erik_e

Do not arrest me if I'm wrong about the price - but I believe Tim Boutique hotel (near Soi Diana) charges 100 baht/day for using the (great pool) - and that includes one soft drink in the pool bar.

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Villa Market Second Road (the avenue) has them. But expensive, around 30 baht a piece. This must be a good business idea for Thai farmers.

How is the beds? (this has become my number one thing about Thai hotels - many of the otherwise great hotels in PTY have really hard beds that I cannot get a good nights sleep in)

This one has a great overview of the public holidays: http://portalseven.com/calendar/Holidays_Thailand.jsp?year=2012 Not one day in July!! (but I guess there is the election coming on?)

I would also consider Tim's Boutique hotel. A stone throw from Sandy S and much better.

Nice place, but for food - not impressed. Orderede the pizza twice. First time it came out kind of soggy (as in soft, not crisp), the second time - last summer - it came out "not cooked at all". I had to leave it all on my plate, uneatable. "You should have said something to the manger", you may say. Yes, I did so on this forum. But it did not really help. But for cheap drinks and good location this is a great place. For food, not so much.

Any current info/recommendations. I cannot find any of the mentioned dentists at the Bankok Pattaya hospital homepage.

I kind of agree with the main line of thought in this thread. I`m late 30ies, fairly good looking (yea, I have to say so to myself), and been to PTY once a year for the last 5 or so. Always stop by HA once or twice - because they do have very hot girls in there. But I always get the feeling the girls are out of reach, quick onto stage, quick to retire to the back. I understand the concept of getting the girls attention - and in most gogos I have no problem heading to the stage - and look my chosen one into her eyes, smile and make a drink gesture with my hand. She will come over. In Heaven Above, not so. Maybe me thinking "out of reach, these girls do not go with customers". That is the vibe I get. Other than that, nice place, fair drink prices, great layout for watching and so on.

August suites - great pool, but crappy beds (would otherwise be a good choice) Tim Boutique Hotel - my every year fall-back hotel. Great hotel with great roof top pool, nice bar, friendly staff

I sent them an email when in Bangkok, telling them I would book for a week at 1600 baht with breakfast, as that was what a friend told me was the "going rate". They phoned me a couple of hours later telling me I could get it for "1600 if pay every day - or 1500 baht if pay for 7 days." I said I could pay 7 days, but would have to see the room first. On arrival, they did not offer me to see the room, and I was both too tired and hung over to insist. So I put up the cash for 7 days + 2000 baht deposit (for something else). Bad mistake, could not sleep in the rock hard bed. Told them in the morning they had to get me a softer bed or I had to change hotel. Was told to come back later. Later they told me they had removed the plastic cover, should make softer... Not very, still rock hard. At 10.30 PM i walked by the reception, some reception manager asked me if bed was OK. "No, it is still rock hard. I will move out in the morning - and I expect a refund for the remaining days." "We offer you the Executive Suite. I think bed is better there." OK, so I move. Nice, big room. Same bed. At 4 in the morning - I moved tired to the sofa and finally got some sleep. After breakfast the next day, I brought my bag down to check out. Had made a booking at Tim Boutique. "Sorry, we can only refund the 2000 baht deposit." "Of course you will refund the 2000 baht deposit, that is my money!" Then I started on a lengthy history on buying a gold necklace that turned out to be gold plate. Would he return it and expect a refund? When he was offered another that "surely was gold", but also turned out to be gold plate, would he then expect to get the money back? He just looked tired at me. No go. So I asked to talk to the manager. "She not in." "Get her on the phone." "She in meeting in another part of Pattaya." "When is she back?" "At one o clock." "OK, I will be at the pool, come get me when she is back." At 12, he came up to the pool and said: "You pay 1600 for the standard room and 2500 for the suite, we refund the rest." Part of me wanting to tell him that the suite was offered me as a attempt to fix a problem - but the sane me just nodded OK. This would have been a fantastic hotel - had they had some sleepable beds. I understand some like it rock hard, but I suspect most do not.

I moved from August Suites to Tim because of the hard beds in August. Had heard about the construction, so I passed by to have a look. Lot of work, but construction, not destruction, so no jack hammers. I asked for a room on "the other side" and do not hear a thing from my room. I can sometime hear them from a distance when at pool, but its no annoyance. But it is one of those very unprotected construction sites, so I keep looking up the every time I pass the site, thinking something heavy is going to hit me in the head any moment. Tim (the old woman) told me Friday that the hotel is full for the next week. She could not been entirely truthful, because I extended my stay on Agoda, no problem. But the board in the reception is filled with new Japanese names every day.

I stay Tim's Boutique hotel now. Comfy bed. I talked to a hotel manager in Bangkok about this, he runs a small hotel with great beds. He said they had a choice between the 2K baht "rock" bed and the 7k baht bed. They chose the "expensive" one, and that was proven to be a wise business decision . My guess - many hotels are built by Thais (that are used to and like hard beds) or people that save money on the wrong stuff. Buying a 20K baht LCD TV and a 2K baht bed is not the right call.

Yes, most are on the firm side of the scale, some on the rock side. I have stayed in about 20 hotels in Thailand - so far 3 hotels are on my black list for having a rock bed: Darjelin (bangkok) Baipho (Phuket) - I suspect this may be because their studio suites is built on - cement August Suites - pattaya I now stay in Tims Boutique Hotel. Firm bed, yes. But with spring action. Comfy for me.

I stay there now. It ticks all the right boxes but one for me: A very hard bed. I cannot sleep in it. Tonight I had to move to the sofa at 4 in the morning to get some sleep. So I'm moving out today. Other than that it is great, maybe best pool in town.