my partner and i stayed at the more recently renovated busakorn wing in early october 2009, after booking the Busakorn Hot Deal on agoda, and it was quite quite lovely.
Holiday Inn - in general:
everything you've heard is true, the hotel is literally in the thick of things. the grounds are so vast, you'll have a bit of a hike if you attempt to check-in at the 'wrong' lobby like my partner and i did when we walked in from the beach. the check-in staff at the main wing was great, she walked us right over to the busakorn wing and gave us a mini-tour of the grounds on the way. she also revealed that, in her opinion, the deluxe rooms in the main wing were the better rooms than those in busakorn, because of the sea view. (but i didn't ask to see the deluxe rooms personally)
Busakorn:
busakorn wing seemed MUCH more private, especially the pool! the main wing's pool seemed overcrowded with loud white people basting on deck chairs,so i was grateful for the privacy of the busakorn pool. even though it was a bit of a walk from the beach, the busakorn lobby faced one of the partially covered shopping districts, good trade-off =)
Rooms:
the layout was unusual as the front door opened directly into the dressing area with the bathroom and separate toilet on either sides of the door. another door separates the dressing area from the main bedroom with a little sitting area, and a balcony overlooking the nicer pool. the fittings were brilliant, LOVED the super cushy bed-linens. dvd players included! oh and the clarify an earlier review, there is no free mini-bar unless you stay at the busakorn villas, but that hardly bothered us.
Spa:
we were lucky that the day we set aside for a couple spa was coincidentally the day the spa re-opened from renovations. had the sweetheart promotion, but it's good to note the prices in their book don't include taxes, so you'll have to set aside a bit more than stated. the flower bath was in an tiny outdoor jacuzzi (built for two slim people) but the fact that it faced a see-through glass stairwell of an adjacent building made me a little uncomfortable. it was my first experience of not being given those little disposable undies when asked get ready for the spa. they caved when my partner kept squirming in discomfort at being starkers in front of the two ladies doing the massage =) the scrub was VERY thorough, massage was very adequate.
Service:
great service - the young-looking guy with braces at reception was intensely helpful when a tailor was late dropping clothes off for us at the lobby, and the charm thai restaurant staff were grand even though we came in for a late dinner after our spa.
what i didn't like was the confusion over our taxi to the airport - the day before check-out, we asked reception what arrangements we should make for our early morning international flight, and they gave us a time to meet at the lobby for the taxi-transfer. however, when we checked out, we discovered that no such taxi-arrangements existed, and they wanted to charge us twice the standard airport transfer rate to arrange for one on the spot. fortunately, we ended up finding a private taxi who could get us to the airport for just 200baht more than what we paid to get in from the airport instead. and we made our flight =)
Note of caution:
DO NOT go on the khai islands snorkelling trip offered by a tour operator called manit!! it's the ultimate tourist trap. it's a snorkelling trip, so they provide you the googles and snorkels, but the flippers have to be rented for extra. the two islands we were brought to were ugly touristy clones of each other, with deck chairs that you had to RENT to sit in, and if you weren't willing to pay, you could sit on what little exposed sand/rock there is on the beach, but then you can't go snorkeling because they tell you no one will be responsible for watching your belongings. the area they allow you to snorkel in is murky grey because people have kicked the (dead rocky) corals to bits. the result - you can't see how high the corals are and you are likely to get cut against the sharp rock. and the fish literally attack you and their bites leave marks. this isn't as cute as you'd imagine: two of my friends came out with bleeding ankles where the fish wouldn't stop nipping them. at the second island, the boat operators stop a good way out at sea and make you walk to and from the beach, in waters at least waist high. the reason? the dead coral on the beach is so sharp, it would scratch the bottom of the boat, so they figure the tourists can just get off and get themselves torn up. wearing your flip-flops aren't an option because the waves are strong enough to wash them off your feet, and a friend on our boat got a cut on his foot so deep, it didn't stop bleeding till we pleaded with (and tipped) one of the ice-cream touts for a band-aid.
i'd come back to the holiday inn phuket =)