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We booked this because we didn't want to spend a night in Bangkok and it was relatively close. Cha-Am is a wonderful little city with friendly people. The room was spacious and clean and the food was really good.It was. Great start to our Thailand trip.

I went to Golden Beach Cha-am to do some training for about 40 employees of a small Asian company.Like many hotels built in the 1980's the structure has a large center atrium with two glass elevators going up one side. During the week I stayed I noticed some much needed upgrades taking place, such as repaving part of the lobby with new marble. My room had wood laminate floors, which were newer than other rooms that had faded carpet.If you are coming for a group meeting or conference the positives of this hotel are:+ The breakfast area/lobby feels spacious with the atrium rising above it 17+ stories. Tables with comfortable padded chairs are perfect for informal meetings. There are no walls or doors on both ends of the lobby so the breeze often blows through the area making it cool and pleasant.+ A long rectangular outdoor plaza opens off the lobby toward the beach. Shops along the plaza provide Thai traditional massage, manicures, and Thai food at prices I might find in Chiang Mai. + Shops line the road which runs along the beach. You can find Italian, Indian, Scandanavian and of course Thai food. This made it easy for conference participants to eat off the hotel site every night which is a bonus.+ A new manager arrived the week before our conference. He was ever present, seemed very capable, and took an interest in the guests. +Breakfast buffet was a typical middle of the road Thai buffet with the obligatory three fruits (watermelon, pineapple, papaya), omelette station, rice soup, three thai dishes, potatoes, two kinds of cereal, salad vegetables, juice and bread choices which included croissants and whole grain bread. Middle of the road BUT the food was well prepared.+ In fact, for an otherwise nondescript hotel the food was quite good. Thai foods served for breakfast and lunch were flavorful. The food had a proper balance of vegetable and meat (as opposed to lots of onions being used as cheap filler). Desserts alternated between ice cream and pastries. Most importantly, the chef used quality cooking oil and used it sparingly- the food was never greasy, even when it was fried. Negatives:-The hotel was built so that every room has a "view of the beach" from the balcony but... the aircon unit takes up half the space, there's no chair and the room arrangement does not allow you to sit on the bed and look outside. So much for the view.- internet didn't work properly. Some of the folks at the conference paid extra for internet in the room then it never worked.- You have to walk across the plaza and cross a street to get to the beach.- Cha-am Beach is nothing special. You can hire horses, but they drop their manure all over the beach which- together with all the trash- make this an unappealing place to swim. -Aircon units have one function: "on". Our room was freezing at night. Same with the conference room- it was like entering the polar zones.Would I return to this hotel? For a personal vacation, no. I would never choose Cha-am as a vacation destination. The beach is dirty, the water is not particularly clean and there's no ambiance whatsoever, just a busy road that runs along an even busier beach. As a conference destination however for a group under 100 I might recommend Cha-am and this hotel in particular. The reason being that it's hard to find a conference site which is clean with good food AND close to a beach. If you have people coming from colder climates this location is a decent option because it's close enough to Bangkok to make it easy to get there.Overall, whether you are an individual or a group I'd say expect solid three star service and you will be happy with what you get.

We stayed in the Golden Beach hotel for about six weeks. Although the hotel is dated, we had a very comfortable stay, and even made a reservation for next year. As mentioned, the hotel is dated but refurbishment is being carried out now. At the rear a large new swimming pool is being built and the rooms are supposed to be ready next year. Staff is very friendly and helpful. Breakfast is good, especially the Thai variety. The rooms are large, the bathrooms could be larger but everything is there, except a bath which we don't want anyway, we prefer the shower. Most rooms have a wooden floor which we prefer instead of carpet. After refurbishment rooms will be tiled.There are plenty of restaurants and bars close by, the beach is cross the road.All in all, value for money!

We paid aroud ¿¿35 a night online for three nights so with that in mind I found it difficult to equate the reality with some of the negative reviews below. I think its worth remembering that, with the exception of a fairly solid Scandanavian tour operator presence, Cha Am is mostly geared up for Thai holidaymakers, especially family weekenders. Accordingly, the nearby beach is packed with groups of deckchairs under a host of umbrellas serviced by small street vendors. There are few big hotels and none of the international brand names you would find in nearby Hua Hin, for example. The Golden Beach is an older, big, 20-storey, atrium-style hotel (the two lifts look inward to all the floors) with large air-conditioned bedrooms looking out over the sea. Breakfast was varied (Thai food, egg station, western potatoes, even lasagna one morning). There is a pool off the 2nd floor, bigger than I was led to believe, 1.4 meters deep and long enough for a few good lengths before using one of the 20-odd sunbeds. Beach towels are available but you have to book them out from reception one floor down, presumably because they can also be taken down to the beach deck chairs. If I had any complaint it would be that the hotel is somewhat lacking in charm. There's plenty of wasted space so maybe a few prints on the walls would help? What was unfortunate was the constant noise of angle grinders and pneumatic drills from the workmen building the brand new (bigger) pool next door throughout our stay. Since, however, the new pool can only enhance the future service of the hotel, I haven't deducted a "star" on the overall rating.

Hotel is guite old, but we like it. First night we didn't get hot water from the shower, but next day when we say about it on the reseption, they come and fix it. Breakfast was good, there is also everything. Outlook of the hotel is not so attractive than resorts, but sleep quality is better. We get room from the 11's floor and wiew from balcony were nice. There was also guiet, so we get sleep well. (Last night in Cha-am we stay in one of the resorts, near by beach and all the noises from out coming to our room. ) Decoration of the room were old, like from 70's or 80's, but we didn't stay in the room much, so it didn't bother us. Room were very clean and beds are good. Location is good and they help you from reseption as much as they can.