Bangkok Marriott Surawongse = Memorable Stay - First Home For Our Newborn Daughter

100   Recommended
2-Bdr Apartment
May 4, 2021 by

 Map | 2 Reviews | 50% Recommended
Share
Save
Liked:
Location
 
Service
 
Food
 
Amenities
 
Room
 

{{ oRightNav.heading }}

Bangkok Marriott Hotel The Surawongse
 Map | 2 Reviews | 50% Recommended

Save

Share

2-Bdr Apartment

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
Stats
Room
2-Bdr Apartment

We flew to Thailand in January specifically for my wife to give birth in April.  We have been living in hotels full time for five years and for the choice of hotel at the approximate time of the baby due date, given such a unique stay I knew that extended stay hotels could be convenient, but I also wanted the perks of full-service hotels at the same time.  There are only a handful of hotels in Bangkok which provide the best of both worlds, and Bangkok Marriott Surawongse is one of them; it was my final choice.  Let’s just say we were not run-of-the-mill guests for that stay, and the hotel handled the situation in superb fashion to make it one of our most memorable hotel stays ever, in more ways than one, including the hotel warmly welcoming our daughter to this world.  

Room

We received an upgrade to a 2-bedroom apartment at this hotel in the past so we had seen the room and thought it would be perfect for our current needs.  Not only the room has two full bathrooms but also a fully equipped kitchen and most importantly a washer and dryer.  Hotel occupancy is very low at the moment but this was not the kind of stay where I wanted to gamble on upgrades so I booked this room type outright.  We did not need an upgrade to the 3-bdr apartment so I did not care much, but for what it’s worth they did not upgrade us – they possibly don’t upgrade beyond this room type.  

Anyway the hotel is still fairly new so the hardware remains in excellent condition with some local touches to avoid being totally cookie-cutter.  The build quality is not like St.Regis but nonetheless excellent for a Marriott branded hotel.  

IMG_6013.jpegIMG_6014.jpegIMG_6018.jpegIMG_6020.jpegIMG_6021.jpegIMG_6022.jpeg

Dining

My main criticism about this hotel in the past was that the M Club breakfast was very weak by local standards combined with the fact that this hotel did not offer the choice of breakfast in the restaurant as a welcome amenity (instead of the 1k points) so people who wanted the restaurant had to pay for it, which felt a bit like a waste given we had free breakfast in the lounge already.  However thanks to covid the breakfast weakness has now been turned on its head and it has become a strength: there was temporarily no breakfast in the lounge, it was restaurant only.  Since they were protective of their breakfast in the past by not providing it for free to guests Platinum and above, it is very high quality, in fact a notch above more luxurious hotels such as W, JW Marriott, and even better than breakfast at St.Regis.  Only the two Luxury Collection hotels in Bangkok have a breakfast which I would rank above Marriott Surawongse in my opinion.  Among other things, at Marriott Surawongse they had a Japanese station which includes Japanese curry, the fried rice included upscale protein such as crab on some days, they had mango sticky rice (even riceberry!), they had delicious salads which changed daily such as pomelo and shrimps, a sandwich station, an ice cream station with toppings, and a daily chef menu with interesting choices such as truffle risotto, crab omelets, etc.  Heck even the coffee stood out, they had a “coffee of the day” which sometimes looked like a cocktail.  We rarely stay in a hotel for more than 4-5 days; for long stays the breakfast can get repetitive and boring, but at Marriott Surawongse there were so many great options to choose from with daily variety that we did not get bored.  

IMG_6037.jpegIMG_6038.jpegIMG_6039.jpegIMG_6042.jpegIMG_6044.jpegIMG_6045.jpegIMG_6066.jpegIMG_6067.jpegIMG_6069.jpeg1_IMG_6070.jpegIMG_6072.jpegIMG_6074.jpeg

Happy hour in the M Club was equally great with a live chef cooking station and something different every day, and drinks which included cocktails (although alcohol was banned by government order for the latter part of our stay).  Food variety in the evening in the lounge was good enough to make it a full dinner.  

IMG_6026.jpegIMG_6071.jpeg

1_IMG_6029.jpeg

Service

A few days after we settled in Marriott, our daughter was born, and 48 hours after birth she made her first ever hotel check-in.  The hotel staff had prepared a wonderful welcome in the room for her with decorations on the walls, flowers & balloons, along with a nice hand-written note signed by staff members.  They also hung a hand-made mobile on our stroller during our absence – lovely!  

IMG_6024.jpegIMG_6075.jpegIMG_6076.jpegIMG_6153.jpegIMG_6154.jpegIMG_6155.jpegIMG_6156.jpeg

In addition, the hotel went out of their way to proactively try to make our stay as easy as could be given the circumstances.  They brought a plastic bathtub and a baby bottle sterilizer without me asking for anything.  The housekeeping team also always ensured that we had a huge supply of drinking water in our room as well.  

IMG_6159.jpegIMG_6160.jpegIMG_6182.jpeg

So all in all the hotel gets high marks for service especially considering the unusual nature of the stay.  

By the way, the M Club lounge now informs guests that during happy hour 5:30pm-7:30pm, families with young children can use the two rooms on the left side of the lounge, and with sliding doors it can keep any potential children noise muted to ensure peace for other guests in the adult section.  Our daughter had her first hotel happy hour at the tender age of 2 days old and she was perfectly well-behaved, same on subsequent evenings as well!

IMG_6163.jpeg

Wifi

Wifi worked great during our entire stay with speeds of almost 100 Mbps.

Overall

We stayed in countless hotels in Bangkok in the past and carefully picked Marriott Surawongse as the one we thought would meet our needs best at a critical time and they delivered on the high expectations.  Even for issues completely unrelated to the nature of our stay, the fact that the breakfast in the lounge weakness has been changed into a strength (at least for now), it makes it even easier for me to recommend this hotel.  We will be back sooner rather than later for sure and this hotel will always be a special place for us with lasting good memories.

194 Comments

This review lives in the Bangkok Marriott Hotel The Surawongse, Thailand [Master Thread] thread.
194 comments and Y review
Comment In Thread

Hotels you may also be interested in