Apartment X5 Pattaya

Apartment X5 in Pattaya

You have to understand that I rent the room Delux, so I expected a very good room.
But maybe it's because I'm from Sweden and the owner is from India, we have different views on what Suite Deluxe is.

Good and bad about Apartment X5 in Pattaya

First I tell you the good thing.

The wardrobe is big, there is good space both for luggage and clothes. And you can go inside and close the door if you live 2 in the room and want change your clothes in private.

The refrigerator is big with a good freezer compartment.

The pool are small but ok.

The bed is big and good to sleep in.

The balcony is small, but ok for one people to sitt on. But I missing the drying rack for clothes that is included in the room description.

AC is good.

Desk and seating area are ok.

And so to the bad thing.

On the first of September 2024, I arrived at what I thought was a hotel, because it was a hotel I had booked. I did not react to the fact that the name of the hotel was Apartment X5. Because I have stayed in many hotels before that had the word apartment in their name. Often because they have both hotels and apartments. But there have never been any problems before.

I am not a poor man, but that's don't mean I like to be cheated. I live most on hotels, one month per hotel before moving to the next hotel. But this time I had spent a lot of money so I was a bit short on money so I wanted to stay in a cheap hotel until new money arrived 5 days later from Sweden. So I booked the hotel for 28 nights for 11,349 baht. It was the cheapest hotel I could find on Booking.com for the time I needed. Normally hotels take a key deposit of 500 baht so I expected that. So I had 6,500 baht left for food, water and some gas for the car for 5 days.

But when I got to the hotel and was about to check in, the owner said that since I booked more than 27 days, my hotel reservation becomes an apartment reservation and I have to pay electricity at least 1200 baht, water at least 300 baht and a deposit of 5000 baht. I said crazy, I don't agree, I have booked a hotel. Then I refrain from this and take in a real hotel instead. The owner said it's up to you, but you still have to pay the rent, electricity and water because you didn't cancel yesterday. Normally I don't care, I've paid and left, but this time I had too little money for that, so I was forced to stay in my "apartment" but now I only had 1,500 baht left for food, water and gasoline for 5 days.

When I entered the room, I immediately saw that it was not worth 12,849 baht. (Rent 11,349 Water 300 and electricity 1,200.) Maybe like a hotel, if they provide hotel service and give me drinking water every day, but they don't for apartment guests.
As an apartment it was probably worth 5,000-6,000 baht/month at most.

This is how Apartment X5 describes themselves on Booking.com:

Apartment X5 offers air-conditioned rooms with desks, kettles, fridges, safes, flat-screen TVs and balconies, as well as private bathrooms with showers. The private bathroom is equipped with a bathand free toiletries. The rooms have a wardrobe.

Breakfast is served daily and consists of an à la carte breakfast, a continental breakfast and vegetarian options.

If I stay in the hotel as a hotel, the breakfast was included in the price, but as a tenant in an apartment, I have to pay 125 Baht for breakfast, and I never ate that breakfast. I asked other guests if they ate it, but none of them I ask do. They say, just like me, that it doesn't match the ad.
I also asked other tenants what they paid in rent, and the answer was 6,500, so I asked the owner why I have to pay so much. He replied that my room is bigger, a suite.
But it is not twice as big, possibly a couple of square meters bigger. I said I don't need a big room, give me a smaller room and my money back. But of course it didn't work. He replied that if I want a smaller room I can have it, but he cannot give any money back.

Here's my bathroom, it's worn and dirty, when I first came in, and a couple of cockroaches were running around on the floor. But I clean it myself,

And here there should be a bath, but I don't see it. So this is what you get if you rent a Suite Deluxe against your will in Pattaya.

Water heaters worked as long as you didn't need to get hot water. You could turn it on and it showed that it was on. But it didn't heat the water.

Black mold in the bathroom ceiling is not pleasant when you live in a deluxe room. It is also directly dangerous to health.

They have 3 very worn out washing machines in the courtyard which cost 20 baht per wash. But just like in the shower, the water pressure is extremely low. So a wash that normally takes 50 minutes, here takes closer to 2.5 hours. Fortunately, there are both self-service express laundry and staffed laundry facilities nearby.

The safe's code lock was broken so it came with a key, and they recommended I use the safe. When I was going to lock up my valuables, I saw that the safe was not bolted down. So if I use it, a thief can take the whole safe, it's small and not that heavy. But at least I managed to lock my passport just to test it, but then I probably spent 15 minutes trying to open it again. You have to mess around a bit, the door might be crooked. So I don' use it.

I asked a few other guests if their safe was also not bolted down. And it turned out that all the safes were loose.

There is a flat screen TV, but it looks like the screen has been cleaned with a wire brush because all you see are shadows moving in the background. So it cannot be viewed.

Free internet is also available, now I have very good internet on my phone and I usually share it with my computer. But sometimes when there is a lot of internet traffic, it goes a little slower. So I used the accommodation internet because they had high security WPA2/WPA3, so I used that. It took exactly 30 minutes before I got a text up on the computer. "Your computer has been hacked, too bad for you!" I immediately shut down the computer and took massive measures to remove the damage, something I particularly reacted to was that it was not possible to remove the connection to the accommodation's /automatic login/. But I was forced to go into terminal and remove the connection from safe boot mode. I don't know, but somehow it feels like someone at this residence had something to do with the hacker attack.

It is very responsive in the house and you can hear the neighbors talking in their rooms. And even if the house is in a slightly poorer area with a narrow street, there is a lot of traffic outside which disturbs a bit when they drive at night. But there are several restaurants, Tops and 7/11 and several resorts not too far away. Stray dogs are not that many, and they run away when they see people. But opposite the hotel there is a dog that often barks around the clock, but it is locked behind large gates. But it's hard to sleep. And the AC from other rooms is clearly heard.

You can order food, beer and soda in the reception, but I never do that.

The owner is from India, with Thai wife.

And maybe that's why we have different views on what is a Deluxe Room. In India maybe this is crazy luxury.

But still, you have to adapt to the country you have the business, and to the customers you want rent from you.

There are many fraudsters in Thailand, mostly in the sex industry, taxis and call centers, etc. As I have understood it during my years in Thailand, the majority of the fraudsters have a foreign background.

China, Russia, India, Middle East dominate.

In same building downstairs is it a weed shop.

If I had booked the hotel for 27 days instead of 28 days, the price would have been 25,425 baht. I hope no one does that at this place because it's not worth the money at all.

Therefor the owner mean it is cheap to booking for long time. But it's not when the price is usury from the beginning.

This is SCAM

But if you want to be cheated, you can search

for accommodation on Booking.com

Apartment X5, Pattaya

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Ban Chang Palace, Ban Chang, Rayong province.

Compare that to Ban Chang Palace in Ban Chang which I stayed at a month after Apartment X5.

If I had lived at hotel prices, a month would have cost 36,000, but I rented it as an apartment and had to pay electricity and water myself, deposit 5,000 and monthly rent 5,500. So they did exactly the right thing, they didn't charge a hotel price for an apartment room.

Ban Chang Palace is also a truly luxurious hotel, with a restaurant, swimming pool and 24-hour reception, guard and a lot of parking.

Everything in the room working perfect, and free cleaning once a week.

Only 30 minutes driving with car from Pattaya so it is a better alternative then Apartment X5 if you have a car.