Originally Posted by
lost_in_translation
The Athenee - this has, unfortunately, gone from my number one choice in Bangkok to not sure I'll ever go back given there are so many great hotels in Bangkok. The hard product is beautiful, I still think you could change the logos everywhere to Peninsula and no one would suspect it isn't from a hard product perspective (ironically, the hard product is, I think, possibly nicer than the Bangkok Peninsula!). However, two stays and both unfortunately had service issues - stay one as reported on the Platinum upgrade thread I was upgraded to a smoking room for no discernible reason when arriving at 8pm to a fairly empty hotel (which I can't stand), possibly made worse by the fact that there seemed to be no reason for it given they instantly moved me to a non-smoking room of the same category when I went back to complain. Stay two I thought I would give the hotel a second chance and booked a Royal Club Suite to try it out, unfortunately when I turned up a little after 4pm to check in I was told the room wouldn't be ready for another two hours (fine, suites are likely to be occupied by Platinum upgrades so it happens, but why did they email me to ask what time I was arriving ahead of time and respond to say 'Thank you, we will prepare everything for your arrival', then? Surely that was the perfect opportunity to tell me the room might not be ready then so I didn't make plans around this?).
Other more serious service issues encountered on the second stay included a member of staff trying to enter the suite to give me a message without knocking when I was about to have a shower (fortunately stopped by the latch being on) and construction work starting at 9.30am in the room above the suite the following morning (surely the two hours I spent sat around in the lounge was the perfect time to warn me about this?). Also, why when booking the hotel limo do they clunkily walk you to the front desk to stand around and then decided to walk you to the club lounge to then check in? I'm struggling to fault the suite I was given from a hard product perspective, but some of the service was a bit amateurish. I tried to flag the check in and construction noise issues on check out but I don't think the agent understood.
W - I really like this place, still don't understand why this isn't a more popular choice here.
I agree I like the W and dont know why it doesnt get much love in the forum.
I usually try not to judge too much as people have different tastes and different requirements and what is great for someone is ho hum for someone else. However to class the above service issues as serious is a bit of a stretch. None of that was more than a minor inconvenience.