We cannot understand the review from the Australian person below.... I think he/she must have been staying at a different hotel to us!!

We have travelled fairly extensively and stayed at all standards of hotel around the world and the Access was was just lovely for the ratings category it is in. The room was large and tastefully decorated. The bathroom was a v.good size and had a seperate shower and bath. The hotel provided flip flops and bathrobes too. The bed was ginormous and while it was firm we found it was comfortable. The mini bar was v.reasonably priced and you get 2 free water and complimentary tea/coffe each day. The airconditioning was good and not too noisy; often we have to switch aircon units off at night because they are too noisy for us to sleep with left on - this one was fine on the lowest fan setting.

The funishings, to my eye, were all nice and while there was some wear and tear - noteable the dining room chairs had paint chippings - they certainly didn't look like they were left over from the Tsunami (a comment I found distasteful) - this is not the Burj al Arab its a 3 starish hotel! I particularly loved the restaruant/lobby area.

The patio chairs were fine but somewhat unusual, my husband didn't find them particularly comfy but I did and I actually really liked them. It was nice that the patio had a fan too. The USP of this hotel is the pool at the edge of your patio; it was just fabulous to be able to go for a dip straight from your own room. WE LOVED THIS, we are not really 'beach people' so a good pool scores high with us and the 'rooms' pool and the main pool were just great. The main pool has seating round some of the edges and just opposite the wetbar the seating has water jets so is a bit 'jacquzzi' like.

The food was OK, - breakfast was a little bland, while there is a fair selection its all sort of samish. I would have loved some wholemeal cereals and bread - it was all a bit 'white carbohydrate' for my liking and Thai bacon is awful. But to return to my point of the star rating of the hotel we found the food reasonable for a 3 star place - we have had worse at 4 star hotels. The Thai food they did - available on all menus - was very good, I did enjoy that. I find, in general, that in Thailand (this was our 3rd trip) you are safer eating Thai, they are not that good at 'international/European' dishes.

The hotel Spa was LOVELY I went twice for Thai massages and it was simply divine. (I go at least once a year to the Santuary in London as I really like being pampered) I know its a lot pricier than getting a massage on the beach or in a local shop, but the ambiance of the place was worth it. It was lovely to be dressed in a special white suite and have airconditioned comfort, with soothing music playing and on comfy, proper massage beds (with a hole for your face why you lie on your tummy). The girls in the Spa were just lovely too.

The staff on the whole were good (service was a bit slow, but we found it to be the same everywhere we went) yes their English is not brilliant but then our Thai is non existent so they are 100% better than us at being able to speak a foreign language. We always manged to make ourselves understood.

I would DEFINITELY return to this hotel and recommend it to friends.

Karon is a bit 'down market' - 2 starish, we found that Kata was nicer - 3 starish and had a greater selection and better standard restaurants. Went once to Patong and thought the place was simply ghastly (Like Blackpool on Cocaine!) not our cup of tea at all. But having said that we found a nice Italian place in a side streeet - away from the awful noise of the beach road (something akin to the M25 at Friday rush hour!) and had a very nice pasta and pizza meal in air conditioned comfort. Then we walked back up the street they close to traffic at night (where all the girly bars etc are) and found a really good bar at the top of the road (sort of underneath the Thai boxing place) on the right hand corner, as you walk up from the beach. It had a live band and they were simply brilliant, great range of rock music and excellent girl singer (bit like Tina Turner voice wise)

In Karon, not too far from the hotel, just along from the temple there was a nice restaurant called Piano, would recommend that.

We were at Access Pool resort and spa between 20jan to 23jan. Overall we find the service is just so so. The hotel staff are concerned about the their guests comfort. kudos to that. My husband had a cold and they went an extra mile to provide a taxi ride at half price to and from the doctor which was available only along kata beach area. One staff even offered to borrow us his nokia handphone charger from his home as the hotel doesn't have it.

The room however has its pros and cons. The pros are the easy access to the pool and the in house movies are really updated i enjoyed myself into the wee hours of the night. The cons. The floor is exceptionally cold throughout the day. Is it the cause of the cold? (I wonder) The water heater will take sometime to warm up as the hotel have some sort of energy saving mechanism. Meaning you will have to switch on the air-condition in order to have the water heater to run. It is a good idea to conserve energy but what if we are feeling cold and do not need to use the air-condition? S we still need to switch on the air-condition? What energy conservation is that? Where's the logic? As in my husband's case, he's got a cold. According to them it takes 20 minutes to heat up the water. but i waited for about an hour before it really heats up.

The food provided by room service is exceptionally tasty but there isn't much choice of food. They seem to concentrate on only western food rather than thai food. (Come on guys) We are tourists coming to your country to try out your delicacies. Breakfast is served the same throughout our stay. So best solution is to eat out. Which is along karon beach or kata beach which is 1km away. There aren't a lot of restaurants in the vicinity of the hotel. the best one is about 1/2 km away.

I recently visited the Access Pool Resort with my family over the Christmas holidays. Let me just say this, it was terrible.

The rooms are tacky and overpriced, and almost everything was falling to pieces - in fact some of the furniture looked like it had washed up from the recent Tsunami.

The balcony chairs are extremely uncomfortable, infact one of my family members nearly broke her back sitting on one of them as it folded up on her as she sat on it, severely injuring her and spilling and breaking a hot coffe cup on herself.

Oh and guess what? The hotel had the nerve to bill us for the broken coffee cup, which only broke because of their cheap furniture! We should have been billing them for causing injury.

Do not stay in Karon. The location is crap and is in the middle of a cow paddock. At first I thought it was alright, but when stayed in Patpong aftewards, it made Karon look like a deserted wasteland. Patpong is the place to be.

In addition our fly screen door broke, the TV channels are all in Thai and there is nothing to watch, the restaurant was overpriced, there were far too many steps, and the staff could hardly speak English.

If you are happy with small uncomfortable rooms, rude staff members, in a terrible location, then the Access Pool Resort is for you!

Phuket is a lovely, but busy and warm place.
After a day at the beach it was heaven to get "home" the The Access and glide into the pool.
Also, getting straight out of bed and into the pool was a luxurious feeling!
The rooms are spacious and beautifully decorated, the staff are a joy and the breakfast was great! Different warm asian and international dishes every day, in addition to fruits, juices, cold cuts, cereal, an omelet chef and more.
The surrounding area isn't the greatest, but the beach and shopping is only a ten minute walk away (or 100 baht by taxi og tuk tuk).
We found it to be very relaxing to retreat to our oasis after the hustle and bustle of Karon Beach.