We are a family of 3 and are looking to spend 9 nights in Koh Samui next August. Having looked at various websites and brochures we are very confused. Our daughter will be 14 and therefore are looking at a family orientated hotel. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding an appropriate hotel for us?

I stayed at the Chaweng Regent Resort with my kids , both in their early 20's at the time and we loved it!

Thanks Tere - come on, there must be some others of you who have stayed in Koh Samui too - we are looking for a 4 star plus hotel that is not in the very centre of Chaweng, but all the same not in the middle of no where.

It's holiday weekend, I am sure more will come next week. I would decide which beach you want first, personaly I prefer out of Chaweng, Bophut is nice, Peace Resort value and relaxed though not 4 star, I will come back with more but our Internet from SE Asia is not good at the moment because of the Taiwan earthquake caused cable problems so just at the moment can't spend too much time waiting for the connection to .......ah!

Coral Bay Resort is very Thai-like but maybe a little quiet for your daughter
http://www.coralbay.net/aboutus.htm

Then as a previous poster has mentioned Chaweng Regency is a nice hotel though a little too big for us
http://www.chawengregent.com/index.html

Then my No1 recomendation is Blue Lagoon which shares the same website as BeachComber but I have no personal or secondhand accounts of the Beachcomer. The other three are all good hotels.
http://www.bluelagoonhotel.com/

Feel free to e'mail if you wish. We have loads of Thailand info and experience. By the way we are just a hobby club. We don't sell anything.

Try Smile House in Bophut - just a few yards away from Fisherman Village - they have bungalows with 1,2 or 3 bedrooms, 2 pools, lovely gardens and just across a small road to the beach.
The young people staying there were enjoying learning thai dancing. I think they arrange other activities too.

Having spent 5 nights in Koh Samui in May of this year and 3 nights in 2--1 I think 9 nights is too long there unless you are spending some time, maybe a week in 1-2 other places in Thailand. While there are a number of nice hotels mentioned above, we did not enjoy Sala Samui because entire bathroom including toilet were open to the 90 degree heat in daytime and 80+ some humidity at night and the pool villa we had looked lovely but it was too hot to enjoy.
The snorkeling, if you enjoy that activity is not very good around Koh Samui but if you take the small power boat that takes 12 guests on a day trip, not the Big Boat, to Koh Tao you will find excellent snorkeling. We thought it was as good or better than the Phi Phi Islands. While there are many, many restaurants we only found 2-3 that were very good.The shopping districts are tourist shops primarily and after you have seen 7-8 you have seen them all.
In our opinion, it would be enjoyable for 4 full days/5 nights.