Sawasdee Seaview Hotel, Soi 10 - another review

[RCR]

Note: this review is for guys looking for cheap accomodation. If you normally stay at four or five star places, this won't interest you.

 

I've stayed at Seaview many times. This is the cheap hotel on Soi 10. My experiences with this hotel are mixed. There is a great variation in the rooms. On my last trip I got a refurbished room at the back of the building. I reviewed that at the time. This visit I got Room 216 at the front, overlooking Soi 10. It cost me $331 for 16 nights (that includes Agoda reward points). This works out to roughly 620 baht per day.

 

Room 216 is one of the older, unrefurbished rooms. It has a double bed with a large and battered floor mounted airconditioning unit. The unit must have been recently seviced though, because it smelt clean and worked excellently.

 

The bathroom is of the "wet bathroom" style with the shower head spilling directly onto the floor. The shower head is crammed into a corner very nearly over the toilet bowl. The washbasin is also crammed into another corner, but brightly lit.

 

There's a bulky, old style TV showing only basic cable but I'm not a great TV watcher anyway. I do spend a lot of time on the internet though. There's wi-fi routers on every floor. Wi-fi in my room was full strength for the two weeks I was there. It only failed for one morning, after a huge downpour in which the electricity also failed. Internet costs 110 baht for two hours. That's fine with me. I'd prefer to pay for a good internet connection than use the free (and often poor) service offered by other hotels.

 

The cleaning ladies were always cheerful with a smiley greeting whenever they saw me. I mention this because the reception chicks are exactly the opposite. The girls there are unrelentingly grim, grumpy and unwilling to work. I notice that other peoples' reviews on Agoda mention this too, so it's not just me.These girls have been at reception for years. In my opinion they've been doing the job too long and they've got slack. Management should move them somewhere else.

 

The cleaning chicks gave me two fresh towels every day, and for some odd reason, four bottles of free water. Normally, it's two free bottles per day. As usual, I had the mini bar emptied when I first arrived - it ended up full of bottled water. (I did tip the girls mightily when I left).

 

Noise: There's a lot of street noise when you stay in one of Seaview's front rooms. Soi 10 with its new concrete road is a race track for revving motorcycles. There's a gang of mototaxi drivers just outside and they had some loud and boisterous conversations throughout the night and into the early mornings. Also, there's construction going on across the road. The construction noise is discussed in other threads so I won't whine about it here. On one night there was some sort of karaoke competition in the dining room which is right below the hotel's rooms. Great idea, Mr Manager! I fled to LK Metro.

 

The chick staffing the travel desk in the foyer did her job flawlessly as usual, booking my 2am taxi back to the airport without a stuff up.

 

Would I stay at Seaview again? Yes, I'm booked in for Christmas. This is a cheap hotel. It's shabby, it's old, the reception desk staff are horrid. But I stay there because I know it. I feel comfortable there. Also, I'm an old retired guy on a fixed income. I come here every three months. I can't throw money around. I wouldn't recommend this hotel to classier pattaya-addicts members. The only reason anyone would stay here is because it is cheap and in a really good location.

 

I think it's helpful to include photos because the ones on the Agoda and Sawasdee sites are so far from the truth. So here are some September 2012 photos of Room 216:

Photo 1: window, construction site can just be seen in the distance.

Photo 2: View of room.

Photo 3: Another view of room. In hot weather I like to sleep on a beach towel.

Photo 4: bed, aircon, window.

Photo 5: Toilet.

Photo 6: Washbasin

[whitespider - RIP]

Agoda link here

 

http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/pattaya/sawasdee_sea_view_pattaya_hotel.html

[siamsmile33]

It's cheap, you get what you pay for.The location seems great.Unfortunately I would hate the fact to pay 110 baht for 2 hours internet every day :(

 

Thanks for the review mate, appreciated.

[plahgat]

I used to stay here back in the late 90s early 2000s when the room cost about 200 baht per night for a tiny spartan no thrills prisoncell!

The Sawasdee chain of hotels were the cheapest aircon places to stay back then.

Looking at your pictures it looks exactly the same hasn't changed a bit!

It's on a good location but apart from that these days it's one of the most expensive places to stay comparing to what you get!

Many more newer and better places to stay along Soi Bua Khao with free fast Internet for less than 500 baht per night long term!

 

Plahgat

[RCR]

Guys, you are dragging up a really OLD review!

 

I stayed at Seaview a few more times after that review but the place got worse each time.

 

On my last visit in early 2013, the management organised three karaoke nights in the dining room during the two weeks I was there. It was so loud I couldn't hear my TV set on normal volume. The room I was allocated was badly affected with black mould and staff didn't care. I had to nag and nag and nag the receptionist until she finally threw a different key at me and grunted "You change room."

 

In my opinion Seaview has gone from one star to five black thumbs down. I don't stay there anymore. I now use the more up-market Whitehouse Condotel. Costs a bit more but I'm much happier.

[Siraulo]

I stayed at Seaview only for a day and moved to another hotel. I prefer to pay few extra bhat for better quality

[siamsmile33]

Guys, you are dragging up a really OLD review!

 

I stayed at Seaview a few more times after that review but the place got worse each time.

 

On my last visit in early 2013, the management organised three karaoke nights in the dining room during the two weeks I was there. It was so loud I couldn't hear my TV set on normal volume. The room I was allocated was badly affected with black mould and staff didn't care. I had to nag and nag and nag the receptionist until she finally threw a different key at me and grunted "You change room."

 

In my opinion Seaview has gone from one star to five black thumbs down. I don't stay there anymore. I now use the more up-market Whitehouse Condotel. Costs a bit more but I'm much happier.

 

Thanks for the update mate! Appreciated.

 

I will take the hotel off my shortlist!