Pic: View from Deluxe room at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan (Aug 2011)

Pic: My Deluxe room at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan (Aug 2011)
Originally I had booked a 4-night reward stay at Holiday Inn Pattaya.  Early August, Miles and More launched an Accor hotels promo which made me reconsider my booking.  I reduced my reward stay at Holiday Inn to two nights  and booked one night at Pullman Pattaya Aisawan and one night at Hilton Pattaya.  Looking back at my Pattaya trip, this hotel hopping strategy was the right thing to do.  Not for the sake of collecting miles or points, but to experience the same beach location from different angles.

My stay at Pullman was supposed to earn me 1000 Star Alliance Miles, until I played the Winning Wheel and won my stay for free!  All excited for my upcoming free stay, I agreed on the expensive Holiday Inn Pattaya hotel limo (400THB for 10 min. ride) to the Pullman Aisawan.  Surprisingly, our overpriced limo driver didn’t know where the hotel was located and had to ask locals for directions.  The arrival at Pullman was quite impressive.  We approached the hotel along an nice driveway before drawing up in front of the elegant lobby entrance.  As A-Club Gold member (a status which I obtained for free via a sign-up link last year) I was ushered to at a dedicated check-in desk and served a refreshing drink.  After the usual formalities, I was offered a nice Pullman travel bag as welcome gift and informed my deluxe room booking was upgrade to a ‘Suite’.  A free stay and still being upgrade to a suite, nice!  A staff member escorted me to my ‘Suite’ only to discover I was not upgraded to a Suite, but an Executive Aisawan Club Room.  What I had previously read online was confirmed, this room type offered a nice sea-view but the interior was run down pretty bad.  Being quite disappointed, as my exceptions were set on an Executive Aisawan Club Suite Room at check-in, I requested to see my original booked Deluxe Room.  As it had a more recent interior, I switched rooms.  Too bad the staff didn’t handle this too well.  They weren’t quite friendly at this point compared to the initial check-in phase and I had to collect my new room keys at the reception myself.  When I complained about this, the front desk manager just stared at me speechless.

After settling at the deluxe room, it was time to relax.  Contrary to Holiday Inn, Hilton and most other Pattaya hotels, Pullman Aisawan offers direct beach access.  The Pattaya beach is a relatively narrow strip of sand which is unfortunately littered with trash at many places.  I found a quite different situation at Pullman’s beach: it was private, well maintained and guarded.
The Pullman Aisawan Beach Club offered private Cabanas with a reasonable 1000THB minimum spend , two big pools and impressive Beach Bar.  We had a great afternoon with a nice view, good food and cocktails.  Check my iPhone 360 panorama of the Pullman Pattaya Beach Club.

Overall, not a bad stay,  but front-desk staff needs some more training and focus should be put on details (i.e. a lot of minor defects in rooms, elevators, corridors, etc…)