The upgrade to the royal villa was pre-Lyle, but was an outlier as the hotel was at 100% occupancy and I was on a short stay which must have matched its vacancy; I was left with the impression this was handled by the Thai reservation manager. IIRC it was my fourth stay there.
I never met the previous GM (saw him last year at the Rangali being, er, selective about guests he would approach), in contrast to Lyle who was available to all. It is under his watch the CKS became my favorite Hilton property, one of the few with no 'why am I here?' rooms, plus personalized, friendly, discreet, thoughtful, but not fawning service, just the way I like it. Here is hoping that mindset survived his retirement.