Warning This Hotel In Phuket Simply A Trap For Tourist!

[malaica]

Between Matthew Abeyta, Ken Austin , Mark Richard Budden, Effie Chen, Maxwell Chow, Steve Finch, Holger Graf, George P. Hansen, Nick Himsworth, Robert Kelly, Steve Leavenworth, Joy Li, Tony Luce, Steve Milgrim, Ray Moroney, Nicholas Raistrick, You, Anja Batista Sonksen, Wenli Wang, Jason Womack and Hartmut Kraft

:D

WARNING

Hotel in Phuket simply a trap for tourists - !!!

We found some reasonably priced acomodation at a resort by the name of the Sea Sun Sand resort not far from Bangla road. Upon checking in late one night, there were plenty of friendly smiles at reception.

Having stayed at the hotel for a couple of days, we build up a level of trust and decided that the room safe with combination code would be a safer option than having to carry passports and cash to the beach day in day out.. this was a big mistake..

Each day I would check to see how much money I had left to spend before the holiday came to an end. A few days before departure I confirmed that I still had around $1000USD in funds available. I then locked the safe and as I had previously done in the past few days, left my room key with reception.

After dinner and drinks one night I returned to my room to find that $200USD had gone missing from the safe, unusually not the entire amount, and that nothing else had gone missing from the room. I reported the incident immediately to the night manager and he suggested that perhaps a lady of the night had stole my money, which of course was not the case as there was no lady of the night staying in my room!..

I then called my friend in the adjacent room and he also confirmed that $200USD had gone missing from his safe.

The very next morning we visited hotel security and found that the 24 hour surveillance video had been deleted in certain parts. As we were exiting the security office 5 other Australian tourists questioned us as to whether or not money had gone missing from our safe, as had with theirs!

It a short amount of time, the whole lobby was filled with international guests reporting the same findings.

We demanded to speak with the general manager and were conveniently informed that the GM would not return to the hotel until after we had left Thailand. Staff also refused to cooperate in providing us with the GM's mobile phone contact details.

At this point our group of victims visited the tourist police only to be informed that this is not the first time this had happened at this particular hotel and that the police were finding it very difficult to lay any charges against the hotel.

The group then returned to the lobby of the hotel to await the arrival of the police detectives which took the most part of four hours. We asked if we could make a call through to the police at reception and were told that we would have to pay extra to make a cheap local call, certainly no customer service whatsoever.

Finally the detectives arrived and we sat through a session of the daily surveillance video footage taken outside of my room. While the detectives did not question the number of deleted passages of footage, one particular piece of footage had not been deleted and mistakenly overlooked by the syndicate of criminal hotel employees.

The footage involved a house maid arriving at the entrance of my room with no cleaning utensils, entering my room, spending about 10 to 15 minutes in my room (clearly helping herself to my safe) then walking out suspiciously with the contents of my safe wrapped in a towel and not returning to my room. At this point, the detectives informed us that they would take the room maid down to the police station for further questioning.

The detectives simply escorted her to the front entrance of the hotel and at this point the detectives left the scene while we witnessed the house maid remain within the hotel compound.

The group of tourists were simply outraged by this. We stocked up on local beers and set up shop in the lobby of the hotel informing every other hotel guest of the incident and warning them against the risk of leaving money in the room safe.

The hotel F&B manager, security staff and even hotel tour operator accused us of being liars, threatened to smash bottles over our faces and then called the riot police.

Riot police (that looked more like thugs in police uniforms) arrived and also threatened us, pressuring the group to check out of the hotel A.S.A.P.

Clearly the hotel is well connected with local police and this system of fleecing tourists seems to have been established quite some time ago.

We clearly have no rights, the hotel is not accepting any responsibility and is clearly involved in a criminal racket of stealing money from tourists. The tourist police are simply corrupt and of no use.

Upon returning to Beijing I intend on writing to local media to warn tourists about the risks of staying in low-medium budget accomodation if visiting Phuket over the holiday season.

This really has left me with a bad taste of Thailand and I do not intend on EVER returning.

[Mighty Mouse]

Those combination room safes have never been safe. Management have a code to open the safe just in case you forget the personal combination of numbers you have fed into it.

I stay at a hotel in Pattaya where the room safes were taken out of service after one year because of the number of thefts from them. They have reverted back to the reception desk security boxes.

Most of these combination safes are in a cupboard and if you can find some way to secure the cupboard with chain and padlock, you may stand a chance of not losing anything from the safe.

Alternatively, if you have a Samsonite hard shell combination suitcase, you can keep small amounts of money locked inside. If you are staying in a cheap hotel, you may need to chain the suitcase to an immovable object inside the room.

The worst thing about your story is the lack of concern shown by the hotel management and the police.

[LaoPo]

Between Matthew Abeyta, Ken Austin , Mark Richard Budden, Effie Chen, Maxwell Chow, Steve Finch, Holger Graf, George P. Hansen, Nick Himsworth, Robert Kelly, Steve Leavenworth, Joy Li, Tony Luce, Steve Milgrim, Ray Moroney, Nicholas Raistrick, You, Anja Batista Sonksen, Wenli Wang, Jason Womack and Hartmut Kraft

:D

WARNING

Hotel in Phuket simply a trap for tourists - !!!

We found some reasonably priced acomodation at a resort by the name of the Sea Sun Sand resort not far from Bangla road. Upon checking in late one night, there were plenty of friendly smiles at reception.

Having stayed at the hotel for a couple of days, we build up a level of trust and decided that the room safe with combination code would be a safer option than having to carry passports and cash to the beach day in day out.. this was a big mistake..

Each day I would check to see how much money I had left to spend before the holiday came to an end. A few days before departure I confirmed that I still had around $1000USD in funds available. I then locked the safe and as I had previously done in the past few days, left my room key with reception.

After dinner and drinks one night I returned to my room to find that $200USD had gone missing from the safe, unusually not the entire amount, and that nothing else had gone missing from the room. I reported the incident immediately to the night manager and he suggested that perhaps a lady of the night had stole my money, which of course was not the case as there was no lady of the night staying in my room!..

I then called my friend in the adjacent room and he also confirmed that $200USD had gone missing from his safe.

The very next morning we visited hotel security and found that the 24 hour surveillance video had been deleted in certain parts. As we were exiting the security office 5 other Australian tourists questioned us as to whether or not money had gone missing from our safe, as had with theirs!

It a short amount of time, the whole lobby was filled with international guests reporting the same findings.

We demanded to speak with the general manager and were conveniently informed that the GM would not return to the hotel until after we had left Thailand. Staff also refused to cooperate in providing us with the GM's mobile phone contact details.

At this point our group of victims visited the tourist police only to be informed that this is not the first time this had happened at this particular hotel and that the police were finding it very difficult to lay any charges against the hotel.

The group then returned to the lobby of the hotel to await the arrival of the police detectives which took the most part of four hours. We asked if we could make a call through to the police at reception and were told that we would have to pay extra to make a cheap local call, certainly no customer service whatsoever.

Finally the detectives arrived and we sat through a session of the daily surveillance video footage taken outside of my room. While the detectives did not question the number of deleted passages of footage, one particular piece of footage had not been deleted and mistakenly overlooked by the syndicate of criminal hotel employees.

The footage involved a house maid arriving at the entrance of my room with no cleaning utensils, entering my room, spending about 10 to 15 minutes in my room (clearly helping herself to my safe) then walking out suspiciously with the contents of my safe wrapped in a towel and not returning to my room. At this point, the detectives informed us that they would take the room maid down to the police station for further questioning.

The detectives simply escorted her to the front entrance of the hotel and at this point the detectives left the scene while we witnessed the house maid remain within the hotel compound.

The group of tourists were simply outraged by this. We stocked up on local beers and set up shop in the lobby of the hotel informing every other hotel guest of the incident and warning them against the risk of leaving money in the room safe.

The hotel F&B manager, security staff and even hotel tour operator accused us of being liars, threatened to smash bottles over our faces and then called the riot police.

Riot police (that looked more like thugs in police uniforms) arrived and also threatened us, pressuring the group to check out of the hotel A.S.A.P.

Clearly the hotel is well connected with local police and this system of fleecing tourists seems to have been established quite some time ago.

We clearly have no rights, the hotel is not accepting any responsibility and is clearly involved in a criminal racket of stealing money from tourists. The tourist police are simply corrupt and of no use.

Upon returning to Beijing I intend on writing to local media to warn tourists about the risks of staying in low-medium budget accomodation if visiting Phuket over the holiday season.

This really has left me with a bad taste of Thailand and I do not intend on EVER returning.

I feel sorry for you guys and it looks like there's indeed a scam going on between the staff and the (tourist) police, robbing guests; 21 tourists in your case !

I suggest you contact one of the Phuket Mods, here on TV, and I'm sure they will be able to 'guide' you along the road to Press-publication of this scam. Shame on this hotel and their staff and behaviour !

Nevertheless, I'm sorry to read that you blame 'Thailand' as such for the bad behaviour of a small group of bad people...

Wish your group the best and hopefully this will lead to publicity. Phuket should get rid of these people.

LaoPo

Edited October 21, 2007 by LaoPo

[LivinLOS]

Increasing amount of posts on tripadvisor saying the same thing..

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews...ong_Phuket.html

[LivinLOS]

Contact Chris at the phuket gazette..

[LaoPo]

Increasing amount of posts on tripadvisor saying the same thing..

<a href="http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews...ong_Phuket.html" target="_blank">http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews...ong_Phuket.html</a>

Good post; thanks.

It seems odd though that 2 posts are quite positive about this hotel; 1 from September 25th -"Good value & good location"- and 1 from October 3rd -"Central, clean and friendly staff."

Maybe something drastic (with the Management/staff) has changed AFTER October 3rd...?

edit:...OR the said tourists from those 2 posts didn't have any cash in their safety boxes...

LaoPo

Edited October 21, 2007 by LaoPo

[taxexile]

welcome to thailand.

most hotels are well run and most room safes are secure , but there will always be one hotel run by a thief with a brother in the police force . sadly , you seemed to have found it.

as a short stay tourist you will have little luck with the police and the law , and other than widely publicising this story back home or in the english language press here there is not much you can do.

thailand is extremely sensitive to bad publicity abroad , but in the general scheme of things your experience is not that newsworthy enough to generate the furore needed to wake up the tourist authority of thailand from their slumber.

last week 7 died in a caving accident that was in all probability due to negligence on the part of people in whom tourists should have been able to trust , taxi driver mafias regularly intimidate and attack tourists in phuket and other places , right under the noses of police who will rarely take any action . all these incidents are forgotten by the public within days except by those directly affected.

generally speaking , too many of those involved in the tourist industry here are notoriously short of professionalism and morals and are mainly interested in maximum profit for minimum service , and some will take your money by whatever means possible.

I intend on writing to local media to warn tourists about the risks of staying in low-medium budget accomodation if visiting Phuket over the holiday season.

sorry to hear of your bad experience here , i would do whatever possible to publicize it as widely as possible , if only for your own satisfaction , although a lot of the local media are so intent on self publicity that negative stories are never printed.

the phuket gazette , however , might be interested in your story.

Edited October 21, 2007 by taxexile

[maipleur]

Sorry to hear you were treated so badly.

Phuket is so "family orientated" on the side of the Thais who grew up there. Everyone knows everyone and that includes the owner going to school with the police or one of the staff has a police boyfriend etc.. They pack, and you never win and never get the right help you are entitled to. I realize that is a very general overview, but it is my experience.

I hope you contact the Phuket Gazette and might even be worth writing to the Governor? The last Governor had an email address for this type of thing.

Good luck to you and I hope your next holiday is a good one.

[britmaveric]

Well leaving dosh in hotel safe is well not very wise as you found out. Hence using travelers cheques and debit card is the best route. Keep dosh on you and if use the front desk safe deposit boxes.

[LeungKen]

The Sea, Sun Sand Resort sucks by the sound of things.

In my experience it is better to tell as many people as possible when things like this happens.

Thanks for posting it and I for one will be warning any future tourists friends of mine to avoid it like the plague, along with the Tuk-tuk drivers, airport limos et al.

Edited October 21, 2007 by LeungKen

[Sir Burr]

The maid doesn't need the codes from management.

Before the room is occupied, the maid, or whomever, cleans the safe's number keys.

Then, they touch the side of their nose and smear the number keys with a touch of grease.

Guest arrives. If the safe is used, there will be fingerprint marks on the number keys he used.

As the code is only four digits, it doesn't take long to try all the combinations of a four digit number.

A very old method for opening room safes and used in many countries.

[geriatrickid]

If true, very shocking, but not unusual. There have been similar M.O.s at other hotels worldwide. The multiple postings on trip advisor may send a wake up call. Alot of people rely on T.A., myself included, and if a place has a black mark I steer clear.

I do hope the OP sends a calm explanatory memo to the ministry of tourism. Although our local brave boys in brown may be tainted, I know that this scenario will be looked at in the National command. Not every cop in Thailand is corrupt or incompetent. When it comes down to profits, they will act.

&lt;deleted&gt; is it with these hotels? Is it a grab for the luchre or just plain stupidity?

[Sir Burr]

&lt;deleted&gt; is it with these hotels? Is it a grab for the luchre or just plain stupidity?

Well, I don't think it's stupidity as they are getting away with it. Guess that just leaves greed......

[donna]

There are a few ways you can 'attack' this.

You went to the police, who should really be the end of the line. Obviously not in this case.

You could try contacting the Phuket and the Bangkok brances of the TAT and bring this to their attention. If they have a TAT licence, they may very well have it revoked.

Try contacting the Thai embassy in your country.

Local newspapers in your country.

Another thing you can do is to google the website and see just where they sell their rooms. Like, on what websites. Contact those websites and explain to them that, whilst you did not book through them, you are concerned about what happens at the hotel. That will cause all sorts of problems for them.

Contact the Bangkok Post, The Nation, Phuket Gazette and Phuket Post for starters. They may be able to publish a letter to the editor.

Im sure i will think of more ways, but these are probably a good start.

The attitude by the staff sucks and in my opinion they, too, should be held accountable for what went missing (note to self: do not accept resumes for your own hotel from staff who have recently worked at Sea Sun Sand Resort).

The hotel GM is available 24 hours, and whilst i can perhaps understand their reluctance to hand over their mobile number, i do feel that the GM should have been called in in this case.

i hope you all urinated on the beds on the way out.

[LeungKen]

i hope you all urinated on the beds on the way out.

Good One Donna

[chiang mai]

238 viewings of this post at this time, 238 lost potential customers multiplied by any friends each one tells. Nice going Sea Sun and Sand!

[LeungKen]

238 viewings of this post at this time, 238 lost potential customers multiplied by any friends each one tells. Nice going Sea Sun and Sand!

Lets keep it at the top of the page so all will read it.

[LivinLOS]

The hotel GM is available 24 hours, and whilst i can perhaps understand their reluctance to hand over their mobile number, i do feel that the GM should have been called in in this case.

If you look at the facts as presented.. On 'possible' explantion goes..

These safes have the 4 digits and a manual key over ride.. That key normally would live with the GM or other senior trusted member of staff.

Its claimed the GM went to BKK, he obviously had to leave the safe reset key with someone or somewhere. It may even have simply been left with any and all front desk staff with no thought to the potential security breach. So now you have a person who would not normally have trusted access having a limited time window to access room safes while the GM is away.

Fits the (alleged) facts.

[donna]

surely this is a major problem in the hotel with serious ongoing effects. if i were the general manager i would expect to be called.

your explanation, however, is more than likely what happened.

[legag]

I know that hotel. Have seen it. Sorry to hear this. Caps can't do anything about this? Report?

Edited October 21, 2007 by legag

[qualtrough]

Outrageous behavior by hotel and staff. Although you didn't get any joy from the local tourist police, be sure to contact them at the national level and tell them how their local staff mishandled the issue. You might get some results, you might not, but certainly worth a shot.

Another idea that costs almost nothing. If you don't get your money back or other satisfaction, buy the URL for Sunsandresortssucks.com, get a cheap hosting package for a few bucks more per year, and create a professional looking web page outlining your experience. If you are clever or motivated enough you can add a comments section or have other people send in their experience for posting. Anybody with a few HTML skills could do that from start to finish in a couple of hours and for well under $50 (skip the free hosting sites as they generally suck and look unprofessional). Leave it up for a year or more and eventually it might be the next search result listing after the legit site for the resort (if they have one). If you want to invest a little more time you may even be able to get it to number one. Certainly they will eventually find it and you will have the satisfaction of knowing how annoying that might be. If you only discourage a couple of people from visiting you will have taken something out of their pocket, which is probably the only thing they understand. BTW, you can purchase the URL through anonymous proxy so there is no way you can be indentified short of a legitimate court order, which ain't gonna happen in a case like yours.

Edited October 21, 2007 by qualtrough

[LivinLOS]

LOL and if it works you could offer to sell them the domain for the same amount as you got taken for

[JiveTalker]

Is there a photo of this hotel out there?

Would be easier for people to remember a picture as people I know book last minute and often don't pay much attention to names.

[qualtrough]

LOL and if it works you could offer to sell them the domain for the same amount as you got taken for

Brilliant, although I would ask for something like 2x the loss just to make sure the lesson sinks in. Would indeed be a bargain if the site gets a good ranking at some point.

Edited October 21, 2007 by qualtrough

[Master Chief]

Why does anyone even think that The Phuket Gazette would post any tourist complaints in their paper?

This paper is one of the lamest and non investigating newspaper available in Thailand, they are to scared to step on any local toes in Phuket!

They just follow the main stream news and have no interest of making their own news, Oh I just forgot, their very smart garbage around the island reports.

[Mighty Mouse]

Is there a photo of this hotel out there?

Would be easier for people to remember a picture as people I know book last minute and often don't pay much attention to names.

[LaoPo]

The maid doesn't need the codes from management.

Before the room is occupied, the maid, or whomever, cleans the safe's number keys.

Then, they touch the side of their nose and smear the number keys with a touch of grease.

Guest arrives.

If the safe is used, there will be fingerprint marks on the number keys he used.

As the code is only four digits, it doesn't take long to try all the combinations of a four digit number.

A very old method for opening room safes and used in many countries.

Well, even if one knows the 4 digits used for ANY combination, used by the guest (remember, there were 21 guests complaining they were robbed.....), it will take a long time to try all the combinations...

They must have used another method, much simpler than that.

I had a problem with a hotel room safe once; the manager came with an electronic device and opened it in 1 minute....

LaoPo

[LivinLOS]

4 digit combo (presuming its correct and the user didnt unlock with one code and relock with another, or smudge a key, or notice the greasyness)..

Would still be 4 to the power of 4 (or 256 permutations) versus the full 10 (keys) to the power of 4 or 10,000 combinations.. Plus you would need someone with a logical mind to analyse the 4 digits and create a system to cycle through the 256 permutations in a systematic way. Not the task of most hotel cleaning staff IMO.

Now if you had only 3 keys smudged (indicating that they had used one digit twice) it cuts down the systematic trials but gets complex in devising the fastest trial route, again ask a hotel cleaner to devise the logical permutations of a 3 digits used 4 digit pin ?? And get that look like a puppy thats just been shown a card trick.

[macone]

I have stayed at two different hotels, when I was not able to get into the room safe. The first time the safe battery went dead and the night clerk came to the room with a small tool and in only a minute opened the safe. The second time I must of pushed the reset switch that is located on the inside of the door as I was closing the safe and this caused it to not open when I keyed in the combination. Again the hotel manager came up to the room with a small tool and opened the safe in only a minute.

I have seen at stores the same safes that are at hotels selling for about 3,000 baht.

If I buy one of these safes at the store I could also get my own tool for my safe. I do not think this tool would be unique to a hotels room safes. Hotel room safes are a relativley new addition to Thai hotels. Cheap safes like these are only good security to keep honest people honest.

[maipleur]

4 digit combo (presuming its correct and the user didnt unlock with one code and relock with another, or smudge a key, or notice the greasyness)..

Would still be 4 to the power of 4 (or 256 permutations) versus the full 10 (keys) to the power of 4 or 10,000 combinations.. Plus you would need someone with a logical mind to analyse the 4 digits and create a system to cycle through the 256 permutations in a systematic way. Not the task of most hotel cleaning staff IMO.

Now if you had only 3 keys smudged (indicating that they had used one digit twice) it cuts down the systematic trials but gets complex in devising the fastest trial route, again ask a hotel cleaner to devise the logical permutations of a 3 digits used 4 digit pin ?? And get that look like a puppy thats just been shown a card trick.

Many words nearly as long as wheelbarrow and scientific calculations in the above post.. be careful not to hurt brain when reading!

= stay clear!