Sheraton Hua Hin - Holiday from Hell

[loua_oz]

Otherwise a superb hotel (been there in 2013, returned 2017) has a flaw that can ruin a holiday. It is not something wrong with the facility , staff, quality: it is someone's business decision to allow wedding ceremonies to spill out of the ball room.

As we checked in, the staff said "This noise is only today, until 5pm". It was there every day, different weddings.



Not that I am exposing someone, they wanted as much publicity they could get



Day 1 wedding:



The people, somehow all the weddings over 5 days were Indian, are not of a lower sort. Could well be they came on own private jets.



Then it starts. Testing of sound equipment, every day different wedding, different crew, same testing from 10am to 1pm.

(all clips have sound, believe me, 100 times worse on the ground)



Encroaching public space







Would someone who is not Koh Phangan "Full Moon Party" sort of a customer come to a 5* hotel to go through this all day and most of the nights?

I complained but the officer said the weddings are their regular business. Almost wondering why I am not comfortable with that.
It surely is, but never seen it spilling out into everyone's holiday.

And we returned to the same hotel expecting the same quality (which is kept) and serenity (which was ruined by the weddings).

Bye bye Sheraton Hua Hin.

Visiting the new Marriott Hua Hin web site, they had a picture of a wedding arch next to the pool. I have to check that before booking, don't want to be forced witness anyone's wedding and the noise associated with that.
Seems they (5* hotels) are all pushed into that biz.

[limbu]

As a friend in Delhi says "Hua Hin is a wedding destination". He's travelled to several in Hua Hin over the years. It's a boon for the large hotels like the Sheraton who have very low occupancy at this time of year. The Hyatt, just up the beach from me has regular Indian weddings too. They are joyous events complete with horses and slightly out of tune brass bands. There is quite a lot of parping and bhangra but it rarely drifts into late evening according to my ears. If you're a hotel manager in Hua Hin and have 50 guests from India arriving every few days for a wedding, you're not going to say no.

[loua_oz]

I would not mind any wedding, any nation, but I paid 5* hotel for peace and calm.
I don't want to see any wedding I am not invited to.

What you seem to tell me is - get over it. Hotel manager has to meet their greedy targets. Sinking me and my family into the kitcsh weddings and their noise.
I don't give a hoot about hotel manager, I am not there for his bonus. He is there to make me enjoy my holiday at his prices and get me come and come again. He just made me never return to Sheraton.

While I did my bit with no negotiations, paid what the price was, the Manager did not do his bit - to provide calm and enjoyable venue.

He can fcuk with the weddings.

[RCer]

Do they advertize calm and enjoyable? If so, might a way to get a refund.

[pharvey]

I would not mind any wedding, any nation, but I paid 5* hotel for peace and calm.

You have my sympathy, I have been in the same position staying in hotels both for pleasure and work (on the extremely rare occasion we get even 4*). And certainly not restricted to Thailand.

What you seem to tell me is - get over it. Hotel manager has to meet their greedy targets. Sinking me and my family into the kitcsh weddings and their noise.

I don't think "limbu" was telling you to "just deal with it", simply pointing out the sad truth that businesses in general,
(not only hotels) will go for the money - in this case Weddings. The hotel manager should certainly done more it seems - was he foreign/international or Thai? Not being derogative to Thai Managers in the slightest, but I would imagine the Sheraton would have an international (western) manager - simply from observations in the past.

[loua_oz]

5* hotels mean there are no Koh Phangan type of parties in open, common areas, no need to say or advertise that.

As for the manager, whoever he/she was, I am almost certain it was imposed from above. Say, someone sitting in their APJ HQ office in Singapore or Hong Kong.

[MDMK]

If you disliked these weddings so much, why not just check out and go to another hotel?
It's not as though it's high season and you would have any difficulty finding a room.

And it might help you for future holiday planning to know that weddings in 5 star hotels in beach resorts are all over the place now, in loads of hotels in loads of countries, certainly not limited to Hua Hin. I can go into any travel agent on my local high street and walk away with a dozen brochures for wedding packages in .... Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, Seychelles, many Caribbean islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mexico, (to name but a few countries, numerous 5 star hotels in each country offering full wedding packages).

It's not my intention to tell you to "get over it", more just, well.... do your homework next time.

5 star hotels in beach resorts often do weddings

It's a bit like going to a city hotel and moaning because it was full of convention goers.

par for the course in 2017

[loua_oz]

How comes I have never seen that before? Last year I was in Hyatt Hua Hin.
In 2013. Sheraton, the very same one, that is why I came back.
2012. Dushit Hua Hin.

I wanted to U-turn before checkin, staff realized and said "Only today and until 5pm" (it was 3:30pm).

The wedding industry has always been there but not out of ballrooms.

If you have been to conventions, you would know they don't play loud music, stay in meeting rooms and don't drink in swimming pools.

"If you disliked these weddings so much, why not just check out and go to another hotel?
It's not as though it's high season and you would have any difficulty finding a room."

Like backpackers going from hostel to hostel on Khao Sarn Road?

[404cameljockey]

Loua_oz, Let us know what you think of the Marriott when you go. I've visited the Marriott a few times (for free pour Sunday brunch, which is really good there) and the hotel has struck me as an Indian family holiday destination, lots of young kids around the pool and common areas. I'm not saying badly behaved, but if you like peace....

If you disliked these weddings so much, why not just check out and go to another hotel?

There are weddings, and there are Indian weddings, they do like to take over the joint!

The only weddings I've heard to equal them in noise level are some of the Arab ones in the old Marriott in Dubai (they love that hotel). The music is like a bombing raid.

[loua_oz]

That can happen anywhere, a friend staying at Hilton Hua Hin last year showed me a picture in which Chinese mother is rinsing soiled nappy of her baby in the main pool.

A hotel is a hotel, open to anyone who pays, could get crowded, noisy. But what we have with weddings is an organized mass event spilling out of ballrooms into common area and spoiling the day to guests who came with books, sun lotion and cold drink to their deck chairs.

On 3 out of 5 days, half of the 600m laguna was closed to regular guests and access allowed only to the wedding attendees. That is the problem: in addition to selling ballroom and other enclosed venues, common area has been taken from regular guests and sold atop of that. Plus the noise.

Before I book the Marriott next year I will ask for email stating that common areas remain open and no added noise from events happening at the hotel will be felt.

[MDMK]

Ok, you almost u-turned at check-in but the staff said it would all be over in 2hours. Then you go on to say 3 out of 5 days half the laguna was unavailable. I still don't get why you didn't just check out. I don't see the point remaining in a hotel that is pissing you off day in and day out.

[loua_oz]

It was paid in advance and once my stay has commenced no more refunds. The refund had to be requested from another department with someone in authority certifying I was unable to use facility (as if burned down, for example or wiped off by tsunami). Technically, I could be in water, in deck chair, inside the room no issues, neither in restaurant.

What was paid had already gone off my credit card.

The staff was technically right: it was over in 2 hours. That wedding. Next day, another wedding with different place to make noise.
Laguna was available, fenced off part was half of it or wedding guests were in the pool drinking from glass containers.

The point I see is - never again in their facilities and careful with everyone else about weddings outside of ballrooms.

Staff gave me managers business card but email address does not accept pictures or clips. As if they will see something they did not know.

It is not like leaving a noisy street eatery where you were to sit 30 mins. This was a premier facility, set for a week.

[404cameljockey]

Ok, you almost u-turned at check-in but the staff said it would all be over in 2hours. Then you go on to say 3 out of 5 days half the laguna was unavailable. I still don't get why you didn't just check out. I don't see the point remaining in a hotel that is pissing you off day in and day out.

I mean to be respectful but I don't think this grilling is getting anywhere whatsoever.

[MDMK]

Cameljockey, grilling? A tad exaggerated surely? Now Loua_oz has explained he/she had a pre-paid non-refundable rate I can understand why they didn't just check out.

Loua-oz, I don't know what to recommend, by all means contact the hotel before hand (I would say events manager as well as GM), but maybe if the refundable rate is not that much more expensive then opt for that. I book a LOT of hotels (not for myself, for colleagues) and often I'm glad I opted for the the slightly higher rate as things you don't expect, DO often happen.

It doesn't have to be something "noticeable" like a wedding to ruin a stay. We once got placed on a floor of a 5 star KL city hotel where all other rooms on that floor were filled with Chinese tourists who were traveling together as one group. Was no problem until about 11pm when they all started using the corridor as a communal gathering area, and set up one or two of the rooms for gambling and card games and drinking, doors open, people going from room to room (loudly!).

And there's been plenty of times colleagues have checked out and moved to other hotels because of totally unexpected things.

Even if the hotel can reassure that no communal areas will be out of bounds, you could still be disappointed if you got other hassles (that aren't as easily flagged up as "any weddings where communal areas will be out of bounds"). The only way I can think of to make sure that doesn't happen is to pay more for a refundable rate.

or find out what "the wedding season" is for the hotels in HH and what hotels are the "in places" for big weddings and just avoid those hotels in that period?

[loua_oz]

Yes, I see. The rate was refundable but the funds already had been taken off my credit card. To get it back I needed some serious justification by hotel management and there were 100s of other guests who did not complain. They might have taken to social media or also decided not to come again. I think that local staff and management had to put up with what someone above them, possibly not even Thai based, decided to sell as hotel service at such a scale.

In all, it boils down that even the Rolls Royce hotel can unpleasantly surprise you.

It was not a prepaid rent in a wrong condo building for a year where I am locked in. One week would not ruin me nor deter me from coming to Hua Hin over and over again. Just something one should not see in the 5* hotel.
And, as I said, everything else at the Sheraton Hua Hin was superb and spotless.