The Deck is part of the Four Points by Sheraton on Patong Beach in Phuket, and they’ve recently revamped the place entirely and thrown open the doors to visitors who aren’t hotel guests.
That meant our team was excited to go and try out this beach club without having to spend a fortune on hotel rooms, so they readied their pens and notebooks for a hard day of drinking, relaxing and eating to ensure they could write the fairest and most equitable reviews of The Deck Beach Club, Phuket.
And this is what they learned on their visit to the “newest beach club in Phuket” (at least, according to their website).
Introduction – Getting To The Deck Beach Club, Phuket
The hardest part about getting to The Deck is getting to Phuket in the first place. Given that there’s an international airport in this part of Thailand, it’s not usually that hard to do.
However, the regularity of flights from places outside of Southeast Asia can be a bit spotty outside of high season, and you may need to fly to Bangkok and then take a connecting flight from there.
Don’t panic if that’s the case; the connecting flight is less than an hour. Phuket’s not far from Bangkok, though it’s further than you’d want to drive.
Once you’ve got to Phuket, then getting to the Deck is pretty easy. You can jump in a ride share, tuk-tuk or your own ride and head to Patong Beach.
Unlike most beach clubs in Phuket, because this beach club is part of a resort, there is some parking available, though it’s not guaranteed, as there is always priority given to hotel guests.
Where Is The Deck Beach Club, Phuket? 198/8-9 Thawewong Rd, Pa Tong, Kathu District, Phuket 83150, Thailand
Online: The Deck
Opening Hours: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, though there may be exceptions for public holidays and government elections.
What’s Available At The Deck Beach Club, Phuket?
You will find there are a range of comfortable seating areas, an oceanfront swimming pool (though the view of the sea is obscured somewhat by a clump of trees) and restaurant and bar facilities.
As with most hotel beach clubs, entertainment is not high on the agenda here, and you won’t want to head to The Deck if DJs and parties are on your mind.
Our Detailed Review Of The Deck Beach Club, Phuket
We implement a consistent approach to review every beach club, ensuring fair consideration for owners, management, and staff, and providing reviews in a uniform format that simplifies comparisons between venues.
The review process is conducted as follows:
- A team is chosen to evaluate the venue.
- Each member must visit the beach club, with the freedom to visit independently and on different days.
- During their visit, every reviewer completes a scorecard, assigning the club a score from 1 (least commendable) to 5 (most commendable) in designated categories, while also noting their impressions.
- After all team members have completed their visits and scorecards, they meet to discuss their experiences and agree on final scores for each category.
- A designated team member then writes the review, incorporating the team’s consensus and scores, before it is published on our website.
Reservation and Booking Process
One of our pet peeves in life is to be sent from a beach club’s website to another website to book your seats. While we do appreciate that not every beach club will find it easy to implement a booking system, we don’t believe that’s the case with the Marriott hotel group.
Nor do we believe that it’s a budgetary issue for this multinational chain. It’s just lazy. And it disrupts confidence in the book process.
Sure, Seven Rooms (the booking site) is perfectly reputable, but that’s not something you can rely on consumers knowing.
Fortunately, they don’t ask for a credit card or any other kind of deposit to secure the bed on this platform. However, that’s not all good news, as it means they have very little incentive to hold your reservation if you are remotely late arriving for your booking.
Overall, it’s not the worst booking experience we’ve ever had, but it’s not great, and it fails completely to mention the entrance fee that they charge non-hotel guests.
Ambience and Atmosphere
There’s something about corporate beach clubs that you can’t shake when you arrive. It’s very clear that this place is expensive and meant to be a luxury treat while you’re on holiday.
However, it also feels very much like a dentist’s waiting room; there’s something sterile and incomplete about places like this.
It’s not unpleasant, it’s just not as exciting and vibrant as it could be. This is playing it safe rather than trying to push boundaries to create an atmosphere that genuinely wows their customers.
We get why, but we would like to see hotels start treating their beach clubs as though they were as important as selling a room inside the resort.
Location And Accessibility
You won’t have too much in the way of problems getting to this resort club, as it’s within driving distance of the whole Phuket area.
Even in heavy traffic, it probably won’t take more than an hour in a tuk-tuk or ride-share to get here, which seems fair enough.
The area itself can get quite busy, as you’d expect. The Deck is neatly screened off from that area in order to provide its guests with a more refined experience.
The majority of the beach club is also wheelchair accessible, which is quite nice, but not all of it, which seems like a major oversight from a huge international brand like the Marriott Group.
Aesthetic And Design
We’re back to the topic of hotel beach clubs. This is a very attractive venue, and you will get some lovely photographs for your Instagram feed without a doubt.
However, you will also feel the corporate vibe coming from everything; there’s nothing here that doesn’t scream “hotel compound”.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, it means you’re going to get a reliable standard of service, food, etc., but if you’ve seen one hotel beach club, you start to feel like you’ve seen them all too.
Staff Friendliness and Professionalism (Service Standard)
They train their staff well at The Deck, which we’d expect at any place bearing the Sheraton brand on the front door and menu, to be fair.
The Land of Smiles has a lot of naturally friendly people working there, and they’ve managed to find the best of them and then give them a professional polishing so that the service standard is as good as they are friendly.
This is one of the big advantages of most hotel beach clubs; they can draw on a wealth of resources when it comes to ensuring the skills of their employees are first-rate.
Service Speed and Efficiency
Similarly, the speed and efficiency of the service here are exceptional. The staff almost seem to know in advance when you’re going to need them, and they materialise before you can raise your hand for their attention half the time.
Once an order is taken, it’s dealt with at the bar and in the kitchen in a fair amount of time and then brought out before you can get frustrated with waiting.
Again, this is something that we absolutely expect in hotel beach clubs; there are some real advantages to the corporate work environment, too.
Food Quality and Variety
We thought the menu was pretty good at The Deck, and there’s certainly more than enough variety to keep you happy on a day out.
No, it’s not fine dining, but it’s on the above-average side of beach club cuisine, and it looks great, you’ll be snapping away for the Gram (if that’s your bag) as soon as they land in front of your daybed.
However, it’s quite pricey for what it is, too. We do expect a premium for a beach club, but this also has a premium for the 5-star hotel venue that the beach club is in.
That’s not the end of the world, mind you, and we don’t think that the food here is bad value for money.
Beverage Selection and Creativity
It’s not the biggest drinks menu that we’ve seen at a beach club, but it is a perfectly acceptable menu all the same.
We found that the cocktails and more interesting non-alcoholic drinks were very nicely presented, which always adds a little thrill to the act of consuming them.
However, as with most places serving booze in Thailand, wine and spirits are expensive simply by the nature of the import taxes that must be paid on them.
Cleanliness and Hygiene
It’s a 5-star hotel beach club in Thailand, which ought to be a guarantee of an immaculate environment, and we felt that that was exactly what we got.
The pool area is clean and well-maintained, and the water is free from any clouding or debris that might give you concern about swimming.
We’d also note that the toilets and changing rooms are very clean, and you won’t have any concerns about using them.
We didn’t inspect the kitchens, but we figure if everything else is this clean, the kitchens are going to be in good order, too.
Comfort of Seating and Lounging Areas
The furniture at The Deck is of good quality, and while it’s not the absolute best furniture that we’ve encountered in a beach club, it is more than comfortable enough for a day of lounging around by the pool.
We weren’t entirely impressed with the barstools, though; they were a little hard on the bottom, but you really only use them if you want to order a drink at the bar rather than stopping a passing waitress or waiter.
Music and Entertainment
This is a hotel beach club, and that means bland piped music, and that’s exactly what The Deck delivers.
It’s fine as it goes as a backdrop for conversation and for your kids to run around to, but we can’t imagine anyone remembers any given track beyond the time it’s playing.
This is not a beach club where you will get inspiration for your next mixtape.
Seasonality
This is Phuket, which means officially there’s no seasonality, because it’s in the tropics. So, this beach club is open all year round with no major changes to the hours.
Unofficially, however, the wet season in Phuket can get brutally wet with downpours that last for days or weeks on end.
We’d skip this part of Thailand entirely at that time of year and head to Bali, instead. It still rains in Bali, but never for days on end.
Pricing and Value for Money
It’s a 5-star resort beach club, and as long as you keep that in mind, the numbers here aren’t too scary, but if you’re expecting to pay Thai beach bar money, forget it.
Overall, we think it’s priced on the high side even for Phuket’s scarily expensive (for Thailand) beach club scene, but it’s still pretty good value for money.
The 1,000 Baht entry fee for non-hotel guests is a touch steep, though, and it ought to be properly explained during the booking process.
Beach Access and Quality
You can walk straight out onto the sand at this beach club, and because the resort staff maintain this stretch of beach, it’s clean and well-kept at all times.
However, be careful of the ocean. While in theory it’s OK to jump in the water, in reality, the water in this part of the country is horribly polluted.
There’s also the risk of a riptide dragging you out to sea, and that’s not something even strong swimmers enjoy. So, stick to the pool.
Sustainability Practices
We were very surprised to learn that The Deck has no public sustainability commitment or sustainability report to share.
After all, the hotel group that owns the property usually makes a big deal out of its eco-credentials, but with nothing to go by, we can only award the lowest possible score in this category.
We expected more from The Deck on this front and hope they make big strides in sustainability soon.
Exclusive Perks for Guests
You will get a daybed and a towel, and that’s about it at The Deck. Now, that’s pretty standard for beach clubs all over the world, but it also shows a distinct lack of imagination.
We think there ought to be a bit more to the offering, particularly if you paid 1,000 Baht to get in the door.
Safety and Security
This isn’t really the sort of venue that attracts much in the way of trouble. However, cars are searched on their way onto the compound to ensure the safety of other guests.
There are also enough security staff on hand to be happy that if trouble should break out, then it will be dealt with swiftly before it has the chance to impact on other guests.
Event Hosting Capabilities
The Four Points by Sheraton offers plenty of different event spaces, and it can probably arrange smaller events at the beach club, though priority for use of this space goes to hotel guests.
That means if you want to get the most out of your event at this beach club, you’re going to have to check everybody into the resort, and that might get expensive fast.
Consistency of Experience
Our review team and the other customers that we spoke to felt that this beach club offered a very consistent experience.
It’s got that corporate overtone, but the service is first-rate and the food and drinks are very good.
However, as with all corporate beach club offerings, there’s no sign of constant reinvention seeking to improve the customer experience; it’s what you see is what you get, and that’s what you’ll get next time you visit, too.
Additional Amenities and Facilities
This is, of course, a five-star hotel, and that means the beach club has all the amenities that you’d expect from a basic chilling-style beach club.
And if you need anything else, the staff may be able to source it for you, and if not, you’re only a short drive or walk away from the rest of Phuket, where you can obtain pretty much anything your heart desires.
Summary
We felt that The Deck represents exactly the kind of experience that we’d expect at a posh hotel beach club.
You don’t go because they’re providing cutting-edge tunes, entertainment and party times. You go because you want a day by the pool with above-average service, good food and drinks, and you don’t mind paying for the convenience of it all.
And that’s exactly what you’re going to get at The Deck. It’s the sort of beach club we’d go to on holiday to recover from a big night out or to chill with some mates before a big night out.
And if we were on holiday with our families, this would be absolutely ideal if we were in Phuket.
FAQs
Can You Go Swimming At The Deck Beach Club, Phuket?
Yes, there’s a pool at this beach club, which is large enough to accommodate swimmers on all but the busiest days and even then, only if everyone is in the pool at once.
You could also swim in the ocean here, as there’s no physical barrier between guests and the water, but we don’t recommend it.
Not only is the seawater very polluted in this location, but there is a risk of riptides that pull you out to sea. Even the strongest of swimmers can be killed in such an event, so it’s best to stick to the pool.
What Is There To Do At The Deck Beach Club, Phuket?
You can eat, drink, chill out, talk to friends and swim at The Deck. You might also want to take a stroll along the local beach.
Is The Deck Beach Club, Phuket, A Child-Friendly Venue?
Yes, it shouldn’t come as a surprise either, this is a beach club in an internationally recognised five-star hotel and thus, the whole venue is child-friendly.
There are no specific facilities for kids in the beach club itself, mind you, so your little ones might not want to spend the whole day here.
It’s also worth noting that this is not a party-oriented beach club, which means that your kids are unlikely to be exposed to anything too adult by accident.
Who Is The Owner Of The Deck Beach Club, Phuket?
The Deck Beach Club is part of the Four Points by Sheraton Phuket, which in turn is part of the Marriott Group of hotels, a major international hotel group that is owned by various shareholders around the world.
Final Thoughts On The Review Of The Deck Beach Club, Phuket
The joy of hotel beach clubs is that you know exactly what you’re getting 99% of the time. They aren’t there to break new ground or to create unforgettable experiences that will stay with you for life.
They’re there to provide you with excellent service, good food and drinks at a premium price point, and to ensure that the venue matches that premium.
And that’s exactly what you get at The Deck Beach Club in Phuket. We enjoyed our day here and would certainly come back if we were passing by. It’s not worth travelling to Phuket for in its own right, but if you are in Phuket, it ought to be on your beach club shortlist.
