Belmond Napasai

Excellent location, possibly on the best of the ocean the island on Koh Samui. Very difficult to fault the property in terms of hardware. Rooms are excellent and the ocean-front front terrace is superb.

I have stayed in four Belmond Hotels. This one is the worst. I think the general manager has simply given up when it comes to managing this hotel. This experience has made me re-evaluate going to any other Belmond hotels/products. Admittedly, we had a great bargain to go to this hotel but I wouldn't pay any more than what we had paid and even with that, I would not go back again. Its a 5-star hotel setting with a 3-star management and service. This is why: 1. On arrival, no greeting by any management, not even a duty manager or a reception manager. Just any girl who worked at the hotel. 2. My entire 4 nights -5 days stay there, I had not seen the GM walking the ground even once. I know it is a man but I do not know what he looks like. The staff told me he lives on the property but he is simply invisible. 3. There seems to be no manager or any kind working there at all. The staff seems to work completely unsupervised. There are two french women working there but they do not appear to be of hotel/hospitality background. Just administration walking around the hotel, sometimes chatting to customers. They dress just like any other staff and I have never seen them supervising any staff. Most likely installed after LVMH took over the Belmond hotel chain to give is a bit of a french presence and french speaker but their presence does not add to the level of service of the hotel. 4. The breakfast staff congregating at the entrance of the breakfast room generally talking to each other and have no eyes on the customers. Too much chatting and one has to get their attention with effort. One trainee was excellent but I fear she will soon be like the rest. Again, I put it down to absolutely no supervision. Staff was let to do whatever and whenever. 5. Same applies to beach boys on the beach. Mostly standing under their station away from the sun and comes around to fill your glass with water once every 2-3 hours. I have run out of words allowed...

Quality of food is so so, service at the restaurants was poor (inattentive and very slow though polite - especially at the beach restaurant). The decor is extremely artificial, over done - it didn’t feel natural at all even at the beach. I didn’t like the style.