Review Bonkai Hotel Resort

For me - Staying at the Bonkai is a measure of last resort. I would not rate this hotel very highly, I give it 3 and at this I am being generous. I stayed here 10 days but would have moved out right away had I not pre-booked via Agoda. It is an over priced budget accommodation that fails to give value for money. Important, if you want to have WiFi access avoid this hotel. Location is not great, you will need a motorbike otherwise it will be expensive in taxi fares. While the room size is adequate they are what you would expect for the price. I had a superior one but they are all the same size, just price seems to be the difference. However, once inside the rooms the real problems emerge. Problem, unfortunately they are dark and inadequately and very cheaply furnished. Fundamentally it provides minimal comfort facilities. Their business model is absolutely terrible. They try to extract every possible baht out of you for things which are normally included in the tariff. For example, they do not provide a single cup for a personal tea/coffee use; for professional and recreational purposes I have been using hotels for decades and this is the first time I have come across this. You have to buy off them inadequate waxed disposal waxed paper cups which are not very suitable for hot drinks. All they provided are two plates and two small glasses plus one silly knife, one teaspoon and one table spoon – how stupid is this! The cost to them to provide reasonable facilities is not that great, but no - lets squeeze more baht out of farang visitor.

 

Very silly but indicates their approach to the how they run the hotel. Also nothing seems to work properly. In my room the TV did not work, had to insist on a replacement, then the DVD player did not work so had to insist on a replacement. No doubt they just put the defective ones in some other room hoping no complaints.

 

The free WiFi is a joke, while you get a signal the connection is limited and never quite gets through. I wasted hours thinking it was my laptop and doing all sorts of tweaking, no luck. Down the road in a free WiFi café I got immediate connection. Return to Bonkai – no connection. Their free WiFi is a marketing scam, do not fall for it. I did. If WiFi is VIP for you tneh avoid this place.

 

On the positive side it has a pleasant aspect with a large and central swimming pool. Girl friendly. The staff do try to help but they are the usual Thai smiles, but not really do much to sort out the issues. For me it has been an interesting experienced, pleased to have checked out

Bonkai Hotel offers all facilities including restaurant, swimming pool, laundry and vehicle rental and everything which want visitors for their comfortable living. This hotel is very popular because of it's night life, walking street, ultra modern shopping mall etc.

So I just arrived to Bonkai Resort 2 days ago and I was a little worried at first as it is off the beaten path from where all the nightlife and restaurants are. But right away I realized that's a good thing, Bonkai offers anyone staying here access to scooter rentals and I love moving around town in a scooter as there is quite a bit of car traffic in Pattaya and a scooter allows you to zip through traffic like its nothing. But back to the Bonkai Resort itself, it is surrounded by plush green tropical trees with a great sized swimming pool so you don't even here traffic noises. A great little restaurant (open for breakfast from 8am til 12 midnight) next to the pool offers a great variety of tasty western and Thai dishes at an affordable price, and the drinks are affordable to! Not to mention when I got into my room I noticed my fridge stocked with beer, water, cola, chocolate bars, whiskey, vodka etc...at a cheap price as well (especially compared to bar fridges in most hotels I've been to around the world). My room and a spacious room it is has a great air conditioner, towels, a comfy bed and sofa with satellite tv (with many channels) a dvd player and wifi access for my computer, bathroom with hot shower and all rooms surround the pool and tropical trees. Now I had a chance to meet the owner and his wife who are extremely friendly and always asking if everything is ok which is a breath of fresh air compared to staying in a commercial well known hotel where your just another $$ sign. All in all I give this resort/hotel two thumbs up especially for the price.....you pay for what you get here and I'd come back here again any day. Actually have extended my stay at Bonkai Resort a few extra days. So I read the gents review above and thought to myself he must really have a pickle up his you know what to have gone as far as to say all the negative things he said about this great resort. But one thing I have learned in life is you can't always please everyone especially people who don't like there own life.

 

http://www.agoda.com/asia/thailand/pattaya/bonkai_resort.html?CID=1412148

Edited December 9, 201213 yr by whitespider

well, 2 highly conflicting reports.......something about this place I fancy-perhaps the promise of getting a bit away from it all- but then I don't drive, these days, and the legs are a bit suspect ( so walking would be good exercise!)...never ceases to amaze me how from a distance we speculate and ponder ad nauseam, to the point of losing much required sleep, matters  with which if confronted in situ, we would just get on ........Winston Churchill would be proud of me....