Buri Sriphu Boutique Hotel — A Rooftop Pool With a Swim-Up Bar in Central Hat Yai
If you want a Hat Yai hotel close enough to walk to the night markets but with a pool worth coming back to, Buri Sriphu Boutique Hotel is the name that comes up most among guests who have stayed there. It's a Boutique 4-star on Sripoovanart Road, open since 2012, and the detail people mention again and again is the rooftop saltwater pool with a bar set in the water. Pair that with a 5-minute walk to Diana Complex and the Greenway night market and you get both downtown convenience and somewhere to unwind in one place.
Buri Sriphu opened in 2012 as a Boutique property pitched at both business travellers and people coming to Hat Yai for the shopping and the food. The building is a roughly seven-storey downtown tower topped with a Thai-style roof. Its 136 rooms run from Superior and Standard King/Twin up to a Honeymoon Suite. Most rooms are a sensible size with comfortable beds, and the point guests raise most is cleanliness — it scores highest of all categories on Trip.com at 9.2. A practical touch worth noting: each room has more than ten power outlets and a proper work desk, which makes a real difference if you're travelling with work.
The headline feature here is the rooftop saltwater pool with a bar built into the water. In the evening the lights come on and the mood changes completely — you can sit on a submerged stool and have a drink without leaving the pool. Sun loungers and a small water feature line the deck, and there's a separate children's pool for families. Several guests say the pool looks its best at dusk, when the sky shifts colour just as the pool lighting kicks in — a setting that's hard to find at this price point in central Hat Yai.
"Back from the night market, straight into the pool, sitting at the swim-up bar with a cold beer — honestly more than we paid for."
Breakfast is a buffet served roughly 7:00–10:00, with both Thai and international options, fresh fruit, breads, and main dishes that rotate daily. The dining room runs a warm palette with green-tiled columns and hanging lamps. Most guests rate it comfortably, but the honest feedback from lower-rated reviews flags food warmers not always kept hot enough when it's busy, and a protein selection that isn't huge. Go down a little after 7:00 and you'll get hot dishes fresh and a calmer table than the peak near 9:00.
Location is the main reason people choose this place. It sits in central Hat Yai, a 5-minute walk to Diana Complex and 6 minutes to Hat Yai City Terminal. Walk a little further and you reach the Greenway night market, the ASEAN Trade Bazaar and Central Festival Hatyai. Restaurants, convenience stores and street food surround the hotel, and Hat Yai Airport is about 20 minutes by car. For a shopping-and-eating trip to Hat Yai, you can get through most of it on foot without calling a car.
The overall score sits at 9.0/10 from 418 Trip.com reviews. On TripAdvisor it holds 4.0 from 220 reviews and ranks #3 of 108 hotels in Hat Yai. The honest gripes from guests include air-conditioning that runs noisy in some rooms and drinking water in the room charged at 30 baht a bottle. A few reviews note the Honeymoon Suites sit in a separate building and pick up sound from neighbouring rooms — worth knowing before you choose a room type.
On price — Buri Sriphu starts around ฿1,400/night for a Superior room in normal periods, which is strong value for a 4-star with a rooftop pool this central. Over long weekends and festivals (especially when visitors from Malaysia and Singapore arrive in numbers) rates climb to roughly ฿2,000–2,800 and rooms fill quickly, so book at least 2–3 weeks ahead for those dates.
The bottom line: Buri Sriphu works best for travellers who want a central Hat Yai base for shopping and eating, with a good-looking pool to come back to after a full day on foot — at a price that's easy to justify. It isn't a luxury resort, but it's clean, well run, and sits in a location few rivals in this city can match. If you're travelling as a family and want more space, the Standard King rooms are roomier and quieter than the suite wing.
Summary from Booking & Agoda
- ✓ Rooftop pool with a swim-up bar — great in the evening
- ✓ Central location, walkable to the night markets and Diana
- ✓ Clean rooms and comfortable beds
- ✓ Helpful staff and free parking
- ! Air-conditioning runs noisy in some rooms
- ! In-room drinking water charged at 30 baht a bottle
- ! Some breakfast dishes not hot enough at peak times
- ✓ Excellent value for a central 4-star
- ✓ Pool and fitness centre well maintained
- ✓ Easy to get around on foot, plenty of food nearby
- ✓ Separate children's pool — good for families
- ! Some suites sit in a separate building with sound carry-over
- ! Breakfast protein selection is limited
- ! Rooms fill fast on long weekends — book ahead
- 💡If you want the quietest room — ask for a room in the main building rather than the suite wing when booking → Honeymoon Suites in the separate building can pick up sound from neighbours
- 💡If you want the pool at its best — swim at dusk, when the sky shifts colour as the pool lighting comes on → midday is hot and busier, and the swim-up bar has the best atmosphere in the evening
- 💡If you're here to shop downtown — this location walks to Diana, Greenway and Central Festival → you'll rarely need a car, saving on transport across the whole trip