Overall it was a lovely hotel and location, the staff were very nice but just let down by a lack of on-site management and experience. Let’s start with the positives, the hotel and location, both are stunning and there’s obviously been a lot of investment in bringing it all together. I stayed with my two sons in one of the floating rooms on the river and they were well kitted out and luxurious, and the views up and down the river with the tropical forest background are idyllic. The breakfast area and reception were nice too, and the garden and grounds impeccable. So, why the missing star? Well, as nice and sweet as the reception was there was a large amount of inexperience and language barrier - thank goodness for Translation apps! There were 3 of us, when I booked it recommended that I contact them and ask to make sure there were enough beds, I reserved the hotel in January and messaged them immediately, nothing. I messaged again at the beginning of August, nothing response. When we arrived there was no acknowledgement that I’d booked for 3 (even though I had) and we had about an hour wait in reception whilst we went through this palaver and it concluded that I had to pay an additional 900b per night for the privilege of adding bedding to a mattress that was already present on the mezzanine floor of the room. The next slightly weird thing was that dinner can only be ordered to the room via an online app (again thank goodness was for Translator for this information as otherwise we’d been completely lost, and hungry). To be fair, when the food arrived (in Tupperware and Esky) it was very nice, but we had to eat it in the room, by bringing in the outside table and two chairs as it was pitch black and full of insects out there. Again, not a bad situation, just quirky. The breakfast was fine, it was a fixed menu on the first day and a much better buffet on the next. My final gripe was that checkout was a little painful too, again mainly due to the inexperience and language issues - but we got there in the end. We got here by taxi from Bridge over River Kwai and we saw the Death Railway and cave on the way, which was well worth going to. The highlight was going to the Elephant Haven where (on the pm session) you feed and get in the river with these amazing mammals to wash them (1000b taxi return and 1500b each for the experience), and we also dropped into a local waterfall that’s well signposted and worth a look. I’ve added a few photos. Overall it was a nice experience, slightly marred by needing more experience in reception, but I’m sure they’ll get there. Tops for the hotel - more multi-language material to help non-local guests, hotter water for the shower and balcony bath, and some music in the breakfast area as it was a bit sterile in there. It’s fairly obvious that the first reviews on here are ‘professional’ ones and the one before mine was on a similar mindset. Hopefully with more reviews it’ll earn its 5*s again. Would I recommend, y
