Le Meridien Hotels in Phuket

This is my second time staying at Le Meredien Phuket Hotel. I love to Enjoy the tranquility of the sea breeze! And taking a leisurely stroll along the shore. My room is spacious and facing between pool and Sea. Enable me to enjoy the roar of the waves in the midnite. I really love this place, definitely will come back again.

This hotel does not meet service standards of a Le Meridien hotel. Food quality is far below average for a Phuket resort. The staff are friendly and trying hard but severely under trained. We have visited and stayed at over 5 hotels in Phuket and 10 in Thailand over the past three years. This hotel was by a long way the lowest quality, despite being in the higher cost bracket. A few observations: Buffet food is poor with stale breads, limited selection, limited options (even of Thai food), and low quality cuts of meat. Service stations are understaffed, for example I had to find and then wait for a chef to find a lighter to prepare some stir fried vegetables at evening buffet in the ”J's” restaurant. The food would be overpriced if good, at this quality it is highly disappointing. Restaurant staff are undertrained, and do not complete basic jobs e.g. laying cutlery, cleaning away after guests have left the restaurant, checking on drinks refills. Incorrect bills were presented including charging for bottles instead of glasses of wine. On two occasions we noticed food dropped onto the floor remaining there with ants / insects for the whole of our stay over 1 hour and not being cleaned. The pool area has limited seating and hotel patrons wake early to 'reserve' with towels they have kept from the day before. If you wish to sit by the pool I suggest you wake at 7am to reserve your space. The rooms are updated, clean and well maintained. But there is limited hot water which is very variable. The beach is clean, beautiful and the sea is as good as you will find in Phuket. Unfortunately we stayed through the New Year break and the staff did not remove the tables and chairs from the party for nearly a whole day. Maybe excusable, but the plates of food left to rot on the beach for 12+ hours was for sure not acceptable. I'm including a photo of the toaster as an example of the training / management gaps in this property. For three days there was disgusting melted cheese inside the toaster. I pointed out each morning to the staff but they did not take action. Leaving the property was a good example of the gaps here. I asked for a taxi to be booked (it was not offered), and waited for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes I checked with concierge to be told that they had ”told someone else”. As with many of the gaps in this property there is no chain of command, and staff are not clear on their roles. Finally and not 100% relevant to this review, but we attended the New Year beach party. It was a very funny farce. The MC/DJ appeared to be extremely drunk throughout the night, it rained for 30 minutes - there was no plan for rain - guests sat under their napkins - the buffet food became wet and sodden. The food itself was very poor indeed. The entertainment was two dancers and a miming cabaret act, plus the fire show that happens on every week in the hotel. For $200USD per head, I would not recommend attending an event at this hotel under any circ