This hotel is a classic case of buyer's beware. Kata Palm is a very Thai hotel - rooms are clean, lots of ornate carvings over your bed and touristy buffets 2 nights a week with local performances. It has a nice pool.
But, the service here is no where near a 4 star vote on tripadvisor.
"Free shuttles to the beach" - yep, about 6 times until 3pm. So if you're ready to sun burn at the peak of noon, this shuttle's for you.
"Free deck chairs" - the hotel is 10 mins walk from the beach so you're really dependent on these "free chairs". When u get to Kata Palm, they inform you that 30 chairs are available and are allocated first come first serve everyday at 8.30am. Normally I wouldn't bother with this, but I'm travelling with family. I went down as instructed and asked for coupons for 5 chairs. We had 2 double rooms booked, 3 of us checked in first the prior day and my parents were flying in today and staying in a 3rd room. The lady said only rooms registered could get coupons so I said fine, 4 chairs since I have 2 double rooms. She proceeded to argue with me and then called another even louder, can't-decipher-your-english lady to insist that I take only 3 chairs. I kept explaining that we had 3 rooms booked, she can check my registration. Nope. Her register also showed other guests with ONE room taking 4 chairs. Nope. They then called a duty manager who re-explained this dumb policy that made no sense. So yes, buyer's beware. This is Thai style "4 star" service.
"I would like to cancel an extra bunk bed" - we ordered a bunk bed for 2 of the 3 nights we were staying as my parents originally couldn't get a 3rd room. When they did, we immediately called up reception to cancel a bunk bed we ordered (this was within 2-3 hrs). We spoke clear, slow english. They passed the phone to 2 different people and both said ok. What happens at 9am the next day? Yes, a housekeeping lady shows up with a bunk bed *face palm*. I would expect this in an average Thai run hotel but seriously?
So other than all this service, the bathrooms are really dated (I estimate the property is at least 15 yrs old?). I'm sure others have written about that but basically whatever u see on the pictures, come expecting less and yes, a "king bed" is 2 singles pushed tog
ether.