Ibiza House Phi Phi

Ibiza House Phi Phi is laid out sort of like a reverse mullet: party in the front and business (well, tranquility) in the back. The hotel's main building is right on Loh Dalam Bay, the nerve center of Ko Phi Phi Don's party scene. Ibiza House taps into this scene with beach-facing dorm rooms and a party pool with rowdy DJ blowouts every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Even on non-party days, you're likely to find a college-age crowd playing ping-pong on the deck, smoking cigarettes at the tables, and chugging drinks and whacking beach balls in the pool. In the sunken swim-up bar, multiple bartenders in blue-and-white-striped shirts keep beer and booze flowing. The beach in front of the hotel offers a more toned-down (and much more beautiful) version of the same vibe, with people playing soccer in the surf and sleeping off their hangover on the sand. The hostel side of Ibiza House knows what it is and doesn't pretend to be anything else. Letters on the facade spelling out "Ibiza Pool Party" in all caps and Singha signage drive home the party vibe, and the walk-up reception for hostel guests is more like a ticket counter at a movie theater than an actual lobby. Inside, basic dorm rooms come with nothing but bunk beds and wall-mounted safes, and the down-the-hall shared bathrooms are of debatable hygiene. 

Further back from the beach, right behind the hostel building, is the villa section -- the Jekyll to the hostel's Hyde. Known as Rawianda Villas, this section presents a more traditional hotel experience, including a proper lobby with front desks and chairs for guests to rest on while they check in. Beside the lobby is a garden pool exclusive for villa guests. It also has a swim-up bar and amped music, but the atmosphere here is vastly calmer and more mature than the hostel pool. The freestanding villas edging the pool offer complete hotel amenities, as opposed to the bare-bones bunk rooms of the main building. While hostel guests are almost exclusively in their early 20s or younger, villa guests are low-key couples and friends who have grown out of their hostel-travel stage, and even some families with young children and teens. 

Ibiza House Phi Phi's own website is a big source of confusion. It focuses heavily on imagery and descriptions of the villas, and essentially buries info and images of the dorms. Of course, this doesn't manage expectations and regularly leads to disappointed guests that didn't get what they saw on the site. 

Ibiza House Phi Phi is located on the beach party zone in Tonsai's beautiful Loh Dalum Bay. The property is on the opposite side of the isthmus from Ao Tonsai Pier; expect about a 12-minute walk from the pier to the hotel. Backpacker hostels and beach bars line the beach in either direction from Ibiza House, and tourists can be found cavorting on the sand at all hours of the day and into the night. Ferries to Phuket and Krabi leave from Tonsai, and both mainland towns have international airports. Ferry trips to Krabi and Phuket take about two hours.

Accommodations here consist of group-friendly dorm rooms in the main building by the beach and freestanding, private villas in a separate, but adjacent, garden area behind the hostel. Renovated in 2017, the dorms feature concrete walls, wood-finish floors, and multiple sets of bunk beds. Dorms sleep between eight and 16 people and do not come with any amenities besides wall-mounted safes: no TVs, no mini-fridges, no kettles. Shared bathrooms are down the hall, and they regularly receive low marks for their cleanliness (or lack thereof), no hot water, and poor drainage, which often lead to sopping wet floors. Other complaints are pretty standard for what you'd expect for a hostel property in a major party area: hard beds, cramped quarters, little storage (there are no shelves or full or half lockers in the dorm rooms). Past guests have often griped about the temperature in the rooms, too, as the air-conditioning does not run 24 hours a day and the floor-to-ceiling windows trap heat from the sun. In all, dorms are meant for guests who plan to spend the most of their days and nights out of the rooms.

The freestanding, ground-level villas in the attached Rawianda section are another story altogether. While no means luxurious, these private units are attractively decorated with traditional Thai-style textiles and latticework, and come with a full set of amenities, such as satellite LED flat-screen TVs, free coffee/tea, and minibars stocked with bottled drinking water, snacks (Snickers, Pringles, almonds), and soda and beer (Chang, Singha, and Tiger). Two free room-temperature waters are also available. All villas have private terraces and private bathrooms with walk-in rainfall showers and pump-bottle toiletries. Free safes and umbrellas are provided. Additional perks for villa guests include exclusive access to the garden pool and free breakfast.

Wi-Fi is free in both room types.

Ibiza House Phi Phi has two pools. Both have swim-up bars and music playing over speakers, but the two have radically different personalities. The Ibiza Pool is located between the beach and the hostel building, and it's the site for all-day DJ'ed pool parties on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. No matter the day, the Ibiza Pool has a vibe that's somewhere between lively and full-steam spring-break level, with backpacker types drinking, splashing, and socializing loudly. In contrast, the Rawianda Pool is set in the nicely landscaped villa section in the rear of the resort, and is well insulated from the loudness of the beach and the Ibiza Pool. Villa guests have access to both pools, but hostel guests only have access to the Ibiza Pool. Another perk for villa guests is the free breakfast buffet, which includes made-to-order omelets, as well as cereal, pastries, fruit, tea, and coffee.

Wi-Fi is free throughout the resort.