This one decidedly deserves an excellent mark.
The airport pick up was super smooth. We were promptly greeted by a pleasant lady at the airport and quickly ushered to a waiting Bentley. Nice touch.. The chauffeur was suitably polite and never spoke unless spoken to. At the hotel, we were assigned a butler whom promptly took care of our needs.
The architecture and interior decor of this new hotel are outstanding and meets the mark of a '5 star plus' establishment. A blend of an indistinct moorish architecture and a European decor and furnishing.
As the prices will tell you, you would readily expect some level of luxury. And they certainly didn't disappoint. The airport pick up, check in, breakfast, room service, the spa and services at the pool were all suitably classy. We had a nice suite overlooking the Andaman Sea, and what looked like some neighbouring islands.
Nevertheless, the most outstanding and valuable to us, was definitely the quiet and subtle pleasantries of most of the hotel staff..
The hotel fixed a nice small but new car for 2 of us to get to town. A total 2.5 hour trip for a quick lunch and a shopping stop only costed us RM80. Reception staff, Ismail and Jojo were genuinely helpful when we wanted to cancel our booking with another hotel and extended our stay at St Regis!
There were obviously some minor downsides, but these wouldn't affect our 5 star rating,
- food are pricey. But, there's a convenient buggy service to the neighbouring Westin Hotel, if you must, for normal priced restaurants. It only took 5 minutes and staff at Westin would be happy to shuttle you back to St Regis anytime. There's also a good and more reasonably priced spa at Westin, if you like.
- it has a nice secure private lagoon, but if you're looking to a white sandy beach, this isn't an ideal spot.
- a couple of times, the cleaners came at unsuitable hours. I would suppose, a quick call to the room prior to the planned clean up would be much more appropriate for this sort of hotel.
I would imagine, there would always be naturally whiny hotel guests whom are almost impossible to please, hence some complaints might distort your take on this property.
Overall, if you're looking for a tranquil, classy and friendly place for a short stay, this is the right destination.