Hua Hin Marriott Resort Spa

Some Thai's were spooked by a prophecy of a island going to sink into the sea and disapear, so I got a good promotional rate. It was one of the hottest weekends as the sun was closest to the earth. Still a bliss.

Unique Quality: Taking the train 3rd class from Bangkok, then a motorbike from the rail station and reaching a 5* reception welcomed with a warm smile.

In summary: This is not a “5 Star” resort – it may have been 10 or 15 years ago. My recommendation is that you may consider staying at Marriott Hua Hin if you find a room there for US$150 or less and includes breakfast for two people. Rooms are old and lacking maintenance. Bathrooms are tiny - very narrow bathtub and no shower cubicle. Breakfast is good. Beach is clean. Location good. If you have a higher budget and you want a high standard of room then don’t stay at this Marriott – Hua Hin and Cha Am has many real 5 and 4 Star hotels which are much newer and in our opinion (based on hotel inspections we personally conducted and room rates we obtained from their web sites) will offer you a lot better value for money.

Read detail review below.

Stayed at the Marriott Hua Hin with my wife for a weekend away from Bangkok (2nd time stay, last time was in 2002) and booked through hotel website for a Beach Terrace Room (sea view, ground floor) with King Bed and paid about US$350/night for the room including breakfast, tax & service charge.
Service: Check-in was efficient courteous. We were asked to wait a few minutes so that they could check if the room was ready. Waited only a few minutes and was escorted to the room (Room #001). Few minutes later the Bell Man knocked on the door and I opened the door - no greetings of any sort - he simply picked up the suitcase, walked into the room, dropped the suitcase and asked me "How long you stay?", extended his hand for a tip and without a smile or saying "thank you" took the money and walked out. I'm not sure if he expected a bigger tip or not but I tipped him pretty good. Suggestion to Marriott Management: Whatever training you are providing to your Bell Men / Concierge Personnel needs to include the basics of how to greet and speak to hotel guests and not just extend their hand for tips. This is not how Thai people speak and certainly not the Thai hospitality I have experienced in the years that I've lived and travelled through Thailand.
Service at breakfast was good and the people working there performed efficiently to keep up with the flow of guests (it was a busy weekend) and most importantly did not forget to smile, even though it was quite hot and humid in the breakfast are (for your info – the breakfast area is not air conditioned and only a few fans placed there for air flow). Check out was quick and efficient.
Sleep Quality: I had trouble sleeping because there was a constant "knocking/clicking" sound coming from somewhere inside the room (I think it was the fridge or the air con). It was difficult to fall asleep with the sound but I didn't wake up once I fell asleep. Bed and pillows were comfortable. Air con needed to be turned down to 19 degrees C for it to cool down the room but it was quite hot and humid weather.
Cleanliness: The men's toilet in the lobby area (next to the Sand Trap bar) had such bad odor that I had trouble breathing when I went in. There was a light fixture in the ceiling on top of a wash basin that was dripping water into the basin below and when I looked up I saw that the ceiling material had rotten away around the light fixture. There is black mould around the drainage pipe below the sink. Question to Marriott Management: Does your hotel have maintenance staffs that are properly trained to identify these? If yes, then how it is that a hotel you claim to be 5 stars has such a disgustingly smelly toilet with water leaking from the ceiling? I have been to some bathrooms in petrol stations by the highways in Thailand which did not smell as bad!
Location: Marriott Hua Hin has a private beach which is very clean and has lovely white sand. You do see a few vendors trying to sell T-shirts and souvenirs but they don't bother guests that much. Marriott employees have done a good job at keeping the beach clean and tidy.
Rooms: This hotel is more than 20 years old - and I'm not sure when was the last time Marriott spent money in refurbishing this room where we stayed and this is one of their more expensive sea view rooms. The room that we stayed in was certainly dated. It had a huge bump on the wooden floor (the wooden floor had swollen-up) near the sliding door; the sliding door to the terrace did not have all the tracking wheels and made a screeching noise (metal rubbing against metal) as you tried to open it. The bathroom is super small - even for us having small body structure. It was extremely difficult to pull the lever on the shower control to activate the overhead shower. Shower water temperature control was very tricky - it was just too hot for most of the setting. There is only a bathtub (I should say a very narrow bathtub!) and no shower cubicle. This was the exact same style bathroom I had in the room where I stayed 10 years ago!
Question to Marriott Management: Does your hotel have maintenance staffs that are properly trained to identify and report these problems in the guest rooms? If yes, then how is it that one of the more expensive guest rooms has a swollen-up wooden floor which is actually a trip hazard? Why do you, the Marriott Hua Hin management, charge in excess of $300 per night for a room which has a swollen-up floor causing a trip hazard? Why did you not block out this room so that it could not be assigned to guests? This to me is prime example that Hua Hin Marriott does not care about guest room quality and or safety in guest rooms – you prefer to make money from a room that is in need for maintenance and not to mention it has a safety issue (trip hazard).
Why have you not spent money in upgrading your rooms, especially redesigning the bathroom and redecorating your these rooms? Many reviewers in Trip Advisor commented about these two issues – why do you not pay attention to the feedback that your customers are providing?
Why put only a few fans in the breakfast area (there are two stand fans near the door leading to the buffet area and cooking stations in the air conditioned room), when at 9am it is almost 30 degrees and extremely humid? Almost all the guests sitting down having breakfast were sweating I noticed…I know we were. Your employees serving your guests at the breakfast area were all running around serving the guests and sweating profusely in this hot weather. I would say that it seemed to like these people working in the breakfast area were working in a sweat shop – literally!
I’m not sure when the last time anyone from Marriott’s upper management had breakfast there on such a hot and humid morning – but I suggest someone high up from Marriott’s management should visit this hotel, sit amongst the guests and experience the sweating while eating breakfast. Maybe then Management might approve buying and putting a few extra fans (and repairing some of those tiny fans fixed to the columns in the breakfast area) – which would get the air circulating and would make it so much more comfortable to sit and enjoy the good breakfast buffet prepared by your good chefs. It would also be a more comfortable place for your people to work.
Based on what I saw at Marriott Hua Hin I can’t help but deduce that the Management has failed to recognize that there is some real competition in Hua Hin and Cha Am. Marriott Hua Hin is not the only resort of its kind in Hua Hin like it was even 10 years ago - and their Management needs to wake up and have a look around town. For example: The Hyatt Hotel - although only 10 years old has already refurbished all their guest rooms. I went to Hyatt during this trip because I wanted to see their rooms. I am not going to return to Marriott Hua Hin and spend my hard earned money there until they refurbish their rooms and facilities. In my opinion (based on what I have seen during my inspection of Hyatt), the Hyatt offers better room rates given the fact that the bathrooms are much larger and rooms are just about the same size as Marriott except that these rooms are brand new! But the Hyatt does not have sea view rooms but their Club Rooms are similarly priced as Marriott’s sea view rooms and for me all day food and free pre-dinner drinks mean more value than a sea view room. There are other options like the Dusit and Hilton - which I inspected and found to be in much better shape than Marriott.
The company I work for is a long standing corporate client of Marriott – not only here in Thailand but in more than 30 other countries around the world. In last 15 years I have stayed at numerous Marriott brand hotels and to be quite frank I'm simply disappointed to see Management’s failures in Marriott Hua Hin.
Marriott Hua Hin - you are charging your guests premium 5 Star hotel rates but letting them down by not delivering the value for money to your guests. Marriott Management - you need to wake up and pick up the game if you want to survive in Hua Hin – concentrate in training and guiding your work force and re-invest some of your revenue into refurbishing your hotel accommodation.
The European and US guests, who are Marriott Hua Hin hotel's major customer, will realize after their first stay that they are paying too much to stay in a Marriott brand hotel in Hua Hin and they can go around the corner, spend just as much as they would at Marriott or even bit less money and stay at a newer hotel with nicer rooms and modern bathrooms, bigger or equivalent swimming pools (for example Hyatt and Hilton) and enjoy a similar brand comfort. I believe the Thai clientele has already realized this from the number of Thai guests I saw at your hotel this weekend. Marriott Management - you can fool people once into making them pay premium rates for a 20 year old hotel room – but when you do that, a lot of those customers, like me, will spread that experience around to millions of potential customers around the globe through Trip Advisor and other travel forums about that subpar experience. In essence, you are spoiling your own image/brand name by not re-investing in your people and property.

Unique Quality: 1. Nice clean beach
2. Good breakfast

Directions: Main Hua Hin city.

Hua Hin Marriott Resort is in secluded world of its own. Located directly on the beach, with lush greenery flowing down to the white sand and blue waters of the Gulf of Thailand.

The Marriott Hua Hin is located right on the beach, it is just about walking distance to town but it can be a long walk, tuk tuks are available. The resort is popular with those wanting a large resort hotel close to the busy area of the town. drink and restaurant prices are what you would expect from hotel prices. The Marriott resort Hua hin is ideal for families and couples seeking a quality beach hotel in Hua Hin, direct access to the beach as qwith all the best hotels in Hua Hin.

Unique Quality: The premium rooms are worth the extra cost.

Directions: Main road through Hua Hin, just past the Hua Hin Grand Plaza.

The Marriott chain is now well established in Thailand and I have stayed in most of their hotels in the country (4 actually). This is not as grand as the "JWs" in Bangkok or Phuket, it is more or less the same as the Pattaya Marriott with regard to the rooms.

The swimming pool has been rebuilt to match the style of the pools in Pattaya and Phuket. For me the thing that makes this better than the Pattaya Marriott is that it is right on the beach so that you can either do your sun bathing by the pool or overlooking the beach.

The hotel is a short walk from the centre of Hua Hin.

Standard of food was very good when I was there and I thought the breakfast buffet was one of the best I have seen.

Note for Marriott Reward members - there is NOT an Executive Lounge at this hotel.

Unique Quality: The swimming pool is quite deep, the "shallow" end is about 1.6 metres, but there is a children’s pool that adjoins the main pool.

Sun bathing area overlooking and on the beach.

Directions: About 10 minutes walk south of the centre of Hua Hin along the main road.

The Hua Hin Marriott Resort and Spa is located right on the beach. It has some rooms which face the sea. A Thai restaurant, Sala Thai, on the beach front offers Thai cuisine while enjoying the sea breeze. If you fancy a spa treatment, the Spa offers a wide variety of treatments ranging from US$40 upwards.

Unique Quality: I like the swimming pool - it has a sunken bar where you can have cocktails. If you prefer to swim in the sea or suntan, the hotel has a private beach.

Directions: The best way to get to Hua Hin is to charter a chauffer driven car from Bangkok Airport. A Toyota Altis with driver will cost around B2500 each way and is an economical way of getting there if you have a party of two or more persons.

Once again, my sister-in-law booked us rooms at a fancy place. I usually prefer the quaint, quiet places, but the Marriott turned out to be rather nice thanks to its lush gardens.

Unique Quality: The building sits in the middle of the property, and once you pass the counter, there are nice gazebos and gardens in a large inner area. The beachfront rooms are in a low-rise building beyond. There is a large pool with nice landscaping around it. The pool has a jet-area where you can sit and relax as well as a small water slide at the adjacent kiddy pool.

The breakfast buffet was good, and you can sit under Thai-style pavilions with garden views (see additional photos). We did not eat other meals here, so I cannot speak for the restaurants within (my brother-in-law always has to go to some special restaurant a drive away).

The beach was alright, but nothing special. It's not very wide, and the pony riders are there offering rides to tourists. The water is not clear.

Service was excellent.

It was amazing and strange to see that the hotel lobby didn't have any walls, just a roof and way back a reception desk among huge green tropical plants in big pots.

...and of course after checking in and moving to our thai-house in the garden - a tropical rain soacked us completely, lol!