hat Yai) and then I commented about staying away from the center of Hat Yai. Overall, a good stay, free wifi albeit a bit slow is free 24 hours at the lobby. I enjoy a good cup of coffee at night in my room so you can ask for a thermos pot from the bellboy on duty at the wifi zone. The corridor was not noisy at night. From here, the Plaza area, Lee Gardens and Tesco was just a few minutes by bike. (July 2011)

• This is my second time staying at this hotel which also shares the same ownership as Center Mansion Hat Yai. Check-in was effortless as even though it was still a public holiday in Malaysia due to the Eid Qurban celebrations yet due to its locality in Thanon Sangsree, I was given a room on the 5th floor.

  The rate just like Center Mansion is the same throughout the whole year,600 baht for a standard room with breakfast of simple yet filling dishes of bread and butter, rice with mixed vegetables and sometimes patengkoh. Coffee and ovaltine was also provided.

  You do pay 200 baht as a deposit for the key to the room but refundable upon checking out. The hotel is situated on Sangsree Road yet even though the windows are not soundproofed but it wasn't at all loud during the night and as the bed was very comfortable, I had a good night sleep on the whole. The room itself was not new but very clean, you get 74 channels including TV 3 from Malaysia. 2 bottles of mineral water are provided and the bathroom itself has workable hot/cold standing shower facilities. If you need a flask for hot water, you can obtain them from the lobby.

  The hotel has free wifi with good signals throughout the whole of the place and they have 2 broadband modems on each floor. The front desk was just polite but one of the ground floor manager was very courteous and was on hand with an umbrella when he saw me arrive soaking week the day I returned back from a shopping trip to Tesco Lotus, could not remember his name though..but he was the one who welcomed me back and hope that I would be back again. The front desk was manned by 2 women but the other one with a darker complexion was quite aloof and should be put in the same hotels in central Hat Yai like Sakol, Regency as there is no smile and no thank you when I left.

  The dining area was very pleasant with a lot of old Thai magazines which I think the owners must have collected from the late 70's yet there were well kept. Parking was not covered though yet by staying here with my rented motorcycle, I am very near to all the places one need to visit in Hat Yai. Highly recommended. (November 2011)

• My comment on Green View Hotel overall is nice and peaceful hotel, walking distance to Lee Garden area and the big market. At night there are many stalls selling food, so far i only try the soy milk and soy beancurd, it is cheap and nice, the chinese stall owner very friendly. (December 2012)

To add your comments, send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: There are a number of resort type hotels in Songkhla province not too far away from Hat Yai. They are known to a few foreigners, but not many.

In less touristy provinces it is mainly Thais that stay in the beach hotels and resorts. The beaches and sea on the Gulf coast aren't as beautiful as those on the Andaman coast but you will often find that you have the entire beach to yourself.

Rates are about one-third what you might pay in Phuket. English isn't as widely spoken as in the tourist places and the cuisine tends to be of the local variety.

Haad Kaew Resort is located just north of Ko Yo, past the oil company locations, on the road to Nakhon Sri Thammarat. If you use public transport you will need to get a motorbike taxi from the main road. It's not that difficult but the ability to speak some Thai will help.

Guest Comments: No guest comments yet. Be the first to comment. Send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: When the Wiangpin Hotel opened in Hat Yai it was very clear which sector of the tourism market the owners were planning to go after.

Even during a protracted economic downturn, such as the one we are experiencing now, there are certain things that will always be in demand. Food is one, and sex is another.

I predicted that other hotels would follow the Wiangpin's business model.

Hansa Plaza, in the Kate 8 area of Hat Yai, is an evening entertainment venue well known to Malaysian tourists. The ladyboy cabaret is popular with tourists of both sexes, while the Sotus pub - with its sexy Thai female staff - is popular with Chinese Malaysian men.

However, it would seem that the Hansa Plaza owners were missing out on two key areas of business. This has now been rectified with the opening of the Hansa Venetian hotel, located just behind the Hansa Plaza complex.

The hotel, which opened around March 2010, has 71 rooms. They are exactly the same as almost every other mid-class Thai hotel room I have ever seen, except they are brand new. Maintenance isn't big in Thailand and after a few years, even the plushest hotel rooms start to look quite tatty. Newly opened hotels are, therefore, always a good bet.

In order to attract customers, immediately after opening the hotel offered a promotion rate of Bt400 a night. This was still running three months after the hotel opened, but I'm not sure how long it will run for.

To suit the type of guest the hotel is aimed at, there is a large, glass-panelled fishbowl just behind reception on the ground floor with about 20 girls from the north and northeast of Thailand sitting inside.

They arrive for their shift around 3:30pm and are rented out for approximately 90 minutes to provide an 'aap op nuat' (hot bath and massage) service. This takes place in the guest's room or in another one of the hotel rooms, and costs Bt1,500.

Of course, bath and massage (or Turkish massage, as it is sometimes called) is simply a euphemism. The girls provide sex.

Considering that at the time of writing (June 2010) this is the newest hotel in Hat Yai, the Bt400 promotion rate is a real bargain.

On the downside, there isn't much in that area and it's not that convenient to get into town. Also, the atmosphere in the hotel may not suit everyone. I would imagine the hotel will attract a lot of single Malaysian men, but not too many couples or families.

Guest Comments:

• We stayed at the suite "Room 999" equiped by "2 bed rooms". The 1st nite cost B2500 as busy period & the 2nd nite cost B2000 as a normal price. The rooms were nice but very noisey between 10pm - 2am by KTV/Disco. The windows & walls are too thin to avoid the noise. I felt music vibration thru the walls, too. I must propose "noise shield" to the hotel management if I have a chance. The hotel receptionist was friendly but hardly speaked English. (May 2011)

To add your comments, send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: This is a typical Hat Yai hotel geared towards the weekly Malaysian tourist trade. It's near the centre of town, not too expensive and has what Malaysians want when they come to Hat Yai, including a snooker hall.

It is a large hotel with 250 rooms. Facilities include the 'Broadway Karaoke Lounge' and 'Tum Rub Thai' massage shop where you can get your tummy rubbed or, in the words of the hotel, "... is a fantastic place for relax and release your tensions ... each room is equipped with air-conditioner and color TV."

The massage rooms are very pleasant - decorated in a Japanese style. The massage girls vary. Some just do the kneading action thing on each limb, but a few really know what they are doing. Here is a tip: One of the massage girls called Dtik used to work at Garabunning Spa and she is a great masseuse. If you can get her you won't go wrong. For photos of Dtik being massaged, she was my model for the photos of Preuksa Spa.

Guest Comments:

• Have stayed in this hotel 3 times, always face the same problem of air-con not cool. Same problem even after room change.

To add your comments, send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: Opened some time in 2008, this place is fairly new at the time of writing. There are 90 well furnished rooms. The rooms are standard Thai hotel rooms; what more is there to say? A bed, a TV, a fridge, and a bathroom. One thing to say is that the rooms are quite small compared to other hotels.

The location is strange. The hotel is located near the fresh market and Pakistani mosque, which is quite an undeveloped part of Hat Yai. For that reason, I thought the Bt800 room rate was a litle expensive. Had the hotel been located close to Lee Gardens Plaza, Bt800 would have been reasonable, but for this location I would have expected a rate somewhere between Bt500 and Bt600.

The hotel has its own Karaoke lounge, restaurant and massage shop. The rooms in the massage shop are some of the most pleasant I have seen in Hat Yai. They are very tastefully decorated and make for a relaxing environment.

Massage prices are Bt300 for two hours of Thai massage, or Bt700 for a two hour oil massage. Whether or not the service from the massage girls matches the quality of the rooms remains to be seen. Had I wanted a massage when I went, I would have been unlucky because there were no masseuses around. I would had to have waited two-and-a-half hours. I hope this isn't normal.

Guest Comments: No guest comments yet. Be the first to comment. Send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: As you can perhaps tell from the photo, the Indra is very close to Lee Gardens Plaza. It is also within staggering distance of the farang expat bars on Thamanoonvithi Road. There is a disco/pub and massage shop.

The hotel is large and conveniently located but run down and the receptionist was quite hostile. With all the new places that have sprung up in Hat Yai in recent years, I would only stay at somewhere like this in a real emergency.

A small point of note. The name in Thai transliterates to something like 'In-traa'. Many transliterations from Thai into English are a complete mystery to me and how a 'D' crept into this one I will never know.

Guest Comments:

• This is such an old shabby hotel with the television placed on a rack above from the ceiling, the rooms reminded me of a cheap brothel..the bathroom is just in a sorry state and the lobby is warm and cold. You can hear the booming sounds coming from the Brass Monkey Pub at night and the rate justifies the room that you get. I checked out the next morning into the Grand Plaza Hotel. Even the Pink Hotel offers a better deal. Sorry but I have to be honest. (October 2009)

To add your comments, send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: In the mid-range category of Hat Yai hotels (Bt400 - Bt800) the quality is quite variable. In fairness to the Inter, I haven't stayed there but my gut reaction tells me it is definitely at the bottom end of the market. It has that smell that I have only ever smelt in Thai hotels like this. If I was looking around for somewhere to stay it would definitely be a case of, "I'll think about it," and I would only go back if the accommodation situation in town was really desperate.

The location is fine for central Hat Yai, and especially for Gim Yong market, but for Bt500 I would either recommend somewhere cheaper like Louise Guest House (which seems to be a lot cleaner) or spend a couple more hundred Baht and go more upmarket. Just a few minutes away along Suphasarnrangsan Road is the Tanaphat Hatyai hotel which is a lot nicer for only Bt50 a night more.

July 2006 Update: My comments above about this place weren't far wrong but the good news is that something is being done about it. The hotel has been closed and completely gutted. There is a serious refurbishment taking place and I am told that it is under new ownership, even though there are still 'For Sale' signs outside.

This isn't just some new carpets and curtains. Several external walls have been removed and the building has been reduced to a shell. For the time being, therefore, the hotel is closed for business. When it reopens I will take a look and add some comments.

Thais normally do a good job with this kind of thing and, as I said above, the location is good. When it opens again it promises to be a decent accommodation option.

April 2007 Update: The building work has been completed and the Inter is now officially dead. I will leave these comments here but what used to be the Inter is now the Golden Crown Plaza Hotel - see Golden Crown Plaza Hotel on the previous page.

Comments: This is an interesting little place. It is very near to the Regency Hotel in the centre of town - and therefore very convenient - but it is in a location where the crowds of tourists don't usually go.

There are only 11 rooms in total. The 'small rooms' really are broom cupboards and they are the smallest hotel rooms I have seen outside of Singapore (I've never been to Tokyo). There is just about room for a bed but not a lot else. They don't look like rooms where people would stay for very long but I'll come on to that in a moment.

The single rooms have one large double-bed and the twin rooms have two single-beds. The interior design has actually been done very well and some might label In Town as a 'boutique hotel'. If they did, it would be worthy of the label.

I've mentioned elsewhere that there is a strange little woman in Hat Yai who approaches foreign men on the street offering to procure women for them. She isn't in the least bit shy.

She has approached me a couple of times and I've chatted with her purely out of curiosity to get some information about the Hat Yai commercial sex scene. She suggested this place as a venue for short term liaisons with working girls for people who didn't have a hotel room.

When I looked at one of the 'small rooms' with just a bed and a small bathroom, the pieces of the jigsaw started to fit together.

Guest Comments:

• I spent two night here as it was a Friday/Saturday and everything else was booked up. The rooms are small, but they are also clean. The location is good as its a short walk to Lee Plaza. The downside of this is that there is no wifi, but there are guys (owner?) in the evening getting drunk and asking if I wanted a women each of the two evenings that I stayed there. I didn't notice any short time activities going on however, and the other guests that I saw were just regular Thai people. The price was in the 350/400 area, I can't remember exactly. (March 2011)

To add your comments, send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.

Comments: JB Hotel was the first (and for a long time the only) upmarket hotel in Hat Yai. Once the Lee Gardens Plaza development was completed that area became the tourist centre in Hat Yai so JB seems to be in an out-of-the-way location but that is only by virtue of the fact that it was there first.

In terms of quality it is right up at the top end of the market in Hat Yai. It never seems very busy and I get the impression it is more geared towards business travellers, receptions and functions rather than for the weekend Malaysian tourist trade. It is also where VIPs stay when they come to Hat Yai.

Free tuk-tuks for guests run between the hotel and Lee Gardens Plaza all day up until 9pm. The rooms are just what you would expect for hotels in this category in Hat Yai and the bathrooms are quite large. There are personal safes in each room which is a feature I love in hotels and wish all hotels would have. It provides a great deal of peace of mind being able to put valuable items in a personal safe.

Facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, function rooms, and a couple of excellent restaurants. Dynasty offers a fabulous Chinese restaurant experience and the Palm Court restaurant is one of my favourites for both Thai and farang food.

Room rates at JB have tumbled. When I first enquired some time in 2004, a standard room was Bt1,500. At the beginning of 2007 the rate had gone down to a bargain Bt850. I think there are two factors involved here related to the old laws of supply and demand.

Since the southern insurgency problems, tourism to Hat Yai has fallen quite significantly but there has been no let up with the building of new hotels. It is just a case of supply outstripping demand by a long way so hotels have to stay competitive to attract custom.

Guest Comments: No guest comments yet. Be the first to comment. Send an e-mail to phil@phil.uk.net, or use the following form. Comments will be added anonymously.

Important - Please read the following carefully before sending me your comments: Do not use this form for availability or rate enquiries. I am not a travel agent, and neither am I affiliated with any hotels or guest houses in Hat Yai. Contact the establishment directly using the information given above. Use this form only if you have stayed at this particular establishment and wish to give some feedback.