A good friend of mine, who is not a member of Club Hombre, had a very negative experience with Golden Beach Hotel and Sawadee.com. He asked me to post this information on his behalf.

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BEWARE joiner fee ripoff in pattaya

beware of sawadee.com and the golden beach hotel in
pattaya thailand

I booked a room at the golden beach hotel through
sawadee.com. I read the terms thoroughly because I
wanted to make sure there was no mention of a joiner
fee. there was none. I called the hotel and
asked "do you charge joiner fee ?" they said "no
joiner fee" sure enough, the first night I come
back to the hotel with my girlfriend, they want 600
baht. complained and argued with the manager to no
avail. he denied that anyone from the hotel told me
over the phone that there was no joiner fee.

I don't care if these hotels want to charge joiner
fees, but I consider it extremely deceptive business
practice to conceal the joiner fee from the consumer
when he is making a hotel reservation online.

This goes on all the time in Phuket, I have heard
dozens of stories from friends who were confronted
with ridiculous joiner fee's, sometimes more than
twice the cost of the actual room (3000 baht !!) The
reservation website said nothing about it.

Now it is happening in Pattaya. beware of this
rip-off. don't go to golden beach hotel. don't
book hotels through sawadee.com From now on, I
will not book any hotel unless I get an email from
them directly that clearly states there is no joiner
fee. Golden beach does not even respond to
reservation inquiries to their email address.