Nirvana Guesthouse 

I spent 5 nights here upon arriving to Koh Tao. It’s a very good location to explore the area near the pier. There’s plenty of restaurants and cafes nearby. For good, cheap Thai food, I recommend the place across the street called Long House. They have the best Pad Thai I had on the island for 70baht. We stayed in the superior double room at the end of the hall on the second floor. The balcony had a great view of the bay and the street below. Unfortunately the view is obstructed by a bug buzzing power pole, but it was still nice. The room is very spacious. It has a big, comfortable bed with 2 side tables. There’s a sizeable closet, a safe (don’t know if it worked), 2 comfortable sitting chairs, a large counter with a pull out desk stool, a box tv, and a good mini fridge. The key turns on/off the power, but the plugin over the counter is on a different breaker, so you can leave stuff to charge if need be. The AC wasn’t very strong, but the ceiling fan over the bed more than made up for the deficiency for the AC. It wasn’t super hot during our stay, but the room was always a comfortable temperature. The bathroom was clean and pretty big. It’s a wet room, but the tile for the shower area is down a half step, so things stay relatively dry. I’ve read reviews about poor water pressure, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all. The pressure and the temp control were both great. One of the better showers we’ve had in SE Asia, honestly. Reception gives you fresh bottles of water everyday. There’s hot water available for coffee/tea in reception as well, but we never had it. Negatives: the wifi didn’t work very well and was prone to disconnect, but that seemed to be an issue all over the island. It should be noted that reception closes at 830pm. So if you arrive later than that, I’m not sure if you’ll be able to check in. I didn’t realize this until after I booked on booking.com. Our ferry arrived at 730, so we made it in without issue, but I would have liked to know before I made a non-refundable booking. Overall, we had a very comfortable stay. If you want to stay close to the pier, this is a great option.