Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort

We had an amazing stay here, beautiful quiet beach. Great singing Bird Lounge and treetop dining experience ( our staff art and Emma) were superb. All the staff and the experience from the moment you walk in till you check out makes you feel so pampered

Just about 5 starts but a really lovely trip overall. Excellent location at its own little stretch of beach. Beautiful and serene lobby area, lovely foliage throughout the extensive property. The main infinity pool is excellent and a lovely place to hang out. As are the beach restaurants and bars, which have a calm vibe overall. A decent number of families, which makes things nice and lively. Breakfast superb. Service really great. Gym excellent. Small deductions for our dark room (not sure why they were to stingy with windows) and because the sea was “closed” 3 out of our 5 days because a jellyfish sighting.

We stayed at Anantara Lawana in 2024 and can't help but continue to be extremely disappointed in our stay. I am writing this review so that others can be informed, expectations can be managed and perhaps the right questions can be asked before you proceed with your own reservation. At the time of our stay I would describe the hotel as being poorly managed and maintained - barely operating and strung together by a thread. I did note it closed soon after our stay for repairs, so on reflection, the hotel was perhaps tapering off pre-closure, all the while, taking full rate from paying customers and ignoring guests when they raised concerns. The bad: 1. My husband received an electric shock from the bain-marie at breakfast. When he advised staff, the staff member got the same shock. Appallingly, rather than replace the affected appliance, they put a rubber matt under it and there it remained for the rest of our stay. 2. The shared breakfast utensils were dirty and barely cleaned. 2. The hotel pool was green for the first 2-3 days of our stay. Guest were swimming in it and staff appeared unconcerned until we mentioned it. The hotel finally got an engineer in to review and test it but only after we pushed and pushed was a broken filter found to be the cause and later fixed. I never got to swim in the pool. 2. There were no pool towels available, just a pile of dirty threadbare, frayed and stained towels. 3. There was no cold water by the pool. 4. Pool chairs were frayed and broken. 5. Kayaks were filthy dirty, and moldy. The paddles were broken. 6. Only 2 bath towels are provided per room. 7. One day the hotel "ran out" of bath towels and pool towels all together. 8. Housekeeping was late if not at all. We had to call at 5pm to follow them up. They didn't replenish the bottled water and left wet towels on the floor. 9. One day the beds were partially made and the decorative cushions were left on the floor. 10. No matches provided for in insect coils. 11. The gardens were dry lifeless and poorly maintained - not what you would expect from a tropical resort. There was brown dead grass everywhere. 12. Broken furniture in the breakfast area. 13. The beach isn't great and at low tide even worse. There is not much around in the way of restaurants and shops. Good: Staff member Khai was excellent and tried very hard in difficult conditions. I hope that with the refresh and a new approach to management, the hotel is back on track. The resort we experienced fell well short of other experiences of hotels a similar price and certainly fell well short of other properties in the Virtuoso group. Note: Requests to speak with the manager were denied. The hotel did provide us basic compensation after the electric shock but fell way short of what we deemed acceptable.