Hello! We are considering staying at the Le Meridan Khao Lak in February and while I would love to stay in the pool villa they are a bit on the high side for us ($375 before taxes a night) so I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what the difference is for the 2 room types I am seeing - the deluxe room and then the deluxe pool room (which is only +$15 each night than the reg deluxe room)

What is the main difference between these 2 room types? Is it just that the pool room type has a view of the pool? Is it work the additional $15 a night?

(I would love to have the pool villa so does anyone also have any tips on finding cheaper rates for it than the $375 I am seeing on Travelocity?)

Can anyone advise?

Any help would be appreciated!

Thank you,

Anne

One follow up - I am seeing an ocean suite for $250. What is the ocean suite? Thanks, Anne

My experience with Travelocity is that their rates aren't that good for Asian destinations. Take a look at www.sawasdee.com and note that the rates on that site typically include taxes and service charge (a total of 17.7%), and often breakfast. You might also try Le Meridien's own website for any specials.

Your in luck I have just returned from Le Meridien Khoa Lak. I posted a trip report. If you want to read then just to a forum search with the words Khao Lak and it should bring it up. We were away for a month or thereabouts. 13 nights were at the Meridien so we had a pretty good chance of looking around. We did not feel a pool room was an upgrade for the standard deluxe room. No it would be personal preference. The main difference is the pool rooms are on the ground floor and lead out into a garden area and then maybe a 10-20 metre walk to the pool. Having said this there is not much of a view of the pool from the room because the area is shrouded in garden to try to make your little patio area private. We thought it made the rooms very dark and preferred the balcony views free of the plants overlooking the pool area. Much better for people watching. It was also better for staying clear of those mossies which are more attracted to plants. I think the rooms may have been slightly bigger but marginally so not enough to make a difference anyway and they had a DVD player. Now we had what they called an ocean view deluxe room (not advertised as such). it was the standard room no extra money but was in a building face on to the sea which you could see in the distance over the trees and pool area. The other deluxe rooms face into each other with views of the pool area. The ocean suites you refer to were at the front of the deluxe buildings which are in two U shapes meeting in the middle. They are at the end of the U shapes in the middle closest to the sea and face straight out to the ocean but again are set back a bit from the sea so you would be overlooking the pools etc to the ocean but closer than the room we had. I thought the lagoon villas looked lovely as did the pool villas. They are the same as the ocean front villas obviously minus the sea front location and pool (except for straight pool villas). Now the deluxe room was fine however we had noise issues as there are two wings the spa and family. As the spa wing was being painted we were put in the family wing which has adjoining doors between rooms obviously for families. No good for couples as you could clearly hear next door conversations, TV etc. This required a move which the hotel accomodated. We did have the pleasure of making friends with a couple staying in the ocean villas yes they are stunning but unless you want to spend alot of time hanging out in your room and own pool then not worth the extra cost. Most of the time this couple hung out with us in the main pool and just retired back to their room for the afternoons. It did have those bells and whistles though. Well I hope I have not confused you. If you like I will email you some pictures of the views from our balcony which would give you a better idea of what I am talking about. Unfortunately we have stayed at other Le Meridiens and their hotel rooms interior wise are very similar so we did not inside photos.

Sorry found this on another website which may help you with your booking costs. I have just cut and pasted it

I've booked everything on-line separately.
We are going from 17th March 2007 for 21 nights at Le Meridien, Khao Lak, then 4 nights Bangkok Marriott Resort & Spa, returning Manchester 12th April.
* Flights MAN/BKK/MAN through Kelkoo - best price with Qatar Airways on Last Minute.com
* Flights BKK/Phuket - booking with Nok Air when flights become available in Jan/Feb 2007
* Hire Car for 21 days from and to Phuket Airport through Airport Car Rent
* Le Meridien Khao Lak through My Khao Lak Travel on German website www.mykhaolak.de (This company has best rates by far I could find and are involved in the regeneration of Khao Lak and book directly with local hotels so more money goes into local economy)
* Bangkok Marriott through Airline Network
If you want details of costs (or other info) Email me on "[email protected]" (without " &quot for comparison purposes and I'll be only too pleased to help.

Thank you both for your replies! This is really helpful!

I had checked sawadee but Le Meridan is not listed there for some reason? Maybe Le Meridan does not allow them to offer rooms through them? I tried:
http://www.phuket.sawadee.com/khaolak/hotels/index.html

I had checked Le Meridan's website (http://www.starwoodhotels.com) and they are listing the deluxe rooms at $150 and the deluxe rooms (balcony) at $165 and the pool villa at $375. Travelocity is listing the deluxe rooms at $130 and the deluxe pool rooms at $145 and the pool villa at $375. (note these prices for both sites are pre-taxes)

I checked with http://www.asiarooms.com and they are showing $130 for the deluxe rooms and $155 for the deluxe pool rooms and $478 for the pool villa.

I will have to check out www.mykhaolak.de

Thank you for the recommendation!

maisymoo: Thank you for the in depth overview of the rooms - this was GREAT! Thank you so much - I am going to share with my husband. I am wondering on what the difference really is for the ocean suites versus the deluxe rooms. (maybe just an additional sitting area?) It sounds like the deluxe rooms are probably the best bet for a couple then. (it will just be my husband and I)

I would love to see any pictures so yes please send them! My email address is [email protected]

In regards to flights, it is a bit complicated b/c my husband and I are visiting relatives in Kolkata/Calcutta first (we live in California) and then going to Phuket afterwards. My husband (clever guy) was able to use his United freq flyer miles to get us round trip tickets to Phuket with a 2 week stop over in Bangkok. So the freq flyer tickets cover everything except our flights from Bangkok to Kolkata and Kolkata back to Bangkok. (The only con to that is that the only flights to and from the US and Bangkok that fit our schedule are United flights rather than Thai flights. (Bummer as I prefer Thai over United - unless United has upgraded their transpacific flights to match Thai/Singapore's economy seats with their comfort factor and entertainment options. But that is a seperate post I need to submit! LOL! )

Thank you both again! This is really great info. -- Anne

Anne the post above has Alan Hunters email. He will not be bothered if you email him direct re the Le Meridien he loves this place. He stayed last year in a pool view room and has some great pics of the room.

Hi Anne,I'm Alan the Le Meridien fan Marie referred to.
We stayed in a Deluxe pool room last April, paying a little extra for it. It had the attributes Marie explained but also the slight downsides. We thought it would be direct pool access instead of via the (beautiful) foliage. We took the opportunity whilst there to have a look at a top (3rd) floor "ordinary" Deluxe room - far from ordinary in terms of furnishing! - and liked what we saw. So much so, we have rebooked for next March but will be requesting a top floor Ocean View Deluxe room where we can enjoy watching the gorgeous sunsets over a leisurely beer or cocktail not pestered by the evening mossie attack.
The Ocean Suites are located as Marie described, are much larger having a bigger and more expansively furnished lounge area and lovely big balconies. Worth the extra? Not convinced. Similarly the lagoon villas, pool villa and ocean front pool villas. Wonderful if you want to spend most of your time in them. If not the Deluxe rooms are tremendous value for money. Beautifully furnished and equipped and if you really need a DVD player the hotel will provide you with one.
For pictures of the Le Meridien have a look at our web album on http://photos.orange.co.uk/album/3635279
We have booked through www.mykhaolak.de a German site but if you go to the Resorts link from the Home Page, then Le Meridien and send an Email from there in English you will get a reply in English. The rates are shown there (better than AsiaRooms.com who we booked through last year) but they are in Euros and per person per night, not per room per night which your probably use to.
Any more questions, please don't hesitate to Email me from address in earlier post that Marie made.
Good luck
Alan