Not Backpackin’, Not Ballin’: COSI hotel offers tech-friendly style on a budget in Samui’s Chaweng

Photo: COSI
Photo: COSI

Living in Southeast Asia, we’re lucky that we can vacation quickly, easily, and on any budget we choose. A US$9 dorm bed in a hostel by the beach and a bus ticket for a hellish 12-hour journey for the same price? Doable. A flight to a private island airstrip and 5-star accommodation? Doable. Even things that seemingly don’t go together are possible, like a lobster dinner on a budget airline (we tried it: check out our review).

Koh Samui hotel COSI is aiming for a tech-savvy clientele right in the middle of the spending pack with the opening of their first hotel in the Chaweng Beach area. Thoroughly modern and utterly efficient, this place aims at young-at-heart travelers of all ages and from all over the world.

Photo: COSI
Photo: COSI

We had a chance to stay, try the coffee, hang in the lounge, borrow a complimentary GoPro, and splash around in the rooftop pool.

Photo: COSI
Photo: COSI

The rooms are clean and comfortable, with cute touches like pool towels in a crate that says “I’m cool for the pool” and a fluffy white duvet rolled up and tied on the bed as if you’re camping. The bed’s comfortable, and there is an uber-comfortable workstation with a leaf-shaped table that can be moved to the bed if you prefer to work at super-leisure. This is a must since Hotel Manager Vatmongkol Rasrisawas told us that they are aiming, at least in part, for the digital nomad market segment. The TV has lots of channels but is also smartphone and smart TV integrated so you can stream your own content if Italian language late night news isn’t doing it for you. They’ve got a stylish little fridge, a safe, and a blowdryer too. For a mid-priced stay, this place has a lot of extras. The only other we would have liked to see would be an in-room kettle.

Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts
Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts

To keep the price low, they’ve done away with some of the basics and it actually seems kinda genius.

Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts
Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts

There’s no phone in the room but their app allows you to call the front desk from anywhere on the island at any time and the staff are all wonderfully helpful and friendly. The truth is: who the heck uses the room phone anymore anyway? The answer is: only to call room service. COSI’s answer? They don’t have a restaurant. It’s all starting to make sense.

Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts
Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts

The hotel does have what they call their 24-hour WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) snack bar with sandwiches, pastries, a full service coffee bar, and minimal range of cocktails alongside all kinds of drinks and snacks. Try the salted caramel muffin and have them warm it up, you won’t regret it.

Cans of beer and single serving wine packets sit merrily in the cooler alongside Fanta, juices, and fresh fruit. Cheers to that.

Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts
Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts

But you won’t go hungry if you stay here. The hotel is attached to Central Festival Samui, the island’s main mall. So, you’re just steps from pretty much endless dining options, some of which deliver and all of which will know where the hotel is, since it’s, like, attached to the mall.

If you’ve spent time in Samui, you’ll know that the mall is steps from Chaweng Beach Road, the main nightlife/backpacker street where you can buy buckets of booze and tourist tat to your heart’s content and then dance into the wee hours at the endless bars and clubs. We recommend Hush, just sayin’.

Just a few steps beyond tourist row is Chaweng Beach. So, though COSI is a mid-priced option on the oft-pricey island, you’re pretty close to the action and won’t have to wrangle too much with the island taxi mafia, depending on what your itinerary is.

Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts
Photo: Laurel Tuohy/Coconuts

Some nice touches at the hotel are the lounge, with USB ports everywhere you look, a massive sofa area suspended over the reception (top tip: take off your shoes before stepping in or everyone will judge you) and a kinda-cool, kinda-terrifying trampoline lounge bed that lets you watch people walk by on the floor below.

Photo: COSI
Photo: COSI

The rooftop pool is a bit fun, bit utilitarian. It’s not fancy but useful for cooling off and kinda stylish. One side is glass so you can watch people swim by. The simple plastic lounge chairs sit off to one side under a shaded canopy. Pool bar? Nah, but they do have a drinks machine that’s half-filled with cans of beer for THB70 (US$2), a service that’s light years faster than any pool bar we’ve ever visited.

Photo: COSI
Photo: COSI

All in all, when visiting luxury hotels for work, we often look at the price and think, “How would I feel if I just spent THB8,000 (US$250) on this?” The answer is, honestly, not usually all that great. When considering COSI and their room prices that start at THB1,500 (US$46) with occasional advertised deals of THB999 (US$32), we’d be thrilled if we paid that with the location, cleanliness, staff, and services provided.  

Thankfully, they already have plans to open up in Pattaya, with location in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Krabi also being discussed.

 

FIND IT:

COSI Samui
209/4 Moo 2 (Inside Central Festival Samui lot)
Chaweng Beach
Rooms from THB1,500 (US$46) 



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on