Hotels in Dan Kao, Koh Chang

I really WANT to call Serenity perfect but some things just were not. With all the 5 star reviews perhaps my expectations were high but I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. I'll give a detailed account of our experience four days at Serenity Koh Chang. Check In The road is very sloped and our driver initially couldn't figure out where to let us off. We had to take our luggage down a pretty steep rocky area (where it could not be rolled) which was less than ideal. At check in we were met with a man who was smiling the entire time we were there and provided stellar service but never gave his name. Anything we asked he jumped on immediately and with a smile. Check in went smoothly and we were assisted with our bags to villa #3. The Villa Perhaps my biggest disappointment was the villa. It's very cold and impersonal in style. It doesn't ”fit” at all with the gorgeous setting. There were some cleanliness concerns that I overlooked (food stains on the couch pillows). But mostly, it just was drab and many things weren't thought through. There is NO WHERE in either bathroom to store your toiletries or your dry clothing. Hooks on the door or a small shelf over the toilet would go a long way to making the otherwise nicely finished bathrooms more user friendly. The bathrooms / drainage are extremely noisy. If someone used the bathroom in the night I was wakened by the resulting gurgling in my bathroom. It's all very ”bare bones”. Nothing was bad but it just didn't hit the mark and I found the bathroom situation (with no where dry to place anything) to be very frustrating. Be prepared to encounter a lot of critters of all types. I expected this but I didn't expect so many inside the villa. The mourning geckos hanging out in every curtain and the bathrooms making noise all night was very annoying. I know it's hard to control but I have to question how so many geckos were getting into the villa. We even had a large tokay in ours. I have no idea where or how they were getting in because we did not leave anything open. Also, it's very poor design to have all the villa windows align with each other. I really disliked having curtains open because I was then looking either directly into another villa OR worse into the storage / workers area which was often noisy with workers and scooters going in and out. Having to close heavy black out curtains in a beach villa is not desirable. Our TV didn't work properly but that was quickly resolved. The kitchen sink faucet was wonky. The beds and linens were quite comfortable and towels were nice, plentiful and soft. The rooftop hot tub / patio area had issues. The hot tub lights never worked (we only used this one night). And during the day it was intolerable due to work going on at a neighboring villa. This was pretty upsetting as I tried multiple times to just go relax on the rooftop only to be met with the high pitch squealing of tile saws and hammers. It was anything but serene. T

Nice place, view of mountains and sea, but very hard bed

First time book this hotel but many time visited koh chang. Hotel location is not really good in term of beach area. It is in between the exit point of a small cannel so whenever i want to get to the sea, i need to walk to the near by hotel to enter the cleaner water. Staff and service are excellent. Breakfast quality is pretty decent compare to other hotels that im visiting.

The hotel lobby here has a great view, but other facilities are really average. There are not many choices for meals including breakfast, but their staff are very kind. Furthermore, not having its own beach is a major drawback, after all, its location Already at the beach. We booked a double bed, but both children couldn't get up to have breakfast, but they forced us to have breakfast for four people, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.

Everything during the stay was taking care of perfectly by the hotel staff. We got different birthday surprises which was a nice touch . The gym could be better as we couldn’t workout properly and went to a gym down the road . It’s also unfortunate that the pool isn’t heated as now nobody is using them. Great stay for families and elderly people

Simply unprofesional and incompetent for an overclaimed five-star hotel in terms of service standards. I booked it for two nights for my father on his birthday. Called them up from overseas to see if there is any small birthday surprise available for a 71 year old travelling alone. Shame on the front desk staff : The front desk PROMISED a complimentary birthday cake prepared in his room before he checked in. Yet there was no cake at all. I had to make another long distance call to further inquire, they still insisted they did put one in his room. Eventually I had to ask them to send someone up to look for the cake in his room, that was the time when they sent it up.. I fully understand birthday surprises are only subject to discretion. I WOULD NOT MIND AT ALL if they decline it in the first place. But if it has been PROMISED, do it right, not in a way that the birthday guy had to do a cake hunt in the room for a birthday surprise.. Shame on the management staff : After such an embarrassment made to their failing level of professionalism over an avoidable mistake, they moved my father to another room with just a twin bed two days later.. First, I am aware of the policy that a double bed was merely a special request upon an extended stay, yet with a handful of guests visible throughout the week in still the pandemic time, was it REALLY fully booked enough to run out of just ONE double bed ? Second, the management should have applied the service recovery concept (if available, like a double bed..) to this guest with whom their own front desk staff had ALREADY embarrassed the hotel over a minor PROMISE that was under delivered with their lack of basic competence in simply delivering one cake. Not only this hotel failed at managing customer satisfaction, they failed even worse at restoring it after their own fault. I will NOT recommend this hotel to anyone with an occasion to celebrate. The depth of their professionalism is only limited to checking guests in and out, with a smile.

Very nice hotel, unfortunately a little afforded, but still very nice. We had a bungalow right at the neighbouring river, which was beautiful from the location, but was very standardly furnished from the inside and quite afforded. It was also very easy to screw. But this is in the limits, you can see it away. There are 2 beautiful pools in the plant with sufficient lifting areas. Also a free shuttle boat service is offered to the beach and to the Fireflys. However, if you have a bad time you wait for the shuttle to take one back with or miss the return (18:00), you will have to go back about 25 minutes (navi or local knowledge needed). The breakfast buffet is unrecommended, the selection is very small and tastefully not so good, then prefer to breakfast outdoor for small money. The service itself was completely OK and clean the facility is also. From the location a roller is beneficial, but no need, in 15-20 min walking road you also reach the most important. The wire in the rooms is OK, enough for Netflix. But vllt. not so suitable for work.

This place is heaven on earth! The welcome at reception sets the tone for the rest of your stay! We arrived with back packs from Pattaya and We were treated like VIPs. Absolute top class! Staff are amazing! Food was amazing. The rooms are outstanding and the local town is warm and friendly! The random visits from monkeys is an amazing addition! But be aware, they actually do creep up on you and open your room doors!! Staff aren’t joking! We’ve stayed on many islands and many places in Thailand but our expectations were exceeded here. The grounds are well kept, the surroundings are superb! My only disappointment was that the tides were high so we didn’t have any beach during our stay! (No fault of Sylvan!) I just hope the cost doesn’t get too high that they price us out of spending another break there next year!

We have spent 6 nights in Santhiya Tree Koh Chang, even though it's rainy season, we still LOVE it there! Design: we stay at the Pool Suite Water View, almost whole building made by carved wood, traditional Thai design and lots of character, looks very beautiful & classic. Staffs: very friendly and excellent service Pools: 60m long pool at the breakfast restaurant with some seats facing the pool & peaceful mountain view. Another pool right in front of the beach & close to the villas. Both pools clean & big. Santhiya Tree use pa kao ma thai sarong as beach towel, love it! Food: delicious buffet breakfast & lots of variety. Food & drinks at the Chantara Restaurant is high quality & very yummy. The duo who sings at the restaurant are brilliant singers, you won't get bored with their performance. Room: spacious & clean, lots of electric plugs & even beach bag for use. They burn lemongrass/ citronella oil in the bathroom to keep mozzies away & room smells good. Massage at their spa: very good & reasonable price, sound of the waves makes the massage so relaxing, must try. Shuttle bus to main street: every 2 hrs they can drop you or pick up from main street as there resort is not at the road side. Not sure if it's because of low season, hope the shuttle service can be more frequent. Thank you everybody at Santhiya Tree Koh Chang for the great service and smiles. Will definitely come back for another holiday and highly recommend if you're looking for a fantastic place to stay! This beautiful place takes your stress away :) P.S. there's a small part of the road right outside the resort leading to the entrance is unsealed with lots of potholes, pretty bumpy for cars and their shuttle bus, suggest Santhiya Tree do something with it.

OK why am I giving 3 and not a 5 star rate, for a couple of key points, but let's start with a positive points. Great location, and beautiful property, nice pool (although at the time we visited the pool was green it didn't bother us but it might bother you) and facilities. Nice breakfast, good happy hour. Nice rooms with great balconies. Now into the details that I didn't like. - The room wasn't well clean, since day 1, even when we checked in we didn't have towels and had to wait couple of hours to get towels and after requesting several times. We also noticed that all floors had different cleaning staff, maybe we weren't lucky, we were on the room 233. - Poor and old amenities in the room. We had a super old shower cap in the room with hairs, really unacceptable for a 4 star hotel, and that was it for amenities, and the tray their were supposed to be displayed was dirty with hairs and dust. - somehow the room was missing something, maybe the cleaning part, because it missed the wow factor that it could have. - the hotel promotes tours with elephant riding which in my opinion is BIG NO and unacceptable. - the egg station in the breakfast was working in a strange way, if you wanted a fired egg they had already several done and in a super odd shape, not natural. I don't understand why to have egg station if you don't preper them fresh. - the staff in the reception was not costumer service mind or service minded, maybe they need a workshop for all staff members in this hotel, maybe it's a management problem or still covid recovery problem. I don't know this hotel has such a great potential maybe it's the best hotel in the island and some details are missing. Another annoying point, but this is not the hotels fault is just a warning, so much people taking Instagram pictures everywhere, to the point that it's annoying. People are not experiencing the place instead they are taking pictures to post online, and it kills the vibe. I hope someone reads it and it creates an impact in how this hotel is managed, spec3the cleaning and attention to detail. Would I return yes, again I believe that this is one of the best hotels in the island. This is not a complain althout it might sound, it's more notes for improvement. Hope next time I can give a 5 star rating.