Originally Posted by
uclagee
As an aside -- going through my corporate rates, I can get the Four Seasons/Okura Prestige/Conrad Hilton/Millenium Hilton/Shangri La/Grand Hyatt/Westin Grand all at comparable rates to the Marriott's... but I have 0 status with them. Are these hotels so amazing, I should stay for the experience, even though I won't be getting any elite benefits, nor earning points to anything that would be useful for me?
IMHO, status is totally overrated in Bangkok unless you're going to be a very regular guest at a hotel. Food is cheap (and probably better outside the lounge), a hotel will likely have a deal where you can pay cash for an upgrade to a suite and breakfast buffet (especially now that tourism is way down), and the serviced apartments offer some great options as well, which is most of what you'd get with status anyways. I'd gauge things based on your budget/location/hotel quality, personally.
If the Marriotts float your boat, then by all means enjoy them, but I wouldn't get caught up in one chain or another... the local Bangkok hotels have some good values too.