Location

For me the main reason I went for this property was the location.  It is not my first time in Bangkok, and since I've stayed at this property before, I knew that the location was good - at least to my taste - as it is not too crowded or busy and there are quite a good number of streets with local shops and less touristic.  

Even with the new Icon Siam mall next to the hotel, the area is still not as touristy as compared to properties along Silom Road and the other side of the river.  Strangely what I noticed even though the number of tourist and people going to Icon Siam, most of them will just venture within the mall and leave again without visiting anything else beyond that - which is nice as it maintains the craziness and especially the prices around the area.  I am afraid this might change since they are building the extension line of the metro system, so this might mean easier access to the area [unless again tourist will just walk into Icon Siam and out again into the station]

In guess for the coming months - because of the construction work ongoing - traffic will be quite bad in the area as lanes are reduced to one.  I was stuck from in traffic just the last 2 km for close to half hour because of this.

Check In

I arrived late afternoon and the check-in area was ok - had to wait ~5 mins before being helped [can anyone tell me why the area which is supposedly reserved for HHonors member roped up and not in use - never ever saw that area opened up or manned during my 3 nights at the property].

I purposedly did not do online check-in due to bad experiences [from upgrade point of view].  Checking my app I noticed that my room type did not change as to what I reserved.  I had suspected due to the Songkran period and Easter holidays in Europe, the hotel was quite full.  

When checking in, I asked and was told that there was no upgrade provided.  Was not really happy about it and questioned about it [yes I do know that it is based on space available] - since not even a higher floor room was given.  A what seems like a more senior associate was consulted about it and miraculously I was given a upgrade to what they call a family room [which basically was just from a deluxe room to a superior room].  

All in all - I found the check-in staff not to be the most friendly especially compared to all other staff I interacted with and did not really seemed to care much [this is quite severe for me especially for a hotel located in Asia].

Room

The room was located on the 9th floor which was one of the lower floor of the hotel complex with a view of the river [basically I believe all rooms have a view of the river - some could be with a partial view].  

The room is I believed one of the non-renovated rooms as it was clear that there were lots of usage on the furnishing and the picture in the frame seemed to have faded in colour.   The room however was spacious and did have quite some area even with 3 persons using the room.  There was a sofa- which is also a sofabed.

Internet speed and signal was ok.  There was as usual the typical coffee and tea making facility and two big bottle of water [glass bottles] - which in my opinion is much more environmental friendly - so kudos on this point.  

Bathroom size was ok, with a walk-in shower and a bath-tub - but only 1 washbasin.  Water pressure and temperature was good.

Temperature control in the room was ok.  TV had a good number of channels, however the quality was terrible - it was hardly watchable with lots of disturbance to the signal.  I did not bother to ask or call about it since I was not spending too much time in the room.

Executive Lounge

The lounge is located on the 31st floor with both inner and outer seating.  Due to the high occupancy of the property, the lounge was packed during the evening happy hour.  Luckily there were still some seating available outside with a great view towards the Grand Palace down the river.  

Evening cocktail hours run from 1730 until 1930 with a variety of alcoholic/non-alcoholic drinks and some fingerfood.  The evening offerings at this property [especially since it is an Asian property] has got to be one of the worst offering I've seen.  It seems that the quality has degraded since my last visit here about 2 years ago.  I believe what they do especially on weekends when the lounges get full, they go for the cheapest options to serve guests.  For me, serving chicken nuggets and some mash like pasta is the easiest way to still fulfill the requirements.  On the following nights, what I noticed was the the options of the food were never consistent, it seemed like they were just filling in whatever was leftover from lunch or other events since going at different time there will be different items.  

Breakfast is also served in the lounge for those with lounge access - luckily the breakfast offerings were much better compared to the evening offerings.  The breakfast was a mix of asian and western dishes with a cook to order egg station.

The executive lounge staff were friendly and helpful.  

Service

All in all, a mix of service level from the staff.  The executive lounge staff were friendly, however the check-in staff were not really that welcoming.  

Overall

Overall, I would say that this hotel is a mix bag - with what I consider a very weak treatment for Elite members.  The only main reason I would come back to the hotel is the location.  If there was another Hilton chain hotel in the same area - I would certainly try that out rather than this property.   For me I just feel some arrogance in the hotel since they know that the hotel will be filled up especially now with IconSiam next to it.  

ps:  Icon Siam has got to be one of the most interesting mall even compared to the malls in the places such as Dubai - first time that you can feel a mall with some characteristics and really built with all walks of life in mind.  Surprised that the food prices are reasonable especially in the Thai Souk.