Conrad Koh Samui

Top notch service from picking us up from the airport to leaving. I been to Conrad bora bora and this one tops it! Thank you for the manager and guest services for a fantastic stay! We went here for our anniversary and it was a surprise in the room! I would def recommend my Family and friends here for relaxation or honey moon! Pictures don’t do this place justice.

Staff: The 2 stars are for the guest-facing staff and their efforts, not the hotel itself, which was run down and lackluster. Staff were always visibly working hard. They were courteous. I noticed hospitality staff working across multiple dining venues at the hotel and even the general manager driving a guest on a golf buggy on one occasion. It did seem to me that they were understaffed for such a large 5-star property, during peak season (early January). Given the tourist-inflated living expenses on Koh Samui and housing conditions/availability on the island for locals, I imagine it is hard for hotels to keep long term staff. Staff members on WhatsApp responded quickly with any messages and requests. I made a few small requests for my room and they were fulfilled quickly. There was a maintenance issue the hotel staff noticed when visiting my room with the entry door and they fixed it immediately without requiring prompting. Regardless of their efforts, the hotel felt under resourced. Staff can only do what they can with the support, funding and tools they have. Room Interior and amenities: The rooms are spacious and there was the uninterrupted sea view, but villa’s are starting to get a bit worn out and need refurbishing. See photos. I appreciated that the bathroom had a standard/powerful (non-travel) hairdryer. However, this should be a basic in a 5-star resort. It was nice to have a big bath and TV in the bathroom, but realistically there was nothing to watch on the TV so it looked like an extra luxury when booking, but in actual use it was not of any benefit/use. The bathroom needed a bit of an extra deep clean in areas (eg. hard water build up on shower screen glass; grouting/caulking in shower needed a scrub) I would have liked it if the technology (TV) in the room was upgraded and greater options for channels and streaming options. There isn’t any entertainment options near the resort and minimal in the resort at night so aside from reading a book, a useable TV with a few more international channels, streaming, and better device connectivity, included would be better. I ate from the mini bar during my stay. Unlike other hotels the items weren’t replaced. It seems that you needed to request replenishment of items if consumed during your stay. You would think the hotel would want to make money on pricy mini bar items, but I suspect they are too understaffed to manage daily replenishment and tracking of use. The mini bar food/drink items were inflated as you would reasonably expect in any hotel, but I had to laugh at the sunscreen (1200 baht, which is equivalent to over $56.00 Australian dollars). The villa balconies need more shade options other than the old umbrellas (with a concrete base) that you can’t move when the sun moves (by 12 noon until sunset there was no shade) Resort buildings and grounds: The resort is 14 years-old, and it is showing it. Sadly, I think the way the resort was originally designed didn’t factor into how the site would need to be continuously maintained, with the grounds and buildings deteriorating over time. The current state of the buildings and grounds make this nowhere near a 5 star resort. The resort was also designed with large open concrete drains running down the hillside, and while there were some attempts to superficially hide these from sight, some did smell and were visible. All villas are built on a steep hill/cliff on large concrete pylons (approx. 20 m off the ground). It appears the exterior of the villas haven’t been painted or power washed in a long time with mold build up on the windows and exterior render (obviously an issue in the tropics that needs constant maintenance). Painted timber is peeling with the harsh coastal elements. Due to the steep landscape I can imagine that property maintenance is incredibly difficult and costly, with external building maintenance probably requiring abseiling of the buildings to access the work. As you walk, or ride on a buggy, throughout the resort driveways, there is visible debris, building materials, rubbish, weeds, piles of dead plant matter and tree branches that have been discarded and stored to the sides and under the villas (clearly visible due to their elevated design). Walking down to what they call the ‘upper beach’ I was particularly disappointed by a villa that was in direct view (from the shoreline) and sat behind the open air ‘Chapel’ where I assume people host wedding ceremonies. There was a pile of loose building materials/debris/rubbish under the villa and there had been an unsuccessful/poor attempt to cover it with black shade cloth that had appeared to have been there for some time (ie not a short term fix). This was all in direct view of where a wedding party would stand during a ceremony (less than 30 metres away). On the upper beach (there really isn’t much of a beach/shoreline as such) they pipe the hotel theme music on a continuous loop throughout the day. I don’t know anyone who wants to hear that?! It’s like being stuck on the phone with ‘hold music’. Having stayed at 2 other 5 star resorts in Koh Samui I was saddened to see the massive disparity in the buildings and grounds that looked dirty and poorly maintained compared to the other accommodation. Again, this property is massive and it seemed like it needs Hilton to put in some significant resources to bring it back up to a 5 star. The point of difference, and big selling point, with Conrad Koh Samui is that it is far away from the noise and pollution of places like Chaweng, it should be a natural beauty, and clean looking place to stay, and you’d expect that for the price, but it wasn’t. The aerial drone photos on the website look spectacular, but it isn’t what the resort looks like at ground level/close up. Iris farm: While I commend the resort for the attempt, or at least the idea, of the ‘farm to table’ concept, or perhaps endeavor to use up ‘dead space’ on the property with the farm, it seems they’ve missed the mark or perhaps it just needs some more work to be functional and convincing. Other than some supplementation of eggs provided by the on-site chickens, the farm doesn’t appear on face value to be able to authentically be able to provide fresh produce to the resort dining venues at the scale that would create greater sustainability or true farm-to-table produce. Realistically the type of food, and volume of guests, that the resort serves doesn’t reflect the farm’s produce or capacity. The farm seemed more like a dumping ground for building materials left over from renovations and somewhat random menagerie of animals, some of which seems out of place for the supposed purpose of the farm. A staff member said unprompted during the tour, “this isn’t a hobby farm… this isn’t just for show…”, even though none of the guests had even suggested this might be the case, but perhaps this is often a question/comment they receive. The cynic in me wondered if the farm had some sort of tax or carbon offset benefit to the Hilton. Workshops: During my stay I attended the herbal compress workshop, the coffee roasting and kombucha making workshop. All were quite disappointing and lacked any depth. The content was a basic rehearsed script. This was not the fault of the staff hosting the workshops, but a failing of the resort to staff workshops adequately, train staff and provide them with adequate resources to make the workshop of real value and interest. Despite the best efforts and good hospitality of the staff running the workshops they were again under resourced and rehearsed content was over in 15 minutes (the resort lists them as 30 minutes). Compared to other resorts I visited on the island that offered free and comprehensive workshops and classes, these weren’t worth the time and, like the farm, seemed like a gimmick to mask, or superficially pad out, the fact there is really nothing to do at the resort other than sit by the pool or book external activities. The workshops seem more a marketing idea of executives to make the resort look like if offers something special and ‘add value’ for guests but it does quite the opposite. I had sympathy for staff who had been placed in roles where they hosted the ‘workshops’, requiring them to speak in English and talk about a specific topic, when it appeared they were not confident or had inadequate experience speaking unscripted on specific topics. I do not speak another language, other than English, so I have great respect for anyone who speaks 2 or more languages (even at a basic level). I do not expect people in Thailand to speak English, however if the 5-star hotel is promoting ‘workshops’ as part of their hotel experience as a point of difference, it needs to employee specific staff, or support selected staff with further training to provide such services. You can’t expect people to rote learn a script about something and pass it off as a special experience at a 5-star resort. This is not a reflection of the staff themselves as they tried hard to be good hosts and answer questions as best they could. They were all very polite and smiled their way through questions they couldn’t necessarily answer. Food: The breakfasts were particularly disappointing and it felt like a much lower level hotel experience and more like going to a school canteen. The buffet wasn’t well maintained and appeared dirty/messy. I can confirm the flies (little fruit fly-like insects) that previous guests have posted about on Tripadvisor are still an issue in January 2025. The yoghurt and fruit are inside a fridge that the guests self-serve so these are at least protected from the flies. Other than the eggs, all the western options seemed reliant on highly processed items with sugar as the main flavoring/ingredient, eg. Waffles and pancakes were served with a scant amount of piped cream and 4 berries (you could go to the station and add Nutella and syrup). I am sure berries are expensive in Thailand as they are likely imported, but this makes them more like a decoration and not part of the meal, it would have been better to incorporate local fruits. The yoghurts, were all excessively sugary. They did a pretty good job with pastries compared to most other places in Thailand (crispy despite the humidity). There was a widespread buffet selection of savory Asian options but none of it looked overly fresh or appetizing. The ‘fresh juice’ was pre-poured in glasses in the fridge and tasted more like packaged/store-bought juice. There were young coconuts sitting out for your selection to drink, but this was at room temperature. The ginger tea was nice, which had fresh cut up ginger steeped in a coffee plunger, but going to a 5-star resort and having hot water and sliced ginger being the highlight of the breakfast menu is pretty dismal. If breakfast wasn’t included in my accommodation cost and the hotel wasn’t such a distance from other restaurants I wouldn’t have returned each day for breakfast. If there was an option to not include breakfast in the cost of the accommodation I wouldn’t include it in my stay. Botanikka Cafe: This was a very odd little venue, with minimal offering in the way of food or drink, and was definitely not a “vibrant hub” as described on the Hilton’s website. Zest Restaurant: I tried eating here twice. Zest serves a combination of Thai and Chinese dishes at dinner time. When in doubt in Thailand it’s my belief it’s always best to go with Thai cuisine if you can, because you’d think that would be the most authentic and therefore good quality. On the first visit I ordered “Tao Hoo Thod Sod Markham”, described on the menu as “deep-fried crispy tofu, Thai vegetables and tamarind sauce”. There were zero vegetables, just a pile of tofu with a sticky sickly sweet sauce, with a barely noticeable tang of tamarind. On my next visit I had Gai Satay (chicken satay) and Som Tum O (papaya salad without the prawns), these were good, but only as I would expect from a suburban takeaway in Australia (we have good Thai food in Australia, but I would expect it to be fresher and a higher standard in Thailand in a 5 star resort). Zest seemed quiet for high season (about half the tables had guests) and staff kept apoligising “for the wait” when I didn’t think service was particularly slow at all. The serving staff at Zest for dinner were always polite, friendly and attentive to tables. Azure Restaurant: I went here twice for dinner. I had the “Harissa Chicken Skewers” one night and the “Asparagus and Truffle” pizza on the second. The food was pretty good café-style food, but again needed to be elevated a bit for 5-star resort and accompanying the price tag. The pizza base was cooked beautifully, but the pizza topping needed some seasoning. The only option on the table were salt and pepper (in opaque shakers) and the salt had run out. The staff again at this venue were very friendly and polite and even remembered when I hadn’t booked a table and couldn’t dine one night and came back the next and apologized for the previous night which was totally unnecessary. They also offered a box for leftover food to take back to the room. Being down by the water and pool is nice. It is only a small venue so if you want to eat at a particular time/day make a booking. Will I be returning? No. This was a big disappointing experience. It was a waist of over $5000 (AUD) for a few days in poorly maintained accommodation/grounds and with basic food. I would rather stay in accommodation with fewer stars and spend money on going out to dinner, activities and transport. I had initially thought I would use the spa services at the resort, but my poor impression of the other amenities didn’t motivate me to pay the high prices for potentially further disappointing services.

Conrad Koh Samui offers breathtaking views you never tire of, with each villa's infinity pool providing front-row seats to stunning sunsets. The resort boasts endless water activities, visits to the Iris Farm, as well as other unique experiences. Conrad Koh Samui's daily trips to the Iris Farm offer a unique farm-to-table experience, allowing guests to immerse themselves in the local culture and cuisine. The resort's commitment to sustainability and fresh, organic ingredients shines through in the dining options, enhancing the overall culinary experience. The combination of stunning views, infinity pool sunsets, water activities, and farm-to-table excursions makes Conrad Koh Samui a must-visit destination for those seeking a luxurious and immersive getaway. With exceptional service and Mediterranean flavors at Azure restaurant, guests are sure to enjoy a truly unforgettable stay. Conrad Koh Samui's diverse offerings also make it an appealing destination for families, couples, and groups alike. Families can enjoy the resort's spacious villas, kid-friendly activities, and attentive service catering to all ages. Couples seeking a romantic getaway can indulge in the privacy of their own infinity pool and enjoy sunset views together. Groups can take advantage of the variety of water activities, excursions to the Iris Farm, and shared experiences that promote bonding and relaxation. With something for everyone, from luxurious accommodations to unique culinary experiences, Conrad Koh Samui caters to a wide range of guests, ensuring a memorable and enjoyable stay for all.

We had an amazing stay at the Conrad Samui ! Though the check in was a bit chaotic as the reception was under renovation (13 Sep 2024), strong winds, club cars around us and guests looking lost, but it was quickly sorted out. We love our room with the 5 islands view, the sunset was indeed the best in Samui, the pool is bigger than average and quite swimmable. We love it. We had dinner at Jahn, food was ok but on the expensive side. Breakfast was amazing, the staff were fantastic and great service, everyone is like old friends =) thank you Team Conrad for the amazing stay !

the people make a place and everyone at Conrad Koh Samui made us feel important and well served and more then satisfied. the general manager Marco and his assistant Minnie were super impressive hosting greeting and helping all the staff with all the customers setting all the best hospitality examples. The food variety tastes freshness and quality were the best. The villas are spacious comfortable very high standards and beautiful views especially the sunset shall return