This hotel is located about 20 minutes from the airport in Gulshan. If there’s no traffic, it’s about 20 minutes north of where all the touristy sites are. I booked a hotel car from the airport for $28, and I easily found the driver after exiting customs. Unlike other hotel pickup services, a cold facecloth or bottle of water was not offered. You’ll need to pass through a metal detector at the hotel entrance, and the guards are packing Lee-Enfield rifles that predate WWII. At reception, I was greeted with a glass of cinnamon apple juice. All room types were available at the time of check-in, but when it appeared that they were going to put me into a standard room, I asked if there were any upgrades available. A quick look in the computer put me in an Executive Suite.

The Executive Suite is a generous size at the end of the hallway. It has a separate toilet near the entrance of the room, a rainfall showerhead, and more bottles of water than you can shake a stick at. The work desk is a bit cramped, and the design had me painfully bumping my legs against parts of it throughout my stay. I’m a light sleeper and could hear the call to prayer from my room, but it wasn’t loud enough to bother me, or wake me up. You can hear a little traffic, but it’s not too bad either. WiFi speeds were good, and I was using a VPN too.

As far as the Platinum amenity goes, you can have a continental breakfast in the Lounge each morning, or if you can forgo your 500 points and have breakfast in the restaurant downstairs, which is what I did. Breakfast in Tastes is pretty spectacular, with Asian, Indian, and Western food options. You can’t go wrong there. Room service prices appeared 10-20% higher than in the States.

Continental breakfast in the lounge is served from 6:30am-10:30am. Evening snacks are served from 5:30pm-7:30pm, and is one of the more impressive lounge offerings I’ve seen. Cheese, desserts, sushi, mini-sandwiches, several hot items (i.e. mushroom quiche, chicken sharwma wraps, fried calamari, chicken satay), and two types of pizza. Alcohol and soft drinks were also available. You can easily have dinner in the Lounge.

Or if you’re feeling hungrier than that, Tastes has a dinner buffet that is even more impressive. Food quality looked really high, but it wasn’t cheap. Seafood night runs 4800++BTD, and normal buffets are 4300++BTD.

The gym is packed with equipment, and opens at 6am. I was told by the front desk that if you needed access to it during closed hours, somebody will let you in. Massage prices are around 6800++BTD for 60 minutes. A hotel car will cost $18++/hour. I found a taxi outside where I negotiated what I felt was a generous 700 taka/hour.

Also, I felt the hotel’s best asset was their staff. They were all super friendly with an excellent grasp of English, remembered my name, and engaged people in meaning conversation. The service was top notch. The concierge even gave me his personal cell number in case I needed translation help while sightseeing! This is definitely one of the top SPG properties I’ve stayed at.

Edited to add: There's also an antique metal shop on the second floor in the plaza across from the hotel that's worth checking out. They had some really interesting items, and I walked out with some brass compasses.