GeeMan’s KTK Royal Residence Review

[GeeMan]

During my previous several trips I have always stayed at Opey de Place (OdP) on Soi Lengkee. OdP is well located for Soi Diana, LK Metro and Chaiyapoon, and is only a few minutes walk to Baukhao where Baht buses to Walking Street, or Second Road for the other direction can be picked up.

 

OdP also has a nice pool, with good shade. However, over the last few years the price has been gradually been creeping up, and no observable maintenance has been done on the somewhat Spartan rooms. Time for a change.

 

Drinking with a mate in Jack Tar Bar one day, he remarked that rooms at KTK Royal Residence could be had for as little as 12K per month. KTK is located 5 minutes walk from the 2^nd road end of Soi 6, just by Jamisons Bar.

 

 

Checking out their web site, I liked the look of the place. So, I booked their Royal Executive Studio (RES) for 22K per month.

 

The Room

 

The RES rooms are listed as 68 square meters, and I have no problem believing this. The room itself is very spacious, and is laid out as a large studio with a king bed. There is a 40’ flat screen TV with DVD player, plenty or wardrobe space is available, and a small safe that will take a 13’ laptop is provided.

 

 

 

There is a compact kitchen with microwave and kettle, fridge / freezer and enough cutlery / plates etc. for a couple. A small computer desk is also provided.

 

 

 

As a bonus, there are twin bathrooms (his & hers), both with showers, vanity and WC. One shower is a walk-in with sliding doors, the other an over-bath-tub type. Twin bathrooms are very unusual in a studio, but definitely welcome as you and your lady can have separate facilities.

 

 

 

The KTK RESs are, as far as I know, all corner units at the rear corner of the building. As corner units they all have large wrap-around balconies with a small 2-chair+table suite as well as a swing chair. The room has doors to both sides of the balcony, so you can leave these open and get a good breeze blowing through the room to cooling things down.

 

 

The balcony is wide enough that you aren’t cramped, and I spent a lot of time out there just reading or using the Internet. The balconies face north/ east, and mine on the 6^th floor had a view straight up 2^nd road where I could see the Big-C sign.

 

The Facilities

 

Pools

 

There are 2 pools available for guest; one indoor and one outdoors.

 

The indoor pool is located on the ground floor near the lifts, and unsurprisingly did not appear to get much use while I was there. Not a fully enclosed pool, it was open to the outside while still having walls on all sides. What I am trying to say is that the indoor pool area was just as hot as outside, but fully shaded by a roof. The pool area was permanently open to one of the rear motorcycle parking areas, which made it a convenient shortcut to the lifts without passing through reception.

 

 

The outdoor pool got a lot more use. Located on the first floor and looking out over the street, it is nicely landscaped with faux rockeries and planters. The only downside with this pool area is that the loungers had no shade or umbrellas available, so if you wanted to lie near the pool you did it in full sunlight. Not ideal for a pasty white fella like me

 

 

Gym

 

Next to the outdoor pool is the hotel Gym. The gym has a number of treadmills, as well as a small selection of weight machines such as leg, shoulder and chest press. No free weighs unfortunately, but certainly enough here to give you a decent pump or aerobic workout without needing to travel from the complex to an outside gym.

 

 

There is also a small sauna available for post-workout sweat-outs.

 

 

Next to the gym and pool is a nice seating area, with a number of leather couches making a nice area to relax and read or use the Internet.

 

 

A final, rather strange touch is the presence of a putting green in case you want to practice before heading out for a game of golf.

 

 

Internet

 

Free wireless Internet is available in all the rooms. Directly outside my room was a wireless access point, so my signal may have been stronger than in other rooms. Generally, access was consistent and fast enough to stream YouTube videos etc. Occasionally I experienced loss of signal, but not often or for long.

 

Laundry

 

There is a guest laundry on the ground floor next to the indoor pool. They will come to your room to pick up your laundry in the supplied bags if you phone and ask.

 

Turnaround is always promised as 24 hours, however I rarely found this to be the case. Indeed, even after visiting to see if my laundry was ready, and being told another 2 hours, after 2 more hours it was frequently still not finished. The KTK laundry was the worst scoring part of my stay, and I would say that while the staff is friendly the service levels are poor.

 

Parking

 

KTK provides plenty of onsite free parking for motorcycles, both outdoors behind the main building, as well as underground. I never had any problems finding a space and I was there over Christmas / New Year.

 

I didn’t have a car, but it looked like there was a separate car-park available for customers.

 

Free Transport

 

Located where it is, you are not close to any of the main Baht bus routes. However, KTK have a complimentary transport service that will shuttle you the Second Road near the top of Soi Baukhao. From there you can easily jump a BB from Baukhao for Walking Street, or walk down to Second Road for the other direction.

 

Power and Water

 

As with most serviced apartments or monthly rate rentals, electricity and water are charged in addition to the room rate. During my 24-day stay, my bill for electricity and water totaled around 800 baht. Saying that, I didn’t use the AC a lot as being the cool season and having the cross-breeze it wasn’t needed that much. KTK charge fairly standard rates for power and water.

 

When you are booked into your room they make a point of showing you both the power and water meters, and writing down the readings in front of you. I read somewhere else someone had a dispute over power, but my experience was fine.

 

Conclusion

 

Great place to stay and I’ll be back. Even though I only stayed 23 nights and paid the full monthly rate it still worked out substantially cheaper than the day rate at places a lot less pleasant.

 

I note they have put the rates up substantially since I stayed, and the low season has increased to 27K, with high season now 30K. Still, at 1K per night plus utilities (100 baht?) this is still a bargain.

 

There are plenty of local bars and eating options, including Jamisons. Being only a 5-minute walk from Soi 6 was another bonus, and a lot of my days consisted of walking down to the beach, hiring a chair for a few hours, followed by the usual Soi 6 antics.

 

If you are looking at a change in accommodation, I recommend you consider KTK.

 

GeeMan

[plahgat]

Great review!

I always wanted to stay at this hotel, but they seemed to be fully booked everytime that I looked!

I didn't like the location though.

Lately as you stated monthly price has gone up so it's now outside of my price range unfortunately!

 

Plahgat

[THAJEC]

Nicely processed review. Thanks for sharing. The hotel looks good and the price is also reasonable. Really the only thing that does not satisfy me is its location off the main baht taxi routes, which can be a little uncomfortable.

[izzyg]

Thanks for the review! The hotel looks good, but not the location for us who refuse motorbike.

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

Geeman - Excellent review buddy, thanks for taking the time and trouble to do the write-up....nice pics too.

 

Nowadays, I normally stay around LK area - I do this as my glofing HQ bar is there. However previously I have stayed in the same soi as KTK (Nova Gold/@Mind/Amari Nova), nice area - Jamesons is a good chillout bar.

[dumbdag666]

Thanks, for the review, I usually stay at Amari Nova Suites which is just round the corner.

I actually like this location as it is quiet but only 5 mins walk to Soi 6, but I fancied a change from Amari so I think I'll give KTK a try.

[bobdown]

Nice report.What about the lady over the road for the laundry she is great

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

Nice report.What about the lady over the road for the laundry she is great

I always used to use the laundry next to Jamesons, is that the one you mean? Best laundry in Patts IMHO.

[jc77777]

from 12k to 27k plus electricity :/

 

nice review tho..

[dan boy]

I stayed there for a month last year. Rooms and hotel facilities are top class, however, the reception staff were unequivocally the most sour faces miserable tw@ts I have known in Thailand.

[bobdown]

I stayed there for a month last year. Rooms and Hotel facilities are top class, however, the reception staff were unequivocally the most sour faces miserable tw@ts I have known in Thailand.

I have heard that a few times now.When I was there one of the girls rode her bike over to Naklua Post Office to pick up a parcel for me and everyone was very helpful

[GeeMan]

I stayed there for a month last year. Rooms and Hotel facilities are top class, however, the reception staff were unequivocally the most sour faces miserable tw@ts I have known in Thailand.

 

I'd read the same thing in a previous post, and so had been looking out for any 'attitude' from the reception staff. Can't say I had anything but courteous and friendly service the whole time I was there. I think maybe it is a case of you get what you give. I'd always smile and say hello when I passed, and got the same in return.

 

GeeMan

[JayBird]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but had a couple of questions:

 

1) How was the internet?  Speed/Reliability?  Is it something you need to constantly log-into (I have computers that I run 24x7 so that would get annoying)

2) How was the bed? The rock hard ones or the nice soft ones?

3) Any problems with noise at night time (I know.. it's pattaya.. but still).

 

I'm contemplating this for 6-9 months

 

Thank you kindly.

[Parker Lewis]

My best mate stayed there, so i was able to take a look in his royal room, for that price it looked like a good price-performence ratio, the pool looked pretty decent. But the location is a no go in my opinion ( i love to stay close to the action).

 

The view from his room balcony, not too bad, in person it looks better:

 

 

 

[GeeMan]

Haven't visited this thread for some time, so apologies for the late replies

 

Nicely processed review. Thanks for sharing. The hotel looks good and the price is also reasonable. Really the only thing that does not satisfy me is its location off the main baht taxi routes, which can be a little uncomfortable.

 

Thanks for the review! The hotel looks good, but not the location for us who refuse motorbike.

 

I made a mistake (more of an omission) in my report. The free shuttle will take you about the same distance in any direction, including to Pattaya Klang just across from Soi Baukhao, so catching a songthaew to LK or Walking Street is easy. The shuttle will also drop you at second road, so you can pick up the baht bus north if you want Naklua or Drinking Street

 

from 12k to 27k plus electricity :/ nice review tho..

 

The 12k was for their smallest room. The RES at 68m is at the other end of the scale and their largest room

 

Sorry to bump an old thread, but had a couple of questions:

 

1) How was the internet?  Speed/Reliability?  Is it something you need to constantly log-into (I have computers that I run 24x7 so that would get annoying)

2) How was the bed? The rock hard ones or the nice soft ones?

3) Any problems with noise at night time (I know.. it's pattaya.. but still).

 

I'm contemplating this for 6-9 months

 

Thank you kindly.

 

I'm back here again as I type this. In room wireless internet speed as measured with an online Net Speed Tester site shows 5mb/s (Bits, not Bytes) down, and around 800kb/s up. Had an outage this morning, but after reporting to reception they rebooted the router on my floor and all OK again.

 

The bed is great. Not a plank like so many, but firm enough like I like. I find it really comfortable.

 

I sleep with ear plugs pretty much any time I'm not sleeping at home, so no problem for me. But I have noticed when I wake up early that you get the same noises you probably get pretty much everywhere in Pattaya; roosters crowing and construction within 500m.

 

GeeMan