A Review of LK Metropole and LK Renaissance

[rob44]

It was quite the challenge to decide where to stay in Pattaya and I just looked tons of reviews of hotels and none seemed to be like perfect, all had some downsides. So finally just tried to choose between LK Metropole and LK Renaissance and as I was staying only night in Pattaya at first so decided to do LK Metropole for that night and see if I like it and want to come back after my Bangkok trip. As the experience with it wasn't exactly perfect I switched to LK Renaissance when I came back and stayed three weeks there. I don't know if I was unlucky or what but I just seemed to have all kinds of weird problems with both of these hotels. As these seem to be quite popular hotels I just wanted to share my experiences with them.

 

LK Metropole:

 

Stayed only night here, I chose the superior room, reserved and paid for it online so the check-in was quite smooth. The room was quite big, 56 sqm, it had a nice full kitchen too. It did show some wear and tear but nothing that bad and in general it was pretty nice. I like these big rooms which don't have the bedroom seperated where the walls would just take extra space. The bathroom was a bit of a disappointment though, it was quite small and there was no seperate shower, you had to shower in the tub. And when you did shower there, the water just got everywhere on the floor and it was quite annoying. But atleast the water was actually hot as that seemed to be the problem with LK Renaissance. The room also had a smallish balcony, which is nice, but the view wasn't. Basically there was a just another building right there so it wasn't really inviting to sit there. I guess some of the rooms might have pool view, don't know.

 

So not much wrong with the room itself and I just thought I would stay there when I get back. As this was my first day there I just ordered some room service, turns out that their restaurant is closed and they ordered it from somewhere else. Anyway it was delivered pretty quickly and the steak was really good but then some of the problems started when I put the plate in to the sink and it still had some leftover bits there. I just go relax to the couch for some time and when at some point I get back, I notice there's something moving all over the kitchen. There's just a lot of different size cockroaches crawling there on the sink, on the kitched table and some on the floor too. Somehow they managed to come from some weird cracks on the sink there. This was like right before I had my evening dates coming so I just started crushing them like crazy. It did take some time but managed to get rid of almost all of them. Washed the plate so there wouldn't be any more coming. So don't know if this was a problem with just my room or is it a general problem there. But really did change my mind about staying longer there. Also there was some problems with the toilet, at some point when I flushed it, it got somehow stuck and it just sounded that the water was filling there all the time and it got quite annoying when trying to sleep.

 

As for the facilities, there was a nice pool there and also a gym. And the location of the hotel was really good in my opinion, right there in the LK Metro area. The superior room was quite pricey, this was in March and it was like 2800 baht for the night, but it would have been a lot cheaper when staying longer and also the low season rate would have started in April. So don't know if I would recommend this one but still I've read some good reviews about the place so I guess I was just unlucky with these things.

 

LK Renaissance:

 

So got back to Pattaya and decided to try LK Renaissance this time. I didn't make a reservation as this was in April and thought there would be room. It turns out they were almost fully booked during Songkran atleast and they gave me the room for only a few days and they would check after that if I can stay longer. Still the check-in was quite smooth. I chose the studio room and it was quite surprisingly big actually, 40 sqm. In general it looked quite nice, there was a nice couch there and a smallish dining table with chairs but this one showed some wear and tear too. There was a balcony and this room was in the back of the hotel so got the sort of forest view there as there's this green area there before the next Soi. The bathroom was sort of nice, quite small but this one also didn't have a seperate shower and there wasn't even a shower curtain there or anything so of course the floor would be wet every time. But there is a jacuzzi though! It seems the deluxe room is the first one there to have a seperate shower. After the first few days I extended my stay and managed to negotiate a nice rate of 1600 baht per night for my whole stay.

 

Then to the negative points, the most annoying thing was that there simply wasn't actually hot water, at best it was like lukewarm, pretty much border line for a nice shower. And the worst thing was that one night there was no hot water at all and the repair guy just says that they can't fix it then and need to do something in my room the next day to actually fix it. Well the next morning it works just fine without them doing anything in the room. So that was quite annoying to take a couple of cold showers that night. Then some more problems, the first room I had, had this sort of death smell in the bathroom, I complained about it and the cleaning lady said she fixed it but when I get back to the room later it was even worse. And the smell really was just awful, almost made me throw up in there. At first I thought it came from the drains but it turns out it comes from the toilet seat itself somehow. Well complained again and they just agreed to find me a new room which was nice. So this was room number two, bathroom was ok so no problem this time.

 

Then one day the fuse box sort of exploded, you couldn't get it to work anymore and there was no power in the room. So they send a couple of repair guys up, they just try to fix it for a long time but no can do. So they just offer me another room again. I get all my stuff to the new room and then they call from the reception that they had made a mistake and that I could stay only two days in this room as "someone else had requested this room later". So feeling pretty pissed off at this point and I just go down to talk to them. So I just tell them about all the other problems too and ask what they are willing to do for me. They didn't want to give me any discounts for my stay but finally after some arguing they decide to give a free upgrade to the one bedroom suite. But of course they add that they can give it only for two days, I had like five days left at this point, so yeah great. Well again had to move all my stuff to the suite. Well the one bedroom suite was really nice, lots of space there and two balconies facing Soi Diana. It did get a bit noisy during night time though. And finally there was a seperate shower too, but the same problem with the water, it was only lukewarm.

 

So after the two days in the suite I had to move yet again, back to a different studio room. At first it didn't seem to have anything wrong with it, but later just found out that the air conditioning makes this quite horrible noise quite randomly, so it really didn't make sleeping easy there. As these were my final days there, I just thought there's really no point to complain yet again. So not the best of experiences with this hotel and definitely not going to stay there again, especially because the problem with the lukewarm water was there in all of the rooms I stayed in and for the whole three weeks I stayed there.

 

LK Renaissance has a nice little pool on the third floor and you can also use the gym at the LK Metropole. As for the location, it's really close to the LK Metropole so again quite perfect atleast for me.

 

Pics from the website of the LK Metropole room:

 

 

 

 

 

Pics from the website of the LK Renaissance room:

 

 

 

 

[Thaihot]

Good stuff I have always enjoyed the LK Ren Deluxe room in low season.

 

To expensive for me in high season.

 

 

[jimmyjam]

Welcome to Thailand............I have less problems in my 8000 baht a month hotel....geez

[kansuwan]

Good and accurate reviews by OP.

 

I've stayed at the Metropole four or five times a year. Excellent location and the rooms are well set-up and furnished, fast and free wifi, no joiner fee for single visitors and so on. Reasonable price via Agoda.

 

But ... all of the bathrooms have seen better days and the plumbing is in dire need of serious attention. Repaired the non-flushing w.c. myself, but the water supply to the bath was no more than a dribble from the taps: the only way to fill a bath was via the shower hose, the bracket of which fell out of the wall during my stay last month.

 

Time to try somewhere else next month.

[stanger69]

Have stayed at both. The Metro was okay but enjoy the Rennaisance more and am returning there.

The alledged bug problem at The Metro turns me off.

[rob44]

Good and accurate reviews by OP.

 

I've stayed at the Metropole four or five times a year. Excellent location and the rooms are well set-up and furnished, fast and free wifi, no joiner fee for single visitors and so on. Reasonable price via Agoda.

 

But ... all of the bathrooms have seen better days and the plumbing is in dire need of serious attention. Repaired the non-flushing w.c. myself, but the water supply to the bath was no more than a dribble from the taps: the only way to fill a bath was via the shower hose, the bracket of which fell out of the wall during my stay last month.

 

Time to try somewhere else next month.

 

Forgot to mention about the joiner fees, LK Metropole had a 500 baht fee for the other girl, LK Renaissance didn't have any. And as for the internet, as I stayed only one night in LK Metropole didn't use it that much but the wifi there seemed quite slow, it was free though.

 

The wifi at the LK Renaissance seemed quite bad too, at one of the rooms it simply didn't work at all. So at some point I just switched to the network cable and used the hard line there, atleast that worked pretty good. But in general the speeds aren't that great, maybe just a problem in Pattaya? All of my Bangkok hotels have had much better internet.

[gazman]

Good reviews.

 

I haven't stayed at the Metropole but did stay at the Renaissance is April & had the same problem with no hot water.

[feelus]

Hi there,

 

Thanks for your review. I think the standard of these 2 hotels has dropped over the years. In any case, does anyone have the direct e-mail address to make a reservation? I've tried the 2 listed on the website but have not had a response for like a week despite following up every other day

 

Thanks

[reje7]

Hi there,

 

Thanks for your review. I think the standard of these 2 hotels has dropped over the years. In any case, does anyone have the direct e-mail address to make a reservation? I've tried the 2 listed on the website but have not had a response for like a week despite following up every other day

 

Thanks

 

 

Hi feelus

 

This one works for me - normal respons time within 24 hours depending on what time send.

 

I actually recieved mail from this one today

 

[email protected]

 

.

[benny31]

Thanks for your review.

[sandmen]

Stayed at LK Renaissance last May. That was the time the red shirt protests were on and both the hotel and Pattaya was mostly empty.

 

The hotel is neat and has a good breakfast but service is poor. I had a ton of problems with wifi. It didn't work on my phone at all. On my laptop it kept going off very often.

 

Had no problems with bringing girls in. There is a 7-11 right opposite. So whenever I needed new condoms, I could just hop across and refil ;)

[Chatso]

On the surface the rooms look quite nice

 

Maybe you should've collected the cockroaches and give em to your Thai girl as a nice snack?

[rob44]

On the surface the rooms look quite nice

 

Maybe you should've collected the cockroaches and give em to your Thai girl as a nice snack?

 

The rooms do look quite nice, almost like in the website pictures but just show some age.

 

And damn, really should have thought of that at the time :(. There were some cockroaches and then some smaller bugs too, really don't know what they were but definitely looking quite nasty.

 

And thank you all for the comments!

[Starshon]

Sounds like all the LK hotels have the same issues. Stayed at the LK Royal Suites in March, the general standard is good but the bathroom was a let down

[Tuwaiq]

I was in the LK Metropole (same superior) in June/July and thankfully had no issues with the bugs but the room was definately looking tired and shabby in places. The only way to stop water from the shower head spraying over the floor was to hold it with one hand while fumbling around with the soap with the other. TBH for the money (paid 2200 a night) probably wont stay again.

[Daveo]

For 100 baht all day you can use Metrapole pool, gym, steam room, showers etc, they even loan you a towel., sometimes you can even sneak a free coffee.

[rob44]

Sounds like all the LK hotels have the same issues. Stayed at the LK Royal Suites in March, the general standard is good but the bathroom was a let down

 

Did you stay at the standard room or the one bedroom suite? I heard there's a huge difference there since the standard rooms are located at another building.

[kansuwan]

Did you stay at the standard room or the one bedroom suite? I heard there's a huge difference there since the standard rooms are located at another building.

 

I've stayed in both - same plumbing problem.

[Starshon]

Did you stay at the standard room or the one bedroom suite? I heard there's a huge difference there since the standard rooms are located at another building.

 

I stayed in the One Bedroom Suite. It was a really nice room but the bathroom was tired and everything was on it's last legs.

[rob44]

I've stayed in both - same plumbing problem.

 

 

I stayed in the One Bedroom Suite. It was a really nice room but the bathroom was tired and everything was on it's last legs.

 

Thanks for the answers. This just makes it so much harder to choose my next hotel since I was kind of set on trying LK Royal Suite next.

[Starshon]

Thanks for the answers. This just makes it so much harder to choose my next hotel since I was kind of set on trying LK Royal Suite next.

 

I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker, I would stay in the Royal Suites again considering how much you get for the price in the One Bedroom Suite. The girls love it.

[rob44]

I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker, I would stay in the Royal Suites again considering how much you get for the price in the One Bedroom Suite. The girls love it.

 

Yeah, all hotels seem to have their downsides and it really looks great, especially when I saw their Garden Suite is almost the same price as the one bedroom suite when staying longer.

[scotty9]

Go for the LK Royal Suite , had much less problems seems than the ither two !

[basli fawlty]

I always stayed at the Renaissance. Liked the spacious room (deluxe-room), the pool and for sure the location in the middle of the action. Not liked the airco and the hot water, both are difficult to adjust. For me no problem, but for my teerak it's always too cold or too hot, and some time I want to go sleep instead of making her hot. Hmmm, is this me talking ?

 

The breakfast at the Renaissance is drama, but only manage to be there before closing time two or three times and enough possibilities for eating in Soi Diana or at the corner, so also no problem. Big plus is they watch my teeraks motorbike when we are out of Pattaya for some day's.

 

I sure will come back there again, but think go next time for something little bit cheaper and keep some money for the more important things. I think next time I will try Flipper House on Soi 7, someone will recommend this ?

[On Borrowed Time]

Recommend LK Metropole. Got a One Bedroom room (double normal room) for 3 nights for 7700 baht. Included Breakfast was awesome with everything from Grilled Salmon Steak, to burgers, to Pad Thai... Good location, Awesome Gym. Was ready to fight with them about Teerak having to give ID card, but was never questioned once