Elements Hotel & SPA

Our apartment was dirty and noisy, with so much sound coming through the walls from neighboring units. It didn't come close to the advertised five-star standard at Elements Spa Hotel. The pool area smelled musty, the food was poor, and the staff were very unhelpful. When we raised concerns, nobody took them seriously. The key cards didn't work properly, and there was no phone in the apartment to call reception. Be careful about what you book. The apartments don't match the advertised level, and after booking it seems almost impossible to make changes or cancel. This was definitely not a five-star experience.

We had such a lovely weekend and would happily come back. The hotel is beautiful, new, clean, and in a great spot with a lovely view. Everyone was very kind, the room was comfortable and clean, and breakfast was delicious. We also relaxed by the pool during adults-only hours after 8:30 pm.

For a first visit to Elements Hotel, it was a good family stay. The breakfast, spa and pools, hotel staff, and views from the rooms were all positives. Dinners could have been a little better. The mattress in our apartment was broken, and getting from the apartment rooms to the spa and pools meant going outside. That's inconvenient with small children, and dining involved the same issue. We enjoyed the stay, but compared with the 4* hotel in Karpacz that we visit twice a year, there are a few things that should be much better in a 5* hotel.

The food was average at best, more like a canteen than a five-star dining room. Weekends were painfully crowded. Breakfast is listed as running until 11:00, but arriving around 10:45 didn't mean we could eat in peace: by 11:15 staff were telling people to leave their tables so they could clean. Guests should be allowed a few minutes to finish. My partner also had diarrhea and stomach pain for the last three days of our stay, which didn't help us feel confident about the food hygiene. The hotel isn't set up for full occupancy. The dining room is too small, and three tiny elevators serve a huge building. At weekends we sometimes waited 20-30 minutes to get into one. The pool and spa look nice, but they're also far too small; when crowded and noisy, relaxing there is impossible. Service was the worst part. Most staff seemed unmotivated and rarely smiled. At the lobby bar we had to collect our own drinks because staff didn't want to bring them to the table. Housekeeping was all over the place: they cleaned on day one despite our “Do not clean” sign, then didn't clean when we asked on day two. Other times they said they'd come in 30 minutes and turned up hours later, even waking us after we'd asked them not to come. There was little to do during the week. It rained most of the time, and besides the basic facilities there weren't activities to fill the hours. Weekend activities for children were offered, but only in Polish, which seemed odd with so many German guests. This was a big disappointment, and we won't return. The hotel can't comfortably handle its guest numbers, the service is chaotic, and the atmosphere isn't relaxing.