For those that want to stay in the heart of the action the Penthouse Hotel on Soi Pattayaland 2.
Set in the middle of a string of Go-Go Bars they will make up your room in the early afternoon and again between 8-10 pm, great feature for an early evening ST. Has it's own Go-Go downstairs 'Cats' and closed-circuit TV so you can 'order-up' a tasty dish to your room if you see one on stage. Adult films after midnight; mirrors everywhere and effective mood lighting. A mid priced room here will cost a little less than 25 USD/d. A bit noisy because of the location and ongoing renovations but the staff and owner aim to please. 24hr room service and restaurant. Why would you want to sleep anyway? Get out there and get some!

F1

I can second the Penthouse recommendation, the Jomtien Plaza is a nice hotel but it not walking distance to the action, though you can take a taxi for about $1 each way. Avoid the Welcome Plaza it is cheap but rooms and bed are below avg. I will return to the Penthouse my next trip to Pattaya.

Would it be a problem or a joiner charge if you had a room at the Penthouse and brought another girl from some other bar or gogo into your room?

Wes,
Penthouse never has a guest charge.

Scooter

FYI - I have not been to a hotel in Pattaya where they apply a guest charge, though you should always ask first.

Besides Penthouse hotel which other hotels in Pattaya offer adult movies.

Anyone ever try the "Champagne Service" where they pick you up in a limo and 2 gogo girls massage you for 2 hours on the way to Pattaya?

I've decided that on my first trip to Thailand, I will head straight to Pattaya (arrive next week, October 17th)...and, yes, I will stay at the Penthouse Hotel and try their Champaign Service limo pickup. Currently, it costs $261 -- but, what the hell. Going there to vacation...might as well spoil myself the first day out, eh?

$261 for a two hour ride?

Bud

I have read a few reviews of the "Champagne Service". The general conclusion is that it's just not worth it. Two girls accompany you in a nice car. They get a little friendly but I've not heard of anything "special" happening on the ride. I was very interested in this service, but chose to just get there and see what was there. I'm glad I did. The Penthouse is in the middle of some very very good action. Either way you walk will lead to more and more.

The Kitten Club, the bar owned by The Penthouse, is next door to the hotel. I was not impressed by the ladies there compared to the bars next to, accross the street from, or one block in either direction from it. The biggest drawback in my opinion, besides the money, is you don't choose the girls. Be damned if I'm going to pay for play without me doing the picking.

As far as the Penthouse is concerned, I am baffled why this is not Epi's favorite place in Pattaya. It is the hotel of a monger's dream. One note of caution, there are so many things in the room for sale. I was constantly paranoid the girls might accidently break the seal of a high dollar item. You can actually go there with the clothes on your back and have everything you need, and I mean everything. The only negative thing I can come up with is that the hotel is a maze. Stairways everywhere, rooms out of order, and bigger than it looks. In my defense, the girls even got lost, even after being to my room more than once.

Bud

Guzybear,

I've got to go with Big Balls here ... if your really want to spoil yourself go for the $2 bus ride to Pattaya and spend the other $259 on girls. That will get you 4 hotties all night long or you could run 5 or 6 of them through in two hour shifts (-:

McDIJJ

I'll join the negatives on this. I believe there is nothing except a little groping at most on the trip to Pattaya. Your coach could pull up with a couple of bowsers.Last visit the Kitten Club where the girls originate were very short on looks. I hope for your sake though your dreams come true-- they're gorgeous and they fuck you blind all the way to Pattaya.

BigBallz

The Penthouse is not my favorite because I get a decent room for about 750B on Soi 2. Yes, I do not have a dance floor and brass pole in my room, but I'm also not worried some tart will open a $50 dildo by accident!!

Where I stay is handy for how I play Pattaya. I have MANY great beer bar complexes less then a one minute walk from my room. Baht buses (bahtmobiles) come down my street about every minute or so to take me to Walking Street. I am surrounded by absolute quiet for those rare occasions I want to sleep. My FAVORITE foot massage place is a 3 minute walk from my hotel. The Pattaya hospital and the best potato salad (makes boys from Idaho take notice) are also close by in case of emergency. The mall is right across second street for movies and shopping with that special someone of the moment...

What's not to love about my hotel?

E

Okay...

After reading the opinions of the experts here, I must agree that the champaign limo service sounds like a total waste of money. Not to mention, I don't even like champaign! (I guess I was getting too excited about this, my first trip to Thailand -- something I've dreamed about since I was a 19 year old Marine nearly 20 years ago!)

I'm gonna call the hotel tomorrow and cancel the limo service.

What'dya think...if I play my cards right, and just simply cancel my ENTIRE reservation (because, well, as Epi says...there are perfectly fine alternatives elsewhere)...y'think Penthouse might be willing to lower their rates? Maybe even toss in the Champaign Limo for free? After all, everything I've read about Thailand says that you should actively negotiate the purchase of everything...

The best place to stay is Eastiny Inn..you are at the midpoint in Pattaya and have more beer bars near you than anywhere else on Soi 8. It's also much closer and easier to get to a bahtmobile. The rates are in the 800 baht range and the rooms are clean, big and fairly modern. Epi is a creature of habit which is why he sticks with the same routine...must work cause the guy has more fun than anyone on the planet but I think it traps you into staying too close to home the entire trip by staying at Soi 2.

Just an update...

Yes, I cancelled the Champaign service. And I'm glad I did.

I've been staying at the Penthouse since arriving in country. My original plan was to stay here in Pattaya for just five days, then travel up north to Chiang Mai for a few more days, and see what that's all about. Then spend the remainder of my trip in Bangkok. But my plans have changed...I love it too much here in Pattaya, and decided to spend my entire two week vacation here. I've also decided to stay at the Penthouse for the entire time. I guess I'm also a creature of habit.

I like the Penthouse mainly because of its location. It's within walking distance of Walking Street. And the Soi that it's on is no dud, either. Adequate supply of beer bars and a-go-go bars here, as well as a few more on its neighbor streets (despite many of them being male go-go bars).

The thing that I HATE about Penthouse, however, is that there are roaches here. Perhaps this is true with all of Pattaya, I don't know. And the roaches in itself isn't bad (after all, I'm from Hawaii and we have a roach problem there as well). HOWEVER, it seems that every night so far, I've woken up to a roach or two crawling up my arm -- I guess my subconscious mind sensed it, and woke me up and I was able to accurately pick the cold roach off my arm and toss it across the room, all the while being in a half-comatose state of sleep.

Other than that, I have no complaints about the Penthouse. Even the doormen are extremely professional. On one ocassion, I forgot to remove the keys from the ignition of my motorbike when I parked it in front of the hotel. Later that day, as I was looking high and low for the keys, I ran downstairs to see if I may have left it in the bike. Sure enough, the doorman came up to me, and handed me the keys. I was very impressed with his courtesy and professionalism.

I stayed at the Penthouse from 10/12-10/19 and I must say, I won't return there on my next trip. The rooms are way overpriced relative to other local hotels, my room has many bugs crawling around (no I didn't awake to one though), the hot water was iffy, and there was some contruction and subsequent loud noises nearby my door during the day.

Stayed at the Penthouse and noticed the roaches, but how about the moldy, mildewy smell. Or the clutter artifacts and pillows all over the place. Very expensive by Pattaya standards. Merl.

Stayed at Penthouse once and checked out after the first night. WAY overpriced, very noisy, and all the disturbing things noted above were my experience as well. I would not stay there again if you paid me to do so !!!!

I emailed the Penthouse a few weeks back to ask them a few questions. To their credit, they answered my questions promptly. They also sent me their August newsletter that contained general info about Thailand, how to get to Pattaya, etc. The best part, though, was that the newsletter included guest feedback, including one guest letter that complained about seeing rats in his room.

I guess you have to admire the hotel's honesty if not its wisdom and accomodations.

Another thing I didn't like about Penthouse is that it is so damn dark in the room. And everything IN the room is dark-colored as well. So if you forgot where you left your leather wallet or sunglasses, well...good luck finding them -- they'll just blend in with everything else in the room.

Even one of the BG's that came back with me said she didn't like the room because it was dark (she said this before we even got to the hotel...evidently, she'd been there before).

With the curtains closed, it could be broad daylight outside and it'll be nearly completely dark inside the room.

Nevertheless, it's real close to Walking Street...

Agree-- all the lights in my room were red. could barely see anything with all the lights on. When I left and complained they said -- all you had to do was ask and they would have changed the light bulbs. Absurd policy.

Also--Puy from Classroom -- the only girl I brought there with one day stay-- said most of the girls thought the hotel had ghosts and did not like to go there. Thai girls are friggin terrified of ghosts. They truly believe they exist !! You cannot even joke about ghosts without upsetting them .

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Let's hear it for what seems to be the most controversially reviewed hotel in Thailand.

Me? I thought the PIMP suite penthouse was pretty nice, and if booking it with a friend, would cost each of you about 2000 baht per night.

big thumbs down from me.

Reasons:

girls didn't like it (2 told me outright)

the hot water was iffy on days

loud on certain days

overpriced relative to other places

having go-gos outside your front door, was a negative not a positive. Hard for me to break free from latchers and stalkers.

I hated the design

I hated the room decor

I hated the lighting

I had a few too many creepy crawlers


What I liked:

fuck swing by bed

balcony overlooking street

Many of the girls believe it is haunted and will not go anywhere near the place. I had a cutie from Classroom across the street who said one of her friends saw a ghost there. Supposedly some German dude offed himself in his room at the hotel a few years back. Could be said about most hotels in Pattaya I suppose . Those fat Germans are always doing themselves in over some lost BG slut GF-- go figure.

The lighting sucks- all red lights in the room I had- again the Patpong party suite. It was noisy, dirty,little ( and big) crawlers everywhere . Also way to much shit for left around for sale in the room that could be squirreled away by your evenings companion. The bed was hard as concrete.When I left after one night they told me it could be turned around to be softer-- thanks a lot for the delayed info !!

Now all this was about 3 years ago- perhaps they have improved, but I for one will never go back.

My rental was 3 years ago as well, but I stopped in last trip to visit a friend and it was the same as when I was there.

(Message edited by donmarco on May 14, 2005)

I'm staying now at the Penthouse and like it a lot. i'm a repeat customer and NEVER had any problems. understand folks have different taste and i respect that by all means. i humbly think this hotel is unique in this town and it suits my needs. know i could get a cheaper or equal price place somewhere else, but, i'm esay to get along and not too picky, once i like one place i tend to gravitate there almost instlantly when in town. ///

i will be in Pattaya next week and i just booked the "Phnom Penh" Room for 4 days, i am curious if it is any good.

i will give you an update soon after my trip

I would suggest changing the reservation (if possible to 1 night) and go from there. I have yet to meet anyone that has felt its worth spending additional nights. Myself included.

Brian the manager from England presents himself in about the same way the hotel does on a first time guest; a lot of smoke and mirrors and at checkout a Big Bill with a sleasy overpriced oil snake salesman aftertaste.

Everyone has to expierence the marketing gimmick once to fully grasp it.

I totally agree with Gggmaddux.

I hear they have remodeled most of the rooms and cleaned up so it's not the roach infested dump it once was but it's still waay overpriced and has the same sleazy management.

If that happened to be the last hotel with rooms available in Pattaya I would not go to Pattaya.

I agree with KM & Gggmaddux not worth it!
The mirrors, stages, swing ideas and location are great but until its under new management it still a shit hole!

Try The Vault or Metro Apartments or Sabai lodge/Inn

ok. thx for the advice.

i will give it a chance but if it turns out to be shit like you say i'm out of there.

Nice to see that someone likes my name enough to use my name.

Is nothing sacred?

I was a little surprised "I" was answering a SNIPER question... then came the "80" and the answer to "MY" question.

I don't know...seems like alot of the posts here don't seem to like this place, but I stayed there in '05, and I enjoyed it. Didn't have any problems with bugs...or any other creepy crawlies...and yes, the place is gawdy, and loud, sort of a "best little whorehouse in pattaya" feel to it...but that is part of the attraction for me. I thought it was a blast, and will stay here again on my next trip to Pattaya.


(Message edited by freakseeker67 on January 09, 2008)

Here now in one of the large Rooms (relax 3 with balcony on 2nd floor) for 3k although they are charing extra 10% for Christmas period and other taxes are not included, so 4k total. The place is the best little whorehouse in Pattaya as I stayed in Secrets right before this which was very similar. Jacuzzi isn't that great, 42 inch TV is great. Bugs are still here altough I have only seen 3 and always in the bathroom. I think they have leakage problems. They do have bug traps EVERYWHERE though, so it sounds like they are quite aware. Breakfast is included although no buffet due to economy (direct quote) - one guy freaked out about it and said he is never coming here again, I didn't really mind the typical preset breakfast (you have 5 choices). The only real problem I have is that my room seems to be right above the club and the whole room vibrates from the music until at least 2 am when the club closes. Unfortunately this alone is reason for me not to stay here again although I suppose other rooms might be much better, but without seeing each at 2am, I couldn't be sure.