I have been a guest at this hotel ever since it opened and use it 2-4 times in any given year. Over the past two years, after each stay, I ask myself  why do I bother with this hotel which is characterized by a deteriorating condition, mediocre service and and a poor value proposition. The quality of the food in the restaurant has nose dived in the past 18 months and the hotel rooms are showing their age and a need for a deep cleaning.

Check In

The Accor club line is not respected and if there are more than 5 guests  checking in at the same time, it can take 10-15 minutes until the checkin is processed. Inefficient and not pleasant.

Room

Not particularly clean. Showing its age. Dark.

Service

Perfunctory and not pleasant. Staff are not shy to ask for a tip.

Dining

Bland, and poor quality by Thai big hotel  standards. There are issues with hygiene when it gets busy at breakfast.

Location

The only reason why I use this hotel is its close proximity to the terminal.

Overall

I dislike the hotel and  now try to use other hotels whenever possible. Very poor value for a big airport hotel.

I stayed at Hotel Novotel Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport last year in August after I missed a connecting flight due to a delay at Koh Samui. I was meant to be put up by Bangkok Air but they instead paid for my connection to Sydney with Emirates which left them $600 out of pocket so they weren't up for paying for the room too, which was fair enough.

I believe late checkout is an option there which is really handy if you have a PM flight so I stayed until 5PM then made my way to checkout. I was going to walk with my suitcases to the airport but they arranged for a free shuttle for me which was a nice touch.

Check In

I arrived at 8pm utterly exhausted with no idea if there was even any rooms available. The check in desk were super friendly and English was fairly good but not spectacular. The room ended up being around $400 AUD a night which I wasn't expecting but was prepared to pay just so I didn't have to try and find anywhere else. The porters were friendly and helped me take my bags up to my room and were jovial and happy to chat.

Room

When I arrived at the room I was impressed at how modern it was but was a bit dissapointed by the size and lack of balcony. It being in a city hotel though I kind of understood that, I was just used to being in resorts by that point.

I relaxed and had my first bath in weeks, which was great, then sat and watched some news on the TV. There weren't many channels, mostly news ones but that's what I usually watch anyway. TV was a bit on the small side at 40 inches but reception and placement were good.

I had a well deserved rest and woke up feeling refreshed. The bed was fairly firm but it was a King and was pretty comfortable.

Dining

I went down to have some food at the cocktail lounge (and a cocktail or two). I ordered a Margherita pizza and a Margarita cocktail (I call it the double Margie). The margarita arrived in 5 mins and the pizza in 15 or so. Service was excellent and pretty much had my own waiter waiting on me the whole time as there wasn't many other people around.

The next morning I ordered room service for breakfast and it was really good. All the food was hot and I got through everything. After brekky I had another bath (I was enjoying the luxury of a decent size bathtub) then went for a walk around the hotel.

Location

The hotel is built on top of the train station and next to the airport so you can basically get down there without even crossing a road. It is in a great location. There are a lot of food shops down there and it is all super clean. I wandered around down there for a while then bought a few beers and returned to my room.