…and then you visit one.

You might remember the last post had us planning to set out the check out another hotel across the beach.  But despite a gut call to check out the other location, we needed some other information.  Do they have rooms?  Hotels.com said yes (agoda said no, odd?).  How do we get there?  Get on road, walk until it ends.. we can handle that.  What is the backup plan?  Stick around at the Impiana.  It was not what we had in mind.  But a tent won’t cut it either.  And the game plan?  Head over to The Shore and check out a room.  If it is great, book it, then cancel at Impiana.

And so we set off.  It took a good 1/2 hour to walk there, and we checked out the tiny town of Kata Noi at the same time.  A couple of restaurants, a handful of shops, a taxi stand, and not much more.

Upon arrival we were greeted by security guards who did not want to let us go in to see a room.  After some convincing, the language barrier was surpassed, and we followed signs to the lobby.  There we met Austin.  We were pretty sure he understood what we were asking, but he was sure he was not ready to help then.  He asked us to wait 40 minutes or so.  And so we headed down to the outdoor lounge.. and.. well.. lounged.

After some time they sent down an electric cart for us.  We went up to the lobby and found Austin still busy.  But a new gal, Sylvia was available.  After describing the situation, she handed us off to Ya (a common name here in Thailand), and he took us to the room.

I think it was about 10 seconds after we walked in that I said “This will work”.  Janine and I were all smiles.  The view was great.  And no dodgy maintenance issues.  Sold.

So back to the office we went.  Upon arrival we were told we could not have a room for the dates we needed (really?!).  We protested, and ultimately decided to book on Hotels.com — if they say there is room (exactly one left), then there must be.  Great.  Booked.  Now what.

They had no information on the booking.  But Sylvia wanted to help out.  So she worked out a two day rack rate temporary stay, and with a “Welcome Ashore”.. we were all set.  She called a taxi for us to get our bags.

While we were waiting, a call came through from her reservations desk.  They did have a room.  In fact, they were giving us the exact one they showed us (yay).  “Welcome Ashore” [again].  We never could get the information from Sylvia as to where the room that did not exist came from, or why it was not there a few minutes before.  But we would rather have the room than understand why it was unavailable before.

And with that we set off to check out of the first hotel and retrieve our bags.  This was the part I was least looking forward to.  Janine volunteered to play emissary on this mission.  We figured the pregnancy woman mojo would help out.

And perhaps it did, as the Impiana folks were nice as pie.  Yeah. they tried to give us a free upgrade.  But really, we just wanted out.  And they got that.  It remains to be seen if we will get a refund or have to protest the charge.  But the manager Janine spoke to understood why we were leaving, and was very professional in offering to make sure the refund goes through.

See.. happy ending.  Speaking of which, here are a few photos of The Short at Katathani, where we actually stayed in Phuket.