Let me start by saying the only reason this review is not in the "terrible" category is because the landscaping and decor of the resort is spectacular. Also, the food has been great so far. However, I am quickly learning that even if you are staying in paradise your experience there can ruin your appreciation for the atmosphere.

We arrived here yesterday, March 18th, late in the afternoon. After a windblown and watersoaked speedboat trip to the hotel (which I guess you should expect when riding on a speedboat), we arrived at the beautiful Langham Resort. Immediately, I was blown away by its beauty. Arriving via the beach was quite an impressive way to first experience the hotel. We were checked into our room and received a ride to our room at the top of the hill from one of the many golf carts cruising around the property. This was nice, as it is a bit of a walk up the hill. By the way, I am an avid hiker and did not mind the walk up the hill, but if you are staying up there, no worries about the walk because all you have to do is call the front desk and they send someone in a golf cart up to your building.

We entered our double sea view room (room 715) and I was thrilled that we were on the top of the hill and on the top floor because the view is spectacular. However, within a half hour of our arrival, we noticed ants crawling all over the desk/tv stand. We called the front desk to notify them of this problem and they quickly sent someone to the room with some bug spray. She sprayed everything down and it appeared that the ants had come from the "welcome gift" which was some fruit. So, after this was taken care of we assumed the problem was resolved and went about unpacking. A short while later, I spotted more ants in the bathroom, again sprayed (she left the bug spray with us), but as the night wore on, we had to repeat this ant killing mission another four times as ants started appearing above our bed, around the corners on the walls and again in the original spot. By the next morning (today), the ants found some gum I had and raided the package. We also found a few crawling in our suitcase and decided that this was no longer acceptable.

We went to the front desk to ask what they thought should be done about the situation, as the room appears to be infested (because we found them in several locations throughout the room) and they kindly offered to check and see if another room was available.

When we returned this afternoon from our excursion, they said that they could move us to room 621, so we quickly packed up our belongings and moved to this room. When we entered the room, it was beautiful, of course, but when we opened the shades, we realized our view was now of the back of another room. We were very disappointed and contemplated calling the front desk to ask for our old room back and just deal with the ants, but after we opened our suitcase and realized a few of the ants joined us for the trip to the new room, we decided against this.

The reason I am writing such a long, detailed review is because I am an avid user of tripadvisor and find most reviews I read to be reliable and accurate. I want to provide honest, truthful information to other users and am so frustrated by our situation that I felt the need to write this review now, while I'm still here at the resort.

I understand that we paid for the room and not necessarily the view, but I thought that they would at least try to keep us in a similar area to where we were before. Now we have no view of the sea AT ALL, yet the room is advertised as a "seaview" double room. It is sad that the choice is between having a beautiful view, but putting up with an ant infested room, or having a horrible view but no ants (hopefully).

I know many of you may not care about the view because you do not plan to spend much time in your room (as I thought when I booked the room), but it has rained both afternoons that we have been here and we have spent a lot more time sitting on our balcony drinking a beer and looking at the water (but not anymore....I guess we'll be watching the road.

Also, on that note, if you plan to come here and have a few beers, I strongly advise you to walk about five minutes down the road to the 7-11 and buy them there to bring back to your room. It cost us 30bht ($1) for a beer versus 120bht ($4) at the Wave bar. Just a heads up on that.

Sorry for the longwinded review, but I thought it important to share. Also, I will add pictures of the room views later when I return home on the 23rd.

After a month in S.E Asia, we pleasantly ended our holiday at the Langham Place on Koh Lanta. It is a beautiful resort with ground level villas and others built up the side of a hill. The grounds are spectacular with tropical vegetation and many water features. There is a very large inifinity swimming pool and another one at the top of the hill. The beach is sandy with rocky outcroppings. We swam in both the pool and at the beach, also in the ocean pool which is reached by a floating pier. The rooms are very comfortable with all the necessities and the bathrooms are quite luxurious with the latest of fixtures and a tub and walk-in shower. Other comments have noted that the beds are slightly hard but we found them comfortable enough and noticed that this is the norm throughout Asia. There was fresh fruit in the room on arrival and replaced every day. The buffet breakfast which is included is to die for. Every conceivable dish and beautiful, fresh fruit is available. There are 3 different dining areas. The buffet dinner overlooking the beach is very good if not a little pricey for Thailand but surely not for North American prices. We also ate at the rooftop bar and deli at the front of the resort which was quite reasonable and very pleasant. There are also lots of local restaurants which are very cheap and ok. One night, we took a motorcycle taxi (200 B.) into the main town of Ban Sala Dan which has hundreds of restaurants serving fresh seafood. There are 3 computers for internet use. They are quite busy, however they are free which we only found in one other hotel in our travels. The highlight of our stay was the last night when we were invited for a sail on the large Chinese-style junk that is anchored off the beach. Apparently, they do this once or twice a week for longer stay guests, but if you have the opportunity, take it. It's a sunset cruise along the coastline with complimentary refreshments and most pleasant. We had arranged transportation through their website back to Krabi airport and were pleasantly surprised to find it was by speedboat to their private jetty on the mainland where we were picked up by a hotel van and transported to the airport. They even have an employee at the airport to help you with your bags and get you to the right spot. We found all the staff very pleasant, particularly the Thai manager of the restaurants and the resort manager, Melanie. We paid around $130/night before taxes and felt it was very good value. Koh Lanta is an interesting island, not quite so busy as some of the others which is what we like. Highly recommend both resort and island.

We have just returned from a 9 day stay at the Langham, after spending 3 days in Bangkok at The Banyan Tree and 3 days in Chiang Mai at Tamarind Village. We booked it directly and got quite a good rate. However our feelings are mixed - looking back it was good, but definitely missing that "extra" something that would make it the 5 star resort it claims to be.

It has just been taken over from the previous Thai owners so perhaps the issues we mention below will be resolved. We werent asked to provide any feedback to the resort on check out (nor were we asked at any point during our stay whether everything was OK), which was a little surprising... It was almost as though they wanted to avoid any issues by asking, and seemed a little too laid back for a 5 star resort.

Firstly the arrival - we arrived very late after a 2.5 hour van journey from Krabi airport, had booked a Pond Villa, and were "told" that we were only paying the rate of Seaview Deluxe and that there were no Pond Villas available... After more than 2 hours in the van and upon hearing this news we clearly looked more than a little peeved, and were promptly upgraded to a Seaview Villa, which although being on the hill (which kind of defeated the object of us booking a Pond Villa closer to the pool and beach), was a nice gesture. Not quite 5 star but with a lovely view.

Cons:

We called reception for more hangers upon arrival, but had to wait until the next day when we went to reception to draw a picture of a hanger - not a big deal but this kind of sums up the level of English of the staff. Although this was frustrating at times, it didnt bother us so much (we just came to expect it) and as we were almost always greeted with a smile, this made up for it.

Bed - very hard, we asked them to add a mattress topper which did help a little.

Air conditioning in room - appalling - either freezing cold (and loud) or hot (obviously, when turned off). No temperature control.

Towels in bathroom - old and tatty.

Overall finish of the room wasnt great - a bit worn and chipped, which we didnt expect of a 5 star place.

Restaurant - dreadful wine list and over priced - on our last night we had to send 2 bottles back and by the time this was done we had already finished our main course. However the new F & B manager is great and really willing to help with any issues at all - go and see him, even if it is a totally non-food related issue he will sort it out immediately.

Trips - we booked the 1 day excursion to Phi Phi through the on- site tour agent - were told there were only 18 people on the trip (compared with the usual 25) and therefore it was a good day to go - when we turned up we were crammed on to a boat with the other 24 passengers!! The hotel booking office was keen for us to pay in GBP - we agreed the rate with him and also said we would pay the next day - when we went to pay he told us the exchange rate had gone up over night and we therefore OWED HIM 100 BAHT - which isnt much, but he then proceeded to hound us later that evening to ask when he was going to paid... Not good. Incidently be careful of the lunch they serve on the trips- whilst on a beautiful beach we were both sick that night and for 2 more days until a visit to the on site nurse sorted us out (she was great and had we known about her we would have gone earlier - it isnt mentioned anywhere in the hotel info).

Last gripe - the manager - the only time we saw her was on the Sunday when she was lounging by the pool drinking cocktails - it would have been nice for her to personally greet the guests or at least acknowledge them as one would expect of a 5 star resort.

Pros - We enjoyed the pool area and found the staff to be willing and friendly even if their English wasnt great.

The guests are mainly Scandinavians but this didnt bother us - we quite liked it. A lot of young kids, but this wasnt too much of a problem for us (had it been our honeymoon, we might have been a little more put out by this).

Koh Lanta - make sure you hire a bike from the guy across the road from the resort - we paid 300 BAHT for 24 hours and had a wonderful day exploring the island. Highlights - beaches in the south, trekking to the Waterfall (though beware to get there it is 5km trek along a dirt track followed by a 30 minute jungle walk - dont go with young kids as we found it tricky enough in our 20s!!)

All in all the Langham is good, and OK if you are looking for a good value break in the sun. It is far cheaper than Pimalai or Layana (at the moment - we got the Rawi Warin rates though) and therefore you cant expect the same level of service. However we wouldnt recommend it for a romantic getaway or honeymoon as it really is a family place. Hopefully the issues we have mentioned will be resolved now that Langham has taken over (since Nov 07). Otherwise compared with the other 5 star places we have stayed (Banyan, Oberoi, One & Only etc) this one doesnt compare.

We weren't quite sure what to expect from this hotel, since we got an excellent deal (USD $100) through Travelocity. We were rewarded with a fantastic relaxing stay at a beautiful resort!

We stayed at the hotel at the end of January - slightly past the peak season. We did not experience any of the crowding issues that some of the other reviewers mentioned - in fact the resort was very quiet. We always got pool chairs no matter what time of day, and it did not take long at all to check out. The internet terminals were often (but not always) busy, so it's true the hotel should provide more than three.

The grounds are truly beautiful. The landscaping is impeccable, and the pool is perfect. We stayed at one of the ground-level bungalows, which was great because we had easy access to everything. The downside is that we didn't get the same ocean views that the bungalows on the hill offer, but we still enjoyed our peaceful view of the pond, the pool, and the landscaping.

The staff were extremely kind and eager to help. Dinner at the Watermark was absolutely delicious - we ate there twice (out of our three-night stay) despite its resort prices. We strongly recommend the Thai entrees (after all, the resort is in Thailand!). The breakfast buffet will blow your mind.

It was great having a tour organizer right on the hotel grounds. We wanted to do a day trip to Phi-Phi, which was an option, but the agent strongly recommended we go to Koh Rok instead - both because it would be much less crowded than Phi-Phi, and because it was closer to Koh Lanta and cheaper. We reluctantly agreed (after all, Phi-Phi is so famous), but were very happy with our decision to go to Koh Rok instead. The snorkelling there was as good if not better than the Similan islands (the water was crystal clear), and the beach was a pristine white-sand oasis. The lunch that came with the tour package was also generous and delicious.

Other reviewers have mentioned that the beds were too firm - they are firm but all the beds in Thailand were firm. Honestly that was not an issue at all for us. The bathrooms were gorgeous and the shower was excellent!

We are not usually 5-star resort stayers, so I can't compare this to too many other 5-star resorts. There are things about this place that are not perfect. For example, the hotel is not located on a nice beach, so the pool is really the focus (or a day trip to one of the nearby islands). The pool is great, but we did miss not being right on a great beach. Also, housekeeping was not as prompt and thorough as one might expect from a 5-star place. There were dishes sitting outside the room next to ours for almost a whole day once, and a couple of small details were missed when our room was made up (e.g. a used napkin was not removed). I do agree that a 5-star resort should have soft mattresses as well, even though we personally did not mind the beds. There should also be more internet terminals for general use.

One critical thing the hotel should offer is better transportation from the airports. Koh Lanta is not the easiest place to get to anyway, and a 5-star resort should make getting to it as easy as possible. At the very least it could offer free transportation from the ferry pier to the resort.

The hotel as it is now is probably more technically a four-star resort; if it fixed the above things then it would definitely live up to it's 5-star status. Nonetheless, we loved it and had a fantastic time there. Highly recommended!

FYI, the resort is still known on Koh Lanta by it's old name - Rawi Warin. If you tell a tuk-tuk driver "Langham Place" they won't know what you're talking about.

One random note about the beach resorts of southern Thailand that we as Americans were not aware of - there are lots and lots of Swedes there! This was neither good nor bad, just a fact that was quite fascinating! There were also plenty of Germans, Australians, and Brits. Very few Americans - we actually really liked that about it.