Hotel Review: BJ Holiday Lodge, Pattaya

I travelled to Pattaya at the end of April to meet up with friends who were over here on holiday. One of my friends was staying at the BJ Holiday Lodge with his wife and recommended this hotel.

The BJ Holiday Lodge is situated in Soi 3 just off Beach Road and so has an excellent location. It’s a 2 minute walk to the beach and less than 5 minute walk to Big C and the Central Festival shopping centre. With Beach Road less than 100 metres away, it’s very easy to get a songthaew to the Royal Garden Plaza or Walking Street. There is a small cluster of bars further up the road in Soi 3, but they are very tame compared to other parts of Pattaya and I’d have no problems with bringing my family to this hotel which is something I can’t say about all parts of Pattaya.

The hotel is owned by an American man (I think his name is Bill Jones hence the nickname, BJ) and run by his Thai/American family. For me, this is one of the main reasons I enjoyed staying at this hotel because it does have a family feel and I felt there was a genuine effort to keep guests happy. This was reflected with the staff who were friendly and helpful.

My room was basic, but clean and spacious. As I’ve said before on this site, my main criteria for a hotel room is for it to be clean and comfortable and the BJ Holiday Lodge scores highly in this respect. There is an in-room safe and a balcony which is large enough to have a table and chairs. I was on the 6th floor and unfortunately what would have been an undisturbed view of the sea has been affected by the building of a new hotel next door. This was one of the main drawbacks with my stay here as noisy building work began early in the morning and continued late into the night. It looked like the building work next door was almost complete and so noise shouldn’t be an issue if you are staying here later in the year. (I visited at the end of April, 2008).

I didn’t use the swimming pool which was a touch on the small side, but apart from that seemed reasonable.

The Thai and Western food at the hotel was good, but there are plenty of other dining options nearby including the excellent Thai food court at Big C. As well as the restaurant the hotel has a bar, pool table and large screen TV which was popular when there was English Premiership football being screened.

The room rate was 1,000 Baht a night. There is no doubt that you can get hotels with similar facilities for around 800 Baht a night, particularly if you don’t mind being a bit further out in North Pattaya. However, taking everything into consideration, particularly the excellent location, I think the price is reasonable for a hotel of this standard in central Pattaya and I’d have no hesitation about staying here again the next time I visit Pattaya.

Marks: 7.5 (out of 10). Would have been 8 and only loses half a mark because of the noise from the construction work next door.
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