The good and bad about Famiana resort in Phu Quoc
So just like the rest of my vacation I decided to splurge a bit and not really try to pinch pennies the way that I do with almost everything else in my life. When booking a hotel we decided on something that was around $100 a night which doesn't seem like much to people living North America and much of Europe, but in Vietnam this is quite a high price and honestly, I expected a bit more than we received from Famiana Resort.
This doesn't mean that the place was a dump. It was far from a dump actually and the service is one thing that I will definitely congratulate them on. It has been many years since I had someone waiting at the airport to pick me up with a sign and that is how things began. I was already feeling ill from a cold that I caught while up in Da Lat so I wasn't really in the mood for things to go wrong and for the most part, at least at first, things seemed pretty great. We arrived kind of late at night so at first we just wanted to have a shower and go out to dinner. This is where the fun began.
The hot water in our room didn't work and honestly, there is no excuse for this as even cheap places will at least check to make sure that certain things are functioning before the people check in. It was late and they were going to send a technician by but we just didn't want to be bothered.
I think maybe they should spend less time on folding my bath towels into a swan and more time on making sure that the things in the room that are truly important such as the WATER actually works. Things got worse later on when in the middle of the night the air conditioning just stopped working. I am somewhat familiar with how these units in Asia function so I found the breaker and hard reset the unit, switched it back on only to have it turn itself back off after 10 minutes. I was a bit huffy at this point so I just walked up to reception, demanded a fan and told them that they are going to move us to a new room the next day. This was NOT a request on my part even though I was as polite as I could be.
The next morning we were moved to not just another room, but upgraded to a beachfront villa, which I thought was a nice touch. We were both really happy and went about our day thinking that it was worth the trouble at the first place to get an upgrade of this magnitude.
Things were going great because there was a general store nearby so we stocked up on booze and mixers and set about having a wonderful day in the sun. Everything seemed great thus far and we were quite happy. Unfortunately, things didn't stay great and it was only a matter of time before things started going wrong again.
People don't generally have bathtubs in Vietnam, let alone the jacuzzi type, so my travel partner was excited to take one. She only got the tub a bit filled up before she realized there was a very serious problem with the hot water here as well and not just one of it simply not working. This water stank of iron or some other sort of heavy metal and even though we both had showered before we didn't realize it because it was a shower and I guess the soap smell masked the fact that all the taps in the entire unit were pulling from the same disgusting source. It was only the hot water that was like this so I'm guessing there is a problem with the tank or heating system.
Things got worse later when once again in the middle of the night the air conditioning stopped working in the same manner as the unit we were in previously.
The drinks were paid for by the resort and the environment to drink them in was pretty great too. They came back later to tell us that the problem had been solved but when we went back to the room we found out that they had not fixed anything. The water was still brown and one of the AC units would turn off on its own after 10 minutes or so. There was another AC unit in the villa that worked so we blasted the hell out of that one rather than have the repair staff interrupt our day only to not be capable of fixing what the problem is anyway.
Other minor things that were wrong about the room included the TV's having terrible reception in a way that reminded me of days long past when we would use antennas to get our shows. Also the remotes and the safe had no batteries in them. This is easily fixed but honestly, should be on a checklist for the housekeeping staff to take care of between guests.
The grounds were impeccably maintained and the staff were wonderful so at least the place had that going for it but unfortunately good service only goes so far when nearly everything is broken. I didn't write them a public bad review because that is not the kind of person that I am but when I went to go look at places like Agoda there were a LOT of people that were complaining about exactly what we had encountered.
One funny thing that happened while we were there was that on one time coming back to our bungalow, one of my shoes was missing from the front porch. When I informed the front desk about this I looked around the grounds and saw that the entire gardening crew were searching the bushes and plants and eventually they found my other shoe that I guess a dog had come by and wandered off with. This made me smile that the staff care so much and they did eventually find my shoe.
Overall I enjoyed my time here but honestly, when I am paying $100 a night for a place I expect more than this. The critical elements of a comfortable room in my mind would include clean water coming out of the taps and a temperature control system that actually works.
Private beach access was a nice plus though!
I can't recommend this place to anyone staying in Phu Quoc and by looking around the island I think this is one of the more established and older resorts on the island. The place is kind of falling apart and due to competition they might be one of those sorts of businesses that realize that they are not going to be able to keep up with the times as far as modernizing their place is concerned and might just be biding their time with what they have until the eventually just close the place altogether in a few years.
I didn't allow this to ruin my vacation though and we just took it in stride. I don't often go on vacation but I think I will be considerably more vigilant in checking out user reviews in the future. Some of these mistakes are in my mind completely inexcusable. If you have a room with brown water and an AC problem in a tropical country, you should not sell that room.
100$ a day is really expensive.
On the look of things you did get what you paid for especially the resort it has a nice view attached to it. Hope your vacation was a memorable one. You’re one of the lucky ones in life to be at such a place though. I’m a little bit jealous 😂
I was trying to keep things in perspective because yes, I was lucky to be in such a wonderful place. I just don't like wasting money 😀
Same here. But beautiful place are always expensive that’s a constant in life.
100 buscks in Vietnam, I think it's a lot. Matter of fact, can fetch me a 4 star villa here in Malaysia. Brown water is quite normal actually. How i deal with it? Everytime when i checked in a guesthouse/room, i usually will blast the water until its clear. It usually rusts in the piping system domestically within that property, and a couple of minutes run will clear them off.
Theres this one time many years ago, i took a long drive to the northen side of west coast, checked in a hotel and the moment i lodged myself on the bed, the bed rack broken into half 😅 when i requested a change, the maintenance guy had to hold on so hard whilst leading us to a new room, before my door fully closed, i can hear him burst out laughter. I got that rotfflmfao came from him 😅
I hadn't thought to just let the water run for a while but to be fair we did fill up a lot of the tub and it was still brown. Perhaps the boiler or wherever the hot water is stored is so badly rusted that it just stays that way. I dunno, I wasn't going to take a bath in a tropical country anyway.
happy holiday, I hope this will be a pleasant holiday with such beautiful natural views
What a moment you had
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That is one of my pet peeves in a hotel or resort when the A/C or heat doesn't work the way it is supposed to. They know that people are looking for those comforts, so they better be providing them. I honestly think the overall service industry has gone down hill since covid. Especially housekeeping and stuff like that. It's pretty rare to find a room at a hotel that doesn't have some area that is just disgusting. It's like they don't even try anymore. I'm glad you were still able to have a good time despite all the issues.
yeah, in retrospect a vast majority of my vacation was good and it was just some tiny things that ticked me off. I think that since Covid the service industry here in Vietnam has actually gotten a lot better but that perhaps has to do with the fact that when they couldn't get any tourists in they just built like mad for their eventual return. The amount of empty hotels at this particular island and even abandoned hotels kind of indicates that they went more than a little bit overboard with the building though.
That is good. It definitely isn't the case over here. I mean they are still building stuff, but places are just filthy. Even the fancier places.
At least you wont forget it and you will laugh about it at some point. Sounds about right that hey cannot afford to modernize their set up and will just get worse. I stayed in a London hotel the last time I was there and found out I could not fit in the shower due to the head being so low. I asked the receptionist if my room was catering to midgets and explained the problem that sitting in a shower is not ideal and they moved me straight away.
It's just good that they had a room for taller people. You would really suffer in SE Asia. At 6 feet tall, and I believe you are taller than that, I struggle to get in and out of things and often bump my head on door frames. Also, when I go shopping for clothes and shoes I want to shout out "do you have any clothes for adults here?"
It sucks when the crap goes down at the start of ones vaca.. it just sets the tone for the rest of the trip. Sound like you made the nest of a not so ideal property. What they lacked in maintenance maybe they made up for in location. A nice travel buddy helps too ;-)
Glad you had a decent time away from stuff. Next time spend 150 a night.. hehehe.
ah yes, increase the price and make it better... haha. To be fair some friends of ours were staying in a Sofitel a few blocks away that was more expensive. I don't like that it is this way, but international chains have certain standards that the smaller guys can't possibly compete with.
My limited experience in south east asia as far as accommodation is concerned is that unless it is a chain, there is very little difference between a $50 room and a $100 room. Normally I go for the $20 room because then my expectations are so low that I can't possibly be disappointed.
I guess you could have a good point there and it was frequently been a strategy that I used in the past. As I get older I find that I want more comforts in my accommodation but sometimes I start to feel that a more expensive place is simply going to mean that more people are at your beck and call as far as staff are concerned. Since I rarely even ask the staff to do anything for me other than give me the room key, I might be wasting my money.
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