We stayed in a two bedroom suite at this hotel and had a very good time. We spent three nights here and three nights at the JW Marriott in Mai Khao. My family and I agreed while this hotel wasn't as fancy as the JW we felt it was a much more authentic experience at swissotel. We loved how easy it was to get around the property, the JW was much too large. There was plenty of shade here in the pool area but also sunny areas if you wanted to work on your tan. My kids loved the pool and the size of the hotel felt really nice. We didnt mind the short walk to the beach and liked all the offerings of Kamala beach, certainly less sleazy than Patong when I have two young children in tow. The staff was very friendly, the common areas reminded me of Hawaii. While the rooms were nothing fancy they still felt very very nice and clean, and the amount of space we had was great. For my first time going to Phuket I was a little nervous about what we were going to get with Kamala and this hotel, I was very very pleased, it surpassed my expectations and it was a good location to getting to excursions and site seeing. Thanks Swissotel, we very much enjoyed our stay!