VillaAye

We had a group of 20 who spent 3 days at Villa Aye for a wedding. It's a spectacular venue for a wedding, or for any occasion. We will definitely consider coming back again. The location is a little out of the way and taxis are not easy to get to/from there, so you'll likely spend most of your time there. That's ok, though, because it's a wonderful place to be. I do, however, have a couple of suggestions. POSITIVES: 1) Staff - the staff are fabulous, they go above and beyond to help and are very professional. When I sat down by the pool to watch the sunrise, staff brought me a coffee. When I jumped in the pool late at night, towels instantly appeared. I didn't even ask for either of these, the staff were apparently just paying attention. 2) Venue - the villa is wonderful, with spectacular views and gorgeous architecture and spacious rooms. Plenty of space to spread out, too. SUGGESTIONS: 1) Food/Meal system - the food was delicious, we don't have any complaints about the quality of the food preparation. However, the system for ordering it was not good. I know the intent is to individualize meals and cater to specific tastes, but it is way too complicated and onerous to try to figure out what 20 people want for every meal, plus snacks, in advance. We ended up missing a couple of meals because we didn't have our orders together. We assumed there would be some staple food available, but really it seems everything has to be ordered in advance, which was just way too difficult and time-intensive to figure out. If the Villa wants to offer individualized meals every day, that's fine, perhaps it works for some people. But I recommend also offering some simple options, like a buffet option, for groups that don't or can't take all of that time to order for each person. 2) Flooring - the hardwood floors are beautiful, but they are far too easily scratched. We ended up with a US$500 charge for a scratched floor, apparently from one of our guests moving an ironing board. No place that regularly hosts guests should have floors that easy to damage; it's ridiculous. Either the floors need to be better protected or the furniture needs to be fixed to the floor, or padded under each part that touches the floor. And, guests should not be given an ironing board that is going to scratch the floor. I'm very upset about this. In addition, the floors had to be protected during the wedding with an ugly protective cover taped to the floor because they are so soft. It made the whole entry area look cheap and tacky. What's the point of having beautiful floors if you can't even see them? 3) Booking company (TLS). Our experience with TLS, who coordinates details of bookings, was less than impressive. First, they gave us an incorrect price for our stay. Only after we had signed the paperwork did they tell us that someone had made a mistake and that the stay would actually be considerably more expensive. Second, they booked us a day/time to look around the villa to help with our planning, so I flew from the US to Thailand to do that (we had already booked the place but we wanted to have a look around to help decide details of the wedding). However, just before the day they booked us to visit, they canceled our visit because they instead opted to let a guest check out late. Why would they cancel a planned visit from one guest at the last minute in order to let another guest checkout late? That makes zero sense. We were incensed. Also, they don't coordinate well with the Villa staff. We received way too many emails and texts that were redundant with messages received from the Villa staff. It was highly confusing and too time-consuming. OVERALL: Villa Aye is wonderful and we would definitely consider coming back. And it's a perfect location for a wedding. If they can clean up the things mentioned above, I can't imagine a better place to stay.