Holiday Inn Resort Krabi Ao Nang Beach by IHG

We stayed four nights at Holiday Inn Resort Krabi Ao Nang Beach as a family of four during our road trip from Singapore to Southern Thailand, and it turned out to be an excellent base for exploring Ao Nang.

The location is one of the hotel's biggest strengths. It's within easy walking distance of Ao Nang Beach, with plenty of restaurants, cafés, massage shops and convenience stores nearby, so we rarely needed to drive once we arrived.

Our room was modern, spacious, spotlessly clean and very comfortable. The air-conditioning kept the room pleasantly cool throughout our stay, WiFi was fast and reliable, and we appreciated the thoughtful welcome amenities recognising my IHG membership. The balcony overlooking the limestone cliffs was a lovely bonus.

Breakfast offered a good variety of both Western and Thai options, with egg dishes cooked to order and enough selection to keep things interesting over several mornings.

There were a couple of minor downsides. Parking is limited, although we were still able to find a space each day. Our room also lacked a proper writing desk, so I had to use the small movable coffee table for work. Building 6, where we stayed, is served by only one lift, which is also used by housekeeping and service staff. This resulted in longer waiting times, especially during busy periods.

Overall, the great location, friendly service, clean and comfortable rooms, and enjoyable breakfast far outweighed these minor inconveniences.

I stayed at Holiday Inn Ao Nang Resort Krabi and this is my honest feedback.

The Rooms & Breakfast We had a city facing room which was upgraded to a pool view upon arrival. The room was really nice as it had a large balcony and the room layout was perfect. What was disappointing was the King sized bed was actually 2 single beds joined horizontally, leaving an uncomfortable, sinking gap in the middle. I wished they make an effort to maintain either King room or twin beds. Because its really inconvenient to change rooms halfway. We were offered an upgrade to a family mountain / sea view room which had a slightly odd layout but had a kids double bunk bed which my daughter loved so it was worth it. Overall the rooms were nice, clean and comfortable. The location of this hotel was also perfect. As for breakfast, it was great as they had constantly rotated their menu.

The Staff Overall the staff were nice, polite and helpful. Would like to call out the Manager, May who had been very prompt and helpful and did her best to ensure guests are well taken care of. Ka Ka (if the spelling is right) was very nice and helpful at all times, always smiling and very willing to help drive guests up to their room on the buggy and so was Joy (Front Desk).

Other services Now this is something that I was really unhappy about. Firstly, its related to overcharging from their tours concierge. I wanted a trip to Emerald Pool and Hot Springs and was quoted 4,500 Baht. As i suspected the rates were very out of the norm, I went out to the streets and the first quote i received was 2,000 Baht with the driver there ready to go in a 6 seater car. I went back to the hotel’s tour concierge and informed them, only then did they say that they could match the price. I found this to be very dishonest and inappropriate. At the very least we should be quoted a price thats fair and just or at least market rate or around there. Not a price thats over 125% markup.

Secondly, buggy service. The hotel should be mindful that mosts guests are not aware they would need a buggy to get to their rooms simply because the hill is tooo steep. There are no child friendly ramp access to the pools as well but knowing this was the case, it should have been made more upfront that this was the case. One one of the days we finished a late breakfast buffet and we has to go up urgently to feedbaby and to use the toilet and there was no buggy service because they were occupied due to check outs. This is not acceptable because guests should be able to access their rooms easily. And at the very least there should be 2 operating buggys during peak / busy times.