The positives:

We stayed in a Premier Villa....the room was clean and had pleasant decoration. Staff on reception very friendly and welcoming.

Surprised my husband with a cake and candles on his birthday - really nice touch and much appreciated.

As we checked out early (details of why to follow), we were only charged for half our stay, 2 nights instead of four, nor did they charge our outstanding food/drink bill of 900BTH.

The negatives:

Location...
The hotel is situated on what can only be described as an industrial estate, there was a JCB sitting next door. The beach outside is not very nice, there was a huge tanker docked at it, its very rocky and is not ideal for sunbathing.

As the resort is based far out of town, it means taking either a taxi or the free shuttle bus into Ao Nang. This would not be a problem except the first shuttle leaves at 3.30pm and the latest lift home is 8.30pm. So, if you want to go out for a nice meal and drinks, and stay out later it will cost you around 500THB to get back to the resort. We would not normally have an issue as there should be a choice as to go into town OR stay at the resort - however the quality of food and drinks at the Elements is very poor, therefore the only choice is to go into town and stump up the cash for taxis back.

Breakfast....
Included in our room was 'full American breakfast'. The quality of breakfast is not acceptable. The orange juice is not fresh, the choice is limited and when i spotted a bird sitting on one of the serving spoons for the hot food i decided to give it a miss.

Bed...
Like sleeping on a block of granite. They came and put and extra duvet underneath the bottom sheet.

Pool...
Lots of leaves on the bottom

Cocktails...
Sitting at the pool, there were no staff coming around to take any drinks orders, so we went up to the bar and ordered two lime daiquiris. They appeared after about 20 minutes and were awful. Really, really bad. Either the barman doesn't know measures or they were ready made. As we literally couldn't drink them, my husband took them back and asked to exchange them for something more basic - after a conversation with the manager (staff do not speak very good English - but then, we do not speak any Thai), she told us we would not be charged for them.

Shuttle Service...
We arranged a lift to the near by Tub Keak beach and asked to be collected at the specified time of 12.10pm. We managed to fit in a long-tail boat ride (highlight of the trip) and were back and our designated pick up point (the side of a road) for 12.05pm. The driver eventually turned up at 12.40pm.

Maintenance:
It was obvious the hotel was very quiet and as such had decided to do some maintenance. When we got up on the Sunday, there was a chap sanding the decking and another chap hoovering up the mess....right outside our balcony! There is no way we were going to sit at the pool with that going on - so i duly asked to speak to the manager, was informed she was on holiday. I finally was given a telephone to talk to her, she offered to get them to stop work, i pointed out they shouldn't have been doing it in the first place, then to change my room (not sure why that would have helped as all the villas are situated together). By this point we had decided to check out.

Summary...
To be refunded for the two night didn't stay was good - but actually we still lost out as had to book earlier flights home.

To be based so far away from things, the resort has to be perfect and its not. Food and drinks let it down, it doesn't feel like its only a couple of years old and they should be more upfront about where they are based and the beach outside than they are on their webpage - maybe then there would not be unrealistic expectations........

Positives: Beautiful hotel with friendly staff, great pool, only 2km away from a peaceful and amazing Beach Tupkaak and close to one of the best restaurants in Krabi (Simanta). Mrs. Ratana is a lovely person always greeting the visitors with a smile face.

Improvements:
As reported to the hotel, during my stay in Christmas week/2011, the breakfast was very disapointing. There was only 2 choices of fruit (pineapple and watermelon during 4 consequent days), No cheese, Very few options for Vegetarians, Two types of bread and too much Thai Food wich were not looking good/fresh.
The first night I tried to have a dinner at the hotel but this was a wrong choice as the plates were not made with passion, no taste, very small portion, wrong delivery after 40minutes of wait and overpriced.The drinks were just a mix, without right combination and we ended up with the worst Cosmopolitan and Pina Colada ever had.

The staff does not speak english very well.
There was ants everywhere in the room.

The Elements has everything to become a great place to be with minor changes.

I booked Elements hotel through hotels.com for something like 110 bucks, so I wasn't expecting to be somewhere so truly amazing. The hotel is BEAUTIFUL and it is truly a retreat away from the world. Wow. Our room was amazing, the pool was amazing, and there was a area with pool table, games, and even a karaoke machine. We didn't want to leave. We went to Krabi for only one night b/c we were flying out of there, but we plan on coming back. Krabi was breathtakingly beautiful... and I am saying this after barely seeing it! It is a lush green place and from our hotel, it seemed like we were set in the mountainous area with amazingly beautiful greens everywhere. I so wish we could have seen more.

Krabi's port is not a hustling and bustling place like phuket. You might want to call your hotel ahead of time and arrange a pick up ride.. Elements was about 30 minutes from the port and we found a driver through a guy that was on our boat. It cost us 1000 baht to get to the hotel. I think i could have negotiated it to 800 but i was tired and over it at that time. Elements has free rides to the beach every day which is another plus. We got a ride through the hotel for the airport and that cost another 1000 baht. It's a little more expensive then what we had in Phuket but Krabi is a fairly large area and not as crazy as Phuket.

We really hope to return to this resort one day, it was amazing!

After staying here for a week I can safely say some of the reviews on here are completely wrong! The staff are so lovely and helpful and always around to help, the receptionist, waiters, waitress, manager, driver and cleaners and all so polite friendly and helpful. The hotel is away from things but that is the beauty of it, once you have seen the busy main town and the tourist's we were extremely happy we picked it. The shuttle bus is run by the hotel and is great, one to the beach, hotel, airport and shops. What more could you ask for. Rooms are amazing clean and big. The breakfast was great, pancakes are beautiful. The only down side the evening meal was inconsistant and never came all together. Plently of free drinking water, fruit and towels.

We hired the driver for the day who took us to the hot springs, emerald pool what a lovely young man. Polite friendly and took us everywhere he could with the time we had.

The push bikes were a cool way to get around as well.

Thank you for a lovely stay I have told everyone about our stay with you.