Not Ready for Renters! - Baan Mai Khao Pool Villa, Phuket, Thailand

One of the many restaurants located close to this condo complex.

Essentially the unit is clean and comfortable and the pictures of the Baan Mai Khao Pool Villa do resemble what it actually looks like, but in reality it all goes down from there. Upon entering the door into the unit, we were hit with a very musty smell that made it hard to breathe . The air conditioner unit was not turned on so we tried to use the remote and the batteries were dead. We had to search the apartment to try and find viable batteries to switch into the remote so we could get the air/con turned on. This was not a very welcoming experience. The Fruit Plate offering was nice and the mangoes were delicious, but the musty smell overwhelmed us. We turned the Air Con on and hour by hour the musty smell did improve but it did take two full days of the air conditioner being on to eliminate the musty smell . This smell was not good for anyone with allergies or asthma . There is also a smell of cigarette smoke whenever you sit down on any of the furniture pieces and occasionally the smell hits you. There has obviously been smoking and a lot of it in the unit. Even though the first question I asked the owner before renting was, 'is this a smoke-free unit' and they said absolutely, "yes it is non-smoking" . The carpet is very much stained and in a very deep need of cleaning and it has cigarette burns in it. The furniture needs to be steam cleaned but other than that the rooms were quite clean.

The kitchen fridge works well after we lowered the temperature. There unfortunately wasn't an ice maker in the freezer. There was NO hot water for the sink so we couldn't do dishes for 3 days until the owner finally got that fixed after sending a daily message request. Every time you opened up a kitchen drawer, you got bombarded by a deep horrid musty smell. There are not enough mugs or glasses to use. We went to use the stove and the stove was not working. I asked for it to be fixed and I was ignored, therefore we did not have a stove the whole week. There is no coffee maker in this unit nor did they bring us one when I asked three times.

The first level washroom did not come with hand soap or a towel nor extra toilet paper which we ran out on the first night. We asked for soap for all three bathrooms for our hands and we received one.

The living room was comfortable with lots of seating but the TV did not work. The Dining room table is very dark and there is no light over it so it was very hard to do any computer work. There are no lights over it so it's hard to do any type of work if you need to on a computer because it is very dark. The bench seat at the end of the dining room table, we never sat on because every time you sat on it cigarette smoke wafted out.

Going outside to the patio the handle to turn to come back in did not work so we locked ourselves out quite a few times. We did mention it to the owner but this was not fixed. I like to sit in the chair by the patio doors because it was comfortable but it needs a very good cleaning and smells of cigarette smoke.

The patio is a small size that fits two chairs and a round coffee table. You can't walk out past it because that's where the pool is and there is a direct entry into the pool with some stairs.

The stairs up and down to the second floor are what all four of us would classify as quite dangerous. They are extremely slippery with socks on so we had to be in our bare feet the whole week. On the corner step coming down there's a shadow that hits it just right and all of us missed it a few times which could possibly be quite dangerous. The first part of the stairwell does not have a handrail so you must reach for the lower handrail which is on the right hand side and this is dangerous.

The beds were quite comfortable and the master bathroom worked quite well. The tub was extremely comfortable and it was quick hot water because it was an instant on hot water unit. The spare bathroom for the spare bedroom did not have hot water for 3 days even though everyday we told the owner there was NO hot water. Finally the maid came and got that fixed. Both showers have a handheld shower head which does not stay in place and it slides down and falls out.

There were two safety deposit boxes in the unit which were small and not bolted down which could have been picked up and stolen at any moment and the downstairs one was locked anyway so we could not use it.

I can't tell you how laughable the toilet paper situation was in all 3 bathrooms. There was about a quarter roll in each of the bathrooms when we arrived. We asked for more and when the maid came she replaced each roll but did not provide extras as a result. All 3 bathrooms ran out again of these small rolls on day 4 we were out again and I requested more and the owner responded as they did " the maid will fix it". Unfortunately the maid never came again to replace the toilet paper or or fix the stove. The stress of wondering if we were going to run out of toilet paper and whether the maid was going to come is something that you don't want to have to do on your vacation.

The washing machine worked well and there are two expandable hanging units to dry the clothes.

The pools are very nice and long, if you are a pool person you will love that.

The check-in person at the front desk is quite rude and short-tempered and not pleasant to be around at any moment in time. He is probably the most unwelcoming front desk person of any place I've ever checked in, anywhere in the world.

We did order groceries from an online delivery business called shop.villamarket.com and even though the deliveries were not exactly timed properly, it did get the job done.

Taxis are very expensive at the two taxi stands outside of this apartment. Therefore, we started using the Bolt App, which was half the price. You can catch a free shuttle at the Renaissance Hotel which is next door and it will take you into the Town Plaza with a fairly large 7-Eleven and some restaurants and some knick knack stores, and Spa etc. or you can walk to the plaza which takes about 20 minutes.

One thing that did work well in this apartment was the Wi-Fi, that never seemed to be a problem for the four of us.

This was the most unprepared rental property we have ever stayed in and it added a lot of unnecessary stress to our holiday. The owner needs to learn how to have the unit completely ready. The unit was way overpriced for what we had to put up with.

The surrounding area was nice and safe to walk around and we enjoyed that.

We ate at Mickey Monkeys two nights and they had the best and the cheapest Pad Thai around.

The beach is very pretty and uncrowded. There are tiny plankton or sea lice that like to bite you in the waters of Mai Khao Beach. I only swam once because the stings lasted for over a week for me.