Comments: This is a pleasant building with bright, airy, comfortable, and relatively spacious rooms. The rooms made me feel comfortable straight away, which isn't always the case in Thailand.

The location is a little way out of town, next to Rosa Plaza where coach loads of Malaysian tour groups arrive each day to buy tourist trinkets. Thammanoonvithi Road (I've used the same spelling as the business card) is where you will find Hat Yai's nightlife and there are plenty of evening entertainment venues nearby. Getting into town from Chaophaya Mansion is about a 15 minute walk.

At Bt5,500 a month, the rate is roughly twice what local Thais expect to pay so there are normally rooms available. Water and electricity rates are fairly standard prices. The rooms have TVs and small fridges.

One major drawback is the lack of any Internet access. I would not move into a place now without an Internet connection and most new places offer this. Some of the older places seem very reluctant about getting it installed and obviously don't realise how important this is to many people these days. The girl who showed me the room said I could get it connected myself but couldn't tell me how.

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Comments: Chudchada Place is primarily a long stay residence but there are rooms they rent out on a hotel basis by the day. Thungsao Road is close to the bus station. It's a seedy and not very attractive area but this place is in a fairly quiet Soi.

It looked quite reasonable. The rooms have TVs with UBC, fridges, hot water, built-in furniture and Internet access. There is CCTV security (though I'm not sure about a security guard) and a carpark. All the rooms are the same but those on higher floors are Bt200 a month more expensive.

Overall, I would say it represents good value for money.

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Comments: The City Park is located almost next to Carrefour on the busy Phetkasem Road but set back a little way from the road so traffic noise isn't too bad. This is a fairly typical Hat Yai mid-price hotel but because it is a little way from the centre of town it doesn't get many tourists. It might suit people who prefer a quieter environment compared to downtown Hat Yai.

The hotel has a restaurant and this becomes a kind of lounge in the evening where you can listen to pretty Thai girls singing. Like many other Hat Yai hotels, this one also has a massage shop on the premises.

Being next to Carrefour, it is handy for shopping and there are all kinds of public transport options on the busy Phetkasem Road just a few yards away. It is as easy to get a minivan or bus to Songkhla in one direction as it is to get a sawng-thaew to downtown Hat Yai in the other.

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Comments: The building was completed in 2008 but stood empty for several months before Cosy Place was opened for business. As you can see from the photo, it is a large apartment building.

It is located on a part of Thammanoonvithi Road where there are several bars and also the plushest bath and massage house in Hat Yai. This is very handy if you suddenly feel the urge for an assisted bath with a pretty young Thai girl.

Rooms cost Bt5,000 a month and are fairly similar apart from a few that are a little larger. Rooms have A/C, and bathrooms have water heaters. This sounds obvious but it isn't always the case in provincial Thailand.

There is a water charge of Bt150 per month and electricity is charged at Bt6 per unit. An Internet connection is available for Bt400 per month. There is also a 24 hour security guard service which is quite important in Hat Yai.

Amazingly, there is a web site, and amazingly it seems to work (if you can read Thai).

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Comments: This is one of the cleanest hotels I have ever seen in Thailand. The toilets behind reception are clean to Singapore standards and not only are the urinals not full of cigarette butts but there is actually soap and a hand dryer that works. Finding soap and being able to dry your hands in a toilet in Thailand is almost unheard of.

The hotel is located next to Makro, near the bus station. It's ideal if you have an early bus to catch in the morning but not very convenient for getting into town. However, the night market which operates from Thursday to Sunday is just across the road. Tesco Lotus and the Prince of Songkhla hospital/university are within walking distance.

For the location the rate is expensive but if you are fussy about cleanliness and hygiene you won't go far wrong.

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Comments: A big hotel (around 180 rooms) which is popular with Chinese Malaysians.

There are conference facilities in the hotel so you will also find groups of corporate Thais who are there for meetings. Leisure facilities cater exclusively for the Chinese clientele with a Chinese restaurant, Mandarin coffee shop, massage parlour and lounge for evening entertainment. There is also a snooker club.

At hotels like this in Hat Yai you are more likely to hear Chinese being spoken than Thai.

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Comments: Very popular with Chinese guests and close to the centre of town, the Diamond Plaza is getting towards the top end of the hotel market in Hat Yai. It is in the same group as the nearby Grand Plaza but more upmarket.

Guest Comments:

• "Wi-Fi signal in lobby but not in rooms."

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Comments: The Emperor has definitely seen better days and is now looking pretty awful. This is reflected in the room rates. What will probably happen some time in the future is that it will close for a complete refurbishment before reopening and charging double the current room rates.

Competition among hotels is stiff in Hat Yai with lots of supply and - as a result of the insurgency problems in the south and a declining economy worldwide - not much demand. In its current state, the only way the Emperor can get guests in is by offering very cheap room rates but, even so, there are better deals to be had locally.

The area it is in is well-known for 'Karaoke' bars. The hotel has its own Karaoke lounges and there is a disco attached - Disco Palace - which I'm not sure is open still or not.

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Comments: The hotel brochure says that the Florida is located in the heart of Hat Yai. This isn't exactly true (depending on opinions as to where the heart of Hat Yai is) but it isn't a huge distance from Lee Gardens Plaza, which is where I consider the centre of Hat Yai to be. It's a distance I am quite happy walking but others may consider the distance too far.

The rooms are a good size, especially the deluxe ones, and the views aren't bad from the higher floors.

The whitewashed exterior of the hotel with palm trees planted outside is pleasant and the atmosphere inside is relaxed and (for Hat Yai) quite wholesome.

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Comments: Thais aren't big on maintenance. New buildings look fine but after a few years they start to look a real mess. Exteriors rarely get repainted and hotel rooms can start looking decidedly dirty.

This isn't a problem with new hotels, of course, and at the time of writing the Golden Crown hotel is one of Hat Yai's newest, only opening its doors for business at the start of 2005. It opened during a depressed business period in Hat Yai, mainly due to the problems in the south, and when I looked it is possible that some rooms hadn't even been used.

The standard rooms are a good size and everything looks and smells new, as would be expected. The new carpets are spotless and have that spring in them that old carpets lose over time.

The hotel has 102 rooms. Seven of those are classified as deluxe rooms and cost Bt500 a night more. They are slightly bigger with bigger bathrooms but are not quite suites as can found in some of the larger hotels in Hat Yai. To be honest I didn't think they were worth Bt500 more. Maybe Bt100 or Bt200 more for that little extra breathing space, but not Bt500.

The hotel is well located, being close to both Lee Gardens and the food vendors on Suphasarnrangsan. It is very close to the junction of Pracharak and Suphasarnrangsan roads.

Guest Comments:

• "This is my 4th time staying here and I consider this hotel to be just about a proper sound barrier to the sonic boom one faces in central Hat Yai. The lobby is pleasant and quiet with complimentary newspapers in Mandarin, Malay and English apart from the Thai language daily. The front desk staff are cool in the sense that there are limitations to what they can help so I leave as it is.

  There is a restaurant and the Charawa Ancient Massage beside the building but since the departure of Ahphim then I cannot highly recommend the therapists there.

  There are smoking and non-smoking floors although during my first stay here I was put in a non-smoking floor yet I was able to ask for an ashtray and the reason was that the hotel had all the room fully booked and they had to just put people in where there is a vacancy. The television channels are all right as we can watch Al Jazeera, the BBC. Media Corp, KBS Korea, NHK Japan (both with English subtitles), CCTV 4 from China, Fashion TV and the sports and movie channels.

  The rooms are spacious especially near the window and there is space compared to the Novotel Hotel room area. There isn't a proper writing desk with drawers like Diamond Plaza and the television is not of the LCD type. The attached built in clothes cabinet is a bit narrow.

  The bed is soft according to my body as an Asian so I am not sure about your European taste. I sleep well and I have chosen a room not facing the busy Suphasarnrangsan road. The windows are sound-proofed but not entirely 100%. The bathroom tiles are still in good condition and the lighting is pleasant although the Golden Crown Plaza Hotel has a standing shower and a bathtub beside it.

  For 680 Baht in an area just near to Lee Gardens, but not entirely there, it is still a good deal with free Wifi. Breakfast is also included.

  Would I stay here again? Yes and maybe after this, a return to the Golden Crown Plaza Hotel and just maybe at Lee Garden Plaza."

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Comments: When the scruffy Inter Hotel was finally closed down, gutted and completely rebuilt, this it what it re-emerged as. It's a completely new hotel with a new name.

The Golden Crown Plaza opened in April 2007 and there are 210 comfortable, well-appointed rooms with TVs, refrigerators and Wi-Fi Internet connections.

I took a look at the hotel immediately after it opened and although it was open for business, there was still a fair amount of work to be done. At that time, neither the restaurant or massage shop had opened. Also, the suites had yet to be completed.

First impressions were positive though and the new hotel is a massive improvement on the Inter which was pretty disgusting. The location is convenient and I'm sure that when everything is finished it will prove to be a very welcome addition to the Hat Yai hotel scene.

As you can see, this photo was taken before the electricity cables were moved underground. That piece of work has made central Hat Yai look so much better.

Guest Comments:

• "The Hotel Golden Crown Plaza remains the best so far so try to include that in your hotel tips."
• "Still, in terms of clear satellite transmission and the supplementary TV channels from Malaysia I had to say Golden Crown Plaza wins hand down in terms of what it has to offer."
• "I consider this the best hotel in Hat Yai not counting Novotel Centara for the price one pays. Got the voucher from Konsortium. The tv reception was indeed better than Lee Gardens or Regency New Wing although Grand Plaza is also not bad."

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Comments: There are certain euphemisms to be aware of in Thailand, and further, there are some regional differences in the use of euphemisms. In Hat Yai the prostitutes are referred to as 'booking girls', a quaint term I have not heard used anywhere else in Thailand.

'Karaoke bars' are normally small shops with 'booking girls' for rent and 'Turkish bath' is a soap and sex brothel. In Hat Yai, most of the places I know that are referred to as 'resorts' provide rooms to rent by the hour. In other countries they might be referred to as love motels or something.

The first clue is the use of 'resort' in the name and the second clue is that they advertise hourly rates. So who uses these places?

The sex tourists from across the border stay in hotels and therefore have no need for places like this. It's possible that young Thai couples who don't have a private place of their own might use one of the rooms but my best guess is that the main customers are married Thai men with mia nois.

Some of the Hat Yai massage girls I have spoken to have told me that Thai men occasionally ask them to go to a 'resort' to deliver the massage. The answer is always no because they know that such men are up to no good and can't be trusted.

This place is located quite close to the many 'Karaoke bars' in the Channivet area so it might be useful for a guy who is renting a girl but can't take her back to his own place.

Apart from this short-time aspect of the business, Golden House can also accommodate regular guests. The overnight rate is Bt400, but only Bt350 if you arrive after midnight. However, I suspect that anyone arriving after midnight is probably there for the same purpose as those people arriving for a two or three hour stay.

It's actually quite a tricky place to find and a little off the map I have given a link to. If you really want to go there, call the resort for directions or ask a tuk-tuk or motorbike taxi driver to take you.

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Comments: This was the very first place I stayed at in Hat Yai. Like most tourists upon arriving in a new place, I was keen to stay somewhere fairly central and this is about as central as it gets in Hat Yai.

The rate quoted above is the walk-in rate but I got a discount by booking a room through Konsortium travel agents located just a few minutes walk away. These discounts aren't always as straightforward as they seem in that the rack rate will often include breakfast for two, while the discount coupon will just be for the room, so check first.

Having said that, however, the standard buffet breakfast provided in most Thai hotels is pretty grim and all I can normally bring myself to eat is a couple of slices of toast so an inclusive breakfast doesn't always provide very good value.

If you want to be in the middle of whatever action there is in Hat Yai, the location is good. My initial impression (several years ago now) was that the rooms and corridors needed some redecoration, and that was something that happened subsequently.

The hotel has the standard coffee shop/restaurant and massage shop. Since the massage rooms were refurbished, they are now quite pleasant and on a level with those at the Central Hotel.

Guest Comments:

• "There is zero (Wi-Fi) signal in Neo Hat Yai, Grand Plaza or Regency."
• "Grand Plaza is very very nice sans WiFi. Even though my room is located facing The Pink Lady yet it is still a very quiet and peaceful abode."
• "So, Grand Plaza Hotel which is a quiet retreat to me has been my choice of stay."

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Comments: Conveniently situated next to Carrefour, this place is fairly new, well-equipped and cheap. It is therefore no surprise that I have never known any rooms to be available. However, as people move on, rooms will become available.

Thais are great bargain hunters. In the places they consider expensive, you will find lots of vacant rooms. But in a place like this, you will struggle to get in.

All rooms have air-conditioning, furniture, and cable TV. Internet is available for only Bt200 per month. In addition to the rent being cheap, the deposit is also cheap at only Bt5,000.

You have lots of transport options on Phetkasem Road, and a large supermarket right next door. It seems like a real bargain but the biggest problem will be getting a room because vacancies don't appear to come up very often.

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Comments: The longer I stay in Hat Yai, the more the central area of town drives me nuts. When I first arrived it seemed vibrant and exciting but now I stay away as much as I can unless I really have a reason to go into that part of town.

I have a room so don't need to use Hat Yai hotels but if I did this one would be one of my top choices and one of the main reasons is that it's a long way from the centre of town. At the time of writing (March 2006) it is the newest hotel in Hat Yai that I am aware of and it is very nicely fitted out.

The reception is gorgeous and the rooms are very well appointed. Because of its location the rooms are a bargain price. Long term rentals are also available making it a fairly attractive proposition for lengthy stays in Hat Yai.

I think there is some kind of an ownership connection with Wanthana Mansion described below. I was told when it was being built that it was going to be an apartment building but when it opened it opened as a hotel. Perhaps the room rental business in Hat Yai is saturated now?

Plentiful tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis are available to get into town or you can walk but I guess the walk would take around 20 minutes or more. Bear in mind this place is further out than JB Hotel and JB lay on free tuk-tuks into town for their guests.

If you don't mind being a little way from the action this place really is a Great Hotel.

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Comments: The Green View is a standard mid-price range Hat Yai hotel located away from the central tourist district.

There isn't much more to say. It may suit people looking to avoid the tourists, or it could be an alternative if all the hotels in the centre of town are busy.

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