Sanya Apartments Soi 20 Pattaya Thai Road

[dingdong]

i've booked there but never stayed before. cheap B500 night plus electricity.

any reports would be welcome.

[WISteve]

I've never publicly commented on my stay there in May 2005 before, but I guess I will at this time.

I had planned to stay there for 30 days this spring. Left after one week.

Started off on a bad foot when the owner expressed sarcastic surprise that I, an American actually showed up! He remarked that we Americans ALWAYS seemed to cancel at the last minute or pull no shows! True or not true, it doesn't make points with a paying customer to have your nationality insulted within one minute of arrival!

The physical plant is very nice and Sanya, the lady on the web site and the wife of the dutch? owner, is very hospitable. But there were a number of problems that cropped up that made it unsuitable. They advertised wireless highspeed internet, but I was the FIRST PERSON to ever try to use it. It worked for about two hours on one day and 30 minutes another. The owner's son did try very hard to rectify the problem, but it was never resolved. Net result was I stayed in contact with the office through internet cafes again. The apartments are large and roomy and the furniture was mostly very nice. But the bed was incredibly hard! The worst I have ever had in Thailand. I woke up every day with a backache. There were bugs in the kitchen when I arrived, but they sprayed for them and seemed to keep them at bay. The cleaning was good for the most part, but the towels were paper thin. But the largest issue I had was the location. Before I arrived I thought being next to the Tuesday/Friday Market would be very convenient. The problem is, they are outside your window at 5 am pounding stakes into the ground with sledge hammers!!! And the loud speakers from the market are blaring all day. If you could find an apartment which didn't front on the open area (I think they all do; I checked) it might not be so bad. But if you can sleep through that, someone had better check your pulse. The owner BTW does not live on-site. The only entrance is an outside door which seems to be proped open all hours of the day and night so security is pretty much non-existent. I only mention this because I had a TG stalker problem that unfortunately coincided with my stay there. She showed-up three times uninvited and unannounced because there is nothing to stop them!

If the place was located elsewhere with a different bed I would have bought my own towels and lived with it. But the combination of problems cinched it for me.

~WISteve

[dingdong]

thank you very much steve. when i get there tuesday, i'll maybe take a look, ready to get a room somewhere else. cheers

[halleman]

Lately, there is a new karaoke-bar next to sanya-appartments.

They start playing music around 23.00 hours until 07.00 in the morning.

The music is going through the whole building of sanya-apprtments,

especialy the bas-beat is very disturbing and LOUD.

The karaoke-owners seems to have a permit (????) to stay open until the morning.

If you think about sleepeing before 07.00 hours, just forget it !

You won't unles you are deaf.

Pitty to see a good place-to-stay trough the drain...

Peoples are canceling their reservations already and it seems new reservations

are not coming in nomore.

[PATTAYAPUNTER]

My story from 2004:

Made reservations from abroad by email. Everything was fine and confirmed. I arrived at Sanya and they took a copy of my passport's photo page. No lift and my room was on the top floor (5th?). Once in the room, I sensed something very wrong. I can't recall what anymore but I knew right away that I must checkout. I hadn't yet paid anything and this was low season so the hotel was almost empty.

I lugged my luggage down the 5 flights and go into a Sontheaw to look for greener pastures.

The next day, I checked my email and received 2-3 emails from Sanya Apartments' owners. The first 2 were civil, simply inquiries why I wasn't satisfied but the 3rd was a threat that unless I came and paid for the room, there would be major problems for me at immigration when I leave Thailand. Half scared I was when I finally reached immigration in BKK. I really expected I might be pulled aside for not paying my Sanya bill. It was a scary and unecessary experience for a newbie.

Now I've lived in Pattaya full time for awhile so I know the location better. There really is little upside to their apartments when you consider the options in the same area. I recently went to their website and realize they don't have monthly rates. I would give the place a pass. Living against a market is only good if you're already deaf.

[yankineire]

I've never publicly commented on my stay there in May 2005 before, but I guess I will at this time.

~WISteve

Same here, Steve. I never commented on Sanya before but it has gotten FAR worse since your 2007 post. Here is my story on "Sanya Apartments aka Motel hel_l"

I was staying at Sanya twice a year for all my vacation time. It was a cute, comfy place and was bargain priced. So I was initially a fan of Sanya Apartments. But my last two stays (winter 2008 and spring 2009) were HORRIBLE. There is a karaoke bar next door to Sanya (all part of the same structure/bloc) and they play thunder-loud music all night long, from about 9pm to 7am. They must have about 2000 watts of bass/subwoofer equipment, so my room was shaking with each drum beat. The windows vibrate. I tried using ear plugs but the sound is so loud, this did not help at all. I had circular wave patterns oscillating in any glass of wine I poured, no matter what surface the glass rests upon. This should convey to you how extreme this noise pollution is, and how unlikely it is that you could sleep anytime except between 7am and 9pm. Sadly, I had to book another hotel the last trip because I was suffering from sleep deprivation that ruined my holiday. On a personal note, even if the karaoke bar went belly-up, I would not stay anymore. Here is why: First, on Tuesday and Friday, the dirty dusty rock plaza in front of Sanya becomes a tent city, erected by rude plebians with sledgehammers at 5am, and the whole environment smells of dog crap and unwashed Thais. Add to that insanity a constant, deafening sound of several different music sellers who play terrible Lao/Issan "country" music all day long until the sun sets (just in time for the karaoke bar to open and take over with THEIR noise pollution). Secondly, while the owner/namesake, "Sanya" is a VERY nice elderly Thai lady, her Dutch husband is only nice when he is sober (which only lasts the first few hours after he shows up at 11am). Once he has a few "San Mig" beers (by noon or so) he becomes a cross-eyed sloppy monster, and degenerates through 1-2am when his wife finally drives him home. He slurs and hurls insults all day and night, argues with EVERYONE, and gets very crude (he pinched my TG's butt when he was in such a stupor). I will not be staying at Sanya any more and must advise others to refrain from booking there (unless they are totally deaf). Whatever, never rent a scooter fromthem; Sanya has about 20 motorscooters, none of which will start in under 60 seconds. I told him a perfectly tuned scooter will start on the first tap of the button (or the first kick), but the guy insists that is not true. But in the end,it is the noise pollution that ismost unacceptable. Do yourself a favor, if you doubt my objectivity: Go to Sanya (or send a friend there) at 3am. Stand in front of the entrance and TRY to talk to someone beside you... you cannot. You probably can't even hear yourself! Now I stay at either "Greenery House" or "Marin Place", both of which have free GOOD wifi (Sanya's is LOUSY and only works intermittently),better prices and both located within 100 meters of Sanya, overlooking the same market (but far enough away not to hear it).

Edited June 13, 2009 by yankineire