The Citrus Hotel Patong is part of the Compass Hospitality group, which controls three hotel brands over four countries with a major presence throughout the UK. If you’re shopping around Thailand for budget hotel rooms you are likely to come across some of their properties in Bangkok and Pattaya or Phuket. But does the weight of a large chain ensure high quality in a room that runs around $20 per night? (Check current prices on Expedia) Read on to find out.
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Citrus Hotel Patong Location
The Citrus Hotel Patong is only one city block away from the beach. Like everywhere else in Thailand the blocks aren’t straight, true, or predictable in length. It will take 10-15 minutes to walk to the beach either way you go. The sidewalks don’t cover the whole length of the journey either. There is a convenience store across the street and several restaurants within a block or two as well as the requisite massage shops, scooter rental, tour booking kiosks, other hotels and souvenir shops you would expect to find on a Thai street.
There is a Patong Central shopping mall near the famous Bangla Walking Street and both are about a 20 minute walk each way. So you are within easy reach of the beer bars but far enough away from them that they won’t interfere with you if you don’t want them around. Overall it is a pretty good location.
Citrus Hotel Patong Property
The Citrus Hotel Patong is not a large building and most of the ground floor is taken up with small businesses. If you don’t happen to notice the sign out front it can be easy to miss the hotel entirely.
The lobby area is tiny. Beyond it you’ll find the elevators and pool. On the hotel’s website the pool looks very nice. It is a nice pool in person but it feels like it was shunted back in the alley. The back sides of hotels and their HVAC equipment serves for ambiance. The pool area is small, with only four lounge chairs for guests. So unless you enjoy showing up at sunrise you can count on not getting chairs if you want to swim. The property could do some renovation and build a deck in the void space here without too much difficulty. That would double the area for guests and provide access from both sides of the pool.
The fitness center is also here and is likewise very small. It is only two pieces of equipment and a rack of dumbbells. It’s hard to imagine this is much used or very satisfactory to anyone and this space too would be better utilized another way.
The Citrus Hotel Patong does offer daily breakfast. Breakfast is served offsite, and an employee will escort guests to the location. It was not immediately clear where that location was and this is enough to be a knock against the Citrus. There are no other great options for breakfast very nearby.
Citrus Hotel Patong Guest Rooms
So the pool isn’t great and the lobby and breakfast situation isn’t great and the hallways are hot and the location is just okay. The most important thing for a hotel to get right is the rooms and the Citrus nails it in Patong. For $20 these rooms are large and clean and comfortable. They’ve got everything you would want or expect and a functional balcony overlooking the road is a big plus.
The biggest quirk here is that the seating area does not face the television, so you are sitting on the bed most of the time. Speaking of TV, there is only one English language channel here and it is France 24. So fire up the laptop and head over to YouTube because the same Euro news on a loop each hour doesn’t quite cut it entertainment-wise.
Overall Impression
If I were going back to Patong I’d stay somewhere else. Mostly because of the television. Even right next door or across the street there are other hotels for just a few dollars more that are going to have better pools and more TV channels. I probably wouldn’t even stay in Patong again, to be honest. You might be better off searching hotels around one of the smaller beaches and taking a car to Patong if you want to explore.
That said, it was a $20 room and I did feel it over performed its price tag significantly. Next time I return to Bangkok I would not hesitate to book one of the three Citrus locations at Sukhumvit (Soi 6, 11 and 13) all of which are priced similarly low and are an easy walk to the BTS Sky Train.
