Samloem Laguna Resort

The resort is difficult to go very bad and scary in the forest no beach to play and swimming. The owner is not welcome not safe . They have a lot of big scary dogs and make them bite you . Good choice don't go there. The picture is good but reality haha. Beware of regret later!

ATTENTION DONT GO!

Do not go to this accommodation because the bed has bed bugs and the mattress has many stains and also traces of bed bug droppings. When we presented this to the manager the day after, he wanted to see proof because he did not believe the video we had made (unfortunately I can only post a screenshot on booking). The manager himself is one of the unfriendliest people I have ever seen. On the day of arrival my girlfriend wanted to have a chat about the horses they have. He just kept looking at his computer screen while she was talking and a few words came out. We wanted to leave as quickly as possible after the first night and actually get our money back since we did not want to stay there another day. We had to pay for the first night, which I was okay with (even with the bugs in bed), but he actually wanted us to pay for the other nights as well. After it was very difficult to cooperate with him, we only had to pay a booking fee of 20%. That was still 6 dollars, incomprehensible how an owner can make a problem for such a small amount of money. So all the bad reviews you read about this stay are true!

Ugh, what a place! It could have been a very cozy and close to nature experience, but unfortunately...
Don't trust all the old information about this facility.

The houses with a "seaview" (2-3 out of 9) are close to unbearably hot - even with full fan and maximum open windows. We are completely exhausted after trying to sleep here. Should have stayed seven nights but endured five.

It is difficult to sit outside and enjoy the forest and nature (and to rest inside during the day) because large parts of the days there is forest cutting (with clearing saw) and other work that causes noise. (After all, they could have given the customers notice in advance and also inform when and how long the works would last.)

However, the entire "resort" lacks a guest perspective and the staff seem to have very limited work areas and no one seems to have overall responsibility. They are nice and friendly, but... If you tell them about problems with the wifi or hot water or whatever, you usually hear a "probable" reason for the error, but don't get any information that they should take care of it - and you definitely don't get any feedback. Communication within the facility is catastrophically bad!
For example, we were without wifi for two days - and of course such things can happen - but we received no information or prognosis, despite asking several times. The answers was simply that "-There is some technical error, but unfortunately I have not received any further information". And we never had any hot water, not even 13:00-15:00 when "the water is at its warmest".

The small beach lacks sunbeds* and - like most of the facility - has been left without maintenance. It was probably nice here 15 years ago.
(*The sunbeds are piled up near the restaurant, approx. 120 m from the beach. Guests who is able to, carry them down to the beach - otherwise you will have to do without!)

The breakfasts are good but close to organizational disasters. Every morning we have had to wait, often quite a long time, for plates, forks, napkins, fruit and/or coffee. The two on the serving side have no foresight at all, lack the ability to prioritize and also have too much to do. Two of the days there were three staff and then it worked a little better.
Unfortunately, there is no fly net over the fruit, so you have to hurry if you want fresh fruit. As I said, the breakfast is good, but forget all the old pictures of buffets, juice glasses, etc. 😉

The resort is very remote and you have to walk a long way or take a taxi boat if you want to get anywhere else. A bit of the business idea seems to be to keep guests within the area to maximize their income on beer, drinks and food*. It might have been appropriate if Laguna Resort had been a more generous place, for example with the loan of kayaks, an old rowing boat, SUPs, snorkelling equipment, sunbeds and bicycles or something like that - as well as some hiking tips/maps with paths or viewpoints - or at least a sketch of the facility (so that you don't have to turn around on all the paths where it says "Only staff").

*) They are very quick to put things on the room bill. When we checked in at the resort, sweaty after walking for about an hour due to a misunderstanding between them and us, they showed us to the villa and asked if we wanted something to drink. We agreed to a bottle of water. It later turned out that they set up $2 for that bottle! Totally amazing!
And if you book the boat tickets through them, they "offer" a boat transfer (2.5 USD/person) from the pier to the resort. It sounds good, but despite their "collaboration with the shipping company" they charge 15 USD/person for tickets that cost 13 USD if you buy them yourself = they offer transfers for 0.5 USD/person.

We think that Laguna Resort need to take a holistic approach to put a much greater focus on the well-being of the guests. Set a direction for the resort and then involve the entire staff to make it happen. And; Katarina, who cleans the houses, can assist with good tips on how to take care of and treat guests. She's good at it!

Don’t be fooled by those nice photos.
This is one of the worst places I have stayed.
I asked manager beforehand if AC room is needed due to heat. He assured that i might need blanket instead because it’s getting dry and cool at night.
He lied so we would book with him. It was so hot, we moved to another nearby resort with AC the next day.

Now talking about room, it was gross. It was flooding when taking a shower. Photos speak for itself.

The location of this resort is surrounded by heavy vegetation and trees.
There are a lot of bugs especially mosquitos getting into room even though bug screens are installed.
Also, this particular bug(size of roach that can fly) made really loud noise all night. I had to wake up to see if a fire alarm is set off or what.

The walk-path from resort to paradise pier is not maintained. Some path is covered by heavy vegetation, we could barely walk.

We didn’t spend time at the beach due to its a rocky beach with darker sand.
Main beach around paradise pier is mostly white sand beach.
You have been warned.