Wonderful Staff. Lovely hotel. Location? Dining?

The Staff: Friendly, welcoming, accomodating, helpful, attentive, over & above what you would expect & just lovely, all of them!!! Room: Studio Suite superb. Comfortable bed, kitchen, lounge area, satellite TV, iPod dock, DVD player. Rain shower, good quality toiletries provided. Location: Not the best, but reflective in the price. Very dusty & run down approach to the hotel. You wouldn't want to walk out to get a taxi, but the hotel will run you to the local main road in their private tuk tuk for free anytime. There is a local 7/11 (tesco express similar) & Busy route to hail a taxi.(avoiding the hotels mark up on taxi fares). Free shuttle 3 times a day to Chaweng beach/shopping area. Local beach, Bangrak, is not the best. One complaint: Cost of food & drink?? How unfortunate. Prices on a par with UK which makes you feel ripped off. This does not encourage you to stop within the lovely ambience of the grounds & spend your Thb. I'm not know as a miser by any means but the pricing absolutely took the living daylights out of you. The hotel is deserted in the evening, no one eating dinner or drinking in the bar?!? Never seen this before. It was obvious other guests felt the same. This is where the 7/11, the kitchen, & free tuk tuk came in handy. But I don't holiday to cook, drink in my room & not socialise. This was its only real downfall for me. Beautiful hotel, location not so good? Better location ?!? .twice the price at least. The compromise was worth it for me. But the extortion for food & beverage outside of the beautiful breakfast was very very annoying & insulting. if my location isn't great I can compromise with taxi, moped hire, complimentary tuk tuk use & such, I can't compromise my living accommodation & this was second to none. I would use this hotel again.