nice boutique hotel, spacious rooms, but..

Located on relatively remote and quiet Maenam beach, the Amarin (Victoria) Resort seemed a good choice regarding all the good comments on the internet. It is situated on the main ring road leading around Koh Samui. Therefore there is traffic around the clock, but, of course, way less than at busy Chaweng beach. The lobby is spacious, the bar offering good drinks at reasonable prices and the hotel is quite modern with polished concrete walls decorated with photographies and art. The room seemed perfect at first sight. Breakfast area on 5th floor is vast and they provide really good thai food for the ones that can deal with thai dishes early in the morning, but also continental breakfast. The rooftop pool is nice, clean, but with a lot of chlorine. What was actually a bit shocking was the view from our room. Actually it wasn´t a view at all - we faced a kind of dirty, black mouldy wall maybe 2 meters away from the balcony edge. Even if you lean out to the left there ain´t much to see apart from a dirty building and a back yard. The aircon was placed on the balcony, so there was only little space left for two chairs and a small table. Not very inviting to sit outside at all. Just suitable for having a smoke, not more. Unfortunately they could not provide a room with the way better view to the mountain side. Keep that in mind when booking otherwise you will end up facing a really dirty wall ! The staff was quite friendly, but they seem to lack of professional personell. It seems that they don´t have time for proper cleaning, as shelves and corners have not been cleaned during our stay. All in all good vale for the money if you don´t mind the non-existing view we had to enjoy.