I’ll start by saying that the hotel’s surroundings are breathtakingly beautiful. The beach is one of the best on the island - clean and tranquil. It made spending time in the hotel a delight. And overall, we had a really memorable time - which was enhanced by exploring the island on motorbikes every day (which you can rent from the hotel). However, there are a number of areas where there could be significant scope for improvement and which, if improved, could make this a much better class of hotel. These are primarily: 1. There was repeated miscommunication with the hotel staff, who generally-speaking (with the exception of one or two receptionists) have poor English. It would of course be unreasonable to expect everyone to speak perfect English; that’s not my criticism here. But what I will say is that a lack of common language between us and the hotel staff made asking questions, even simple ones, about our trip difficult and led to mistakes. 2. The food is really poor at the hotel restaurant, Breeze. We had expensive Thai food which was inedible in part and the only bad meal which we have had during our two week stay in Thailand. Until improved, I’d suggest going to other restaurants on the island - Banana Bar is a real highlight. 3. The rooms which we were first shown to were unacceptably far away from the main hotel and up a number of flights of steps. We asked to change and were moved with no questions asked, which was a great result for us. We thought the hotel dealt with that issue brilliantly. We wondered how often they had encountered this issue having shown people to those rooms. And to be honest, those rooms shouldn’t really be hired out at all unless it is for a serious discount and it’s made clear to guests when they book. 4. Parts of the hotel feel unloved and a bit neglected to be honest - I don’t want to be too harsh here as it may be that the hotelier hasn’t been able to put as much money back into the resort following COVID and it’s aftermath. In particular, the room showers could do with an update. And generally there is an outdated feel to the hotel which could do with being modernised - the furniture in the common parts, the shower by the pool, etc. For the reasons above and taking into account the price paid for our stay, I would give Ao Prao three stars, but my lasting feeling is that with a bit more money, love and attention to detail, it could become a four or five star in the future.
