Z Through by The Zign Pattaya reviewed

Z Through by the Zign is a new boutique hotel in soi 12 off Naklua Road in Northern Pattaya. As the name somewhat clumsily points out, it is an offshoot of the nearby Zign Hotel, a huge twin tower complex overlooking it’s own private beach, which mostly caters to Russian and Korean tour operators. The same family owned group is responsible for the new TSixty5 hotel in the same street, closer to Naklua Road.

The concept of this hotel is lofty and one can really see how the designers and owners have put a lot of effort into this property. The problem lies in the gap between the concept and the execution, which is sometimes clumsy, but I will get to that later, in the review below.

The Z Through comprises 40 two-story villas, all perched around four large pools that make up the grounds of the hotel property. The 40 villas on the ground floor have direct access to the pools from a terrace that opens up from the room. The villas on the second floor also have terraces, which are twice the size of the lower ones and offer great views of the pools and the resort itself. Both upper and lower suites (I’m using suits and villas interchangeably here) have two sun lounges and a small table.

The huge pools are the centerpiece of the hotel and cover pretty much all the ground once you go through the lobby and enter the area where the villas are located.  There are two shallow pools connected to the two front pools, which would be suitable for children and also a swim-up bar.

Video of the pools at Z Through by The Zign

The rooms are decorated in four distinct styles and are have been based on the four concepts of L.O.V.E which stand for Light, Ozone, Viva and Emotion. Each room is quite large and has a sleeping area, a living area with a sofa and coffee tables and a large bathroom with separate bath and rain shower and flat screen TV above the very large bathtub.

There is a lot to like and some minor annoyances at the Z Through by The Zign, which I will now detail in a review of our stay.

Review

We stayed at The Z Through in the middle of the high season- early January and the whole time we were there, we didn’t see any other guests, not in the pool (which worked out well as I didn’t have to get up at dawn to take a video of the pool when nobody was in it), not on the balconies of any of the rooms, not in the lobby and not in Spazio, the restaurant for breakfast in the morning.

While it was nice to have all the pools to ourselves, and it kind of felt like we were celebrities having booked out the whole hotel for our private use, it was kind of weird to see absolutely nobody else staying at the property.  According to the staff, the lack of guests was due to the fact that the hotel has only been open for six months and that nobody knows about it yet. This could be one factor, as the Z Through does not have it’s own website yet and is hardly mentioned on the Zign’s own website. Browsing other hotel reservation websites, the difference between The Zign and Z through by the Zign is quite confusing (in fact, I think most people who have a page on the Z Through don’t really know the difference themselves) and this is why I chose to venture down to Pattaya and check it out for myself.

Another factor that I think is contributing to the low occupancy rate (global economic situation aside) is the hotel’s location.  It is quite far from Beach Road and Walking Street, where a lot of the “action” in Pattaya is. The hotel does not provide any kind of free shuttle service, which is customary for hotels that are out of the way.  It’s not that difficult to get into the heart of Pattaya, you just have to catch a Songtaew from Naklua Road, which costs 20 Baht (don’t pay more).

The rooms themselves were very nicely furnished and quite large. Upon entering the room you enter the living area, which features a decent sized sofa and a coffee table. Depending if you are in an upper of lower villa you either step up into the sleeping area or just walk through to it. These two areas are not separated by walls, however it does feel like they are separate areas.

 

The bed is placed on a slightly raised platform and is reasonably comfortable- it’s no Marriott- and has four pillows and two little cushions. The cushions would make a lovely addition to a sofa at home, but don’t think about it, as the price list in the drawer makes clear, everything in the room has a price, even the remote control! Who steals a remote control?

On the wall opposite the bed there is a flat screen TV, positioned so you can watch it from bed. There is a DVD player as well where you can also presumably play CDs and have the sound play through the TV.  Next to the TV and DVD player is a small desk (I wouldn’t call it a work station) with Internet connectivity cable. Internet access is free in the room and throughout the hotel, both wired and wireless, which is becoming a rarity these days and was a pleasant surprise.

The bathroom is larger and has a separate shower and bathtub. The bathtub is huge; certainly one of the largest I have seen in a hotel and can easily fit two people in it. There is also a small flatscreen TV above the bathtub for when you don’t have anyone to share the bathtub with I guess. Next to the bath is a rainshower with average water pressure.

The four pools are quite large and meander around, between and even under the villas. There are glass panels in the floor of the living room area of the lower villas where you can actually see into the pool and presumably if you swam under the villa you could probably look up into the villa.

The pool goes under the villas and all the way to the front door, which is the opposite side of the room from the side the opens on to the pool.  There is a few inches of space between the water level of the pool and the floor of the villas and you could easily swim under the rooms and probably see into the rooms as mentioned above.  I’m not sure how well you can see in to the rooms from under them in the pool, but it might be a privacy issue. Perhaps something to remember if you are staying in one of the lower level rooms, which are called the Emotion and Ozone rooms.

While the rooms are nice and the pools are spectacular, there are a number of things about the hotel that annoyed me that seem like oversights in the planning, or only added as afterthoughts.  Below are my nitpicking observations.

The TV is bolted to the wall facing the bed and is not mounted on a bracket that can be swiveled, making it all but impossible to watch the TV from the sofa and living area.

While there are spot down lights above the bed, they are at knee level, which makes them all but useless for reading in bed.

The living area has large sliding windows that look into the bathroom and toilet. On the bathroom side of the windows, there are retractable blinds that you can pull down for privacy. The giant bath is right under the window. For couples, perhaps taking a bath doesn’t require much privacy, but when you want to use the toilet, most people would want to close the blinds. Unfortunately the cord to pull the blinds closed is located on the far side of the big bath and the bath is so big that unless you have really long arms and legs you have to literally climb into the bath and retrieve the cord every time you want to open or close the blind.

Considering the out of the way location, the total lack of transportation to more central parts of Pattaya is annoying. They offered to take us in a van- for 200 Baht! The only other way around town is by songtaew for 20 Baht, which was easy enough when going towards Beach Road and Walking Street, but required a number of changes on the way back.

Some reservation sites list this hotel as a 5 star, while others list it as a 4 star. I would place this hotel firmly in the 4 star category. While the rooms are nice and the pools do a good job of distracting you from the lack of other facilities, it certainly doesn’t reach the 5 star level, though nowadays some properties seem to take liberties with their star ratings.

Overall this is a nice property that is good for relaxing by the pool away from the hectic pace of Pattaya. While they can’t do much about the location, providing some form of transportation, preferably free, such as a shuttle service, would go a long way to making a stay here more attractive.

Z Through by The Zign Hotel, Pattaya.

Have you stayed at Z Through by the Zign? If not, would you consider staying this far away from Beach Road and Walking Street? Share you opinion of this hotel by leaving a comment below.

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