Jaimito Cartero

I've eaten "dinner" as many times in the lounge as in restaurants in Asia. In some properties with good spreads for breakfast and evening, no need to spend much, if any money.

FlytheTail

I agree, but at least half the folks in the lounge apparently don't, judging by their multiple plates piled high with different "snacks". Most of the hot dishes are deep fried (not healthy) and I wouldn't rate their snacks as excellent. Good, but not as good as lounges at some other BKK properties, including (surprisingly) a recent stay at the new Mercure Sukhumvit 11.

mnredfox

LOL. Don't worry, we went to go eat real Thai food in the street too along with massages. In the end though the heat got to me and didn't eat much more afterwards.

Anyway, left the property today and have to say I pretty much got what I expected. Wasn't blown away by any means, it was a nice property. The hallwa to our room smelled a bit of mildew and the room AC didn't work as well as I had hoped. But the service was great, food in EL pretty good, EL ambiance nice and not too busy (eve was worse).

Transportation as expected. Was 400 THB still via cab (I think it might be more coming to the hotel from BKK given the toll). Public transport was 146 THB for two of us (90 for Airport Rail Link, 56 for Skytrain). I should note that the subway was VERY crowded which was a bit of a challenge with luggage. Thankfully I've lived in China before so this wasn't anything new, but can be intimidating for westerners used to space.

Kalboz

Is this the rebranded President Palace Hotel? ... they do have El Gaucho Steakhouse as one of their food venues, perhaps that's the reason for the good snacks! @:-)

Jaimito Cartero

We stayed here last week for 1.5 days.

It's been over a decade since my last stay here. A pretty good stay, overall.

Checkin was good in the lounge. We booked a prepaid rate of about $115 all-in per night. We were told that those with kids needed to use a special lounge across the hall in the evening hours.

We were "upgraded" to an exec room on the 31st floor. Nothing exciting, but the room was in pretty good shape. While checking in we got a welcome letter. Although not mentioned in the letter, I had asked about breakfast in the 2nd floor restaurant, and they said no problem.

Two small apples were the only amenity in the room.

The evening lounge the first night was very nice, with lamb meatballs being my favorite. Nice bread selections, green and black olives and feta cheese. There is fairly minimal drink service in the kiddie wing. They do have a bucket of beers on ice.

Breakfast downstairs had a big variety. Similar in options to the Millenium Hilton, I did enjoy the dishes more here.

Lounge the last night had about 50% of the same items. Chicken wings, and small pork ribs were the main hot items. Fresh mozzarella replaced the feta cheese. A pretty decent spread, but I missed the meatballs.

When we tried to order a minivan metered taxi to the airport, we were only offered a flat rate taxi for B500. Saying they could "try" to flag one down from the street. Uber was showing surge pricing, so we just took the B500 one.

It was lightly raining, and it took about half an hour after 9pm on Saturday night to get to BKK.

Cynicor

You didn't get the giant macaron in your room!

Most taxis that wait outside the hotel will not use the meter as you are a rich tourist (probably accurate compared to Thai incomes, TBH). I haven't had success in getting a meter used unless I walk to the street. And even then it's less than 50%. Best odds are with drivers who can only speak a couple of words of english.

Jaimito Cartero

We used the Grab app, and actually had a standard green/yellow taxi show up.

We were charged B127 to go from the Millenium to the Conrad Friday afternoon in pretty heavy traffic. One thing I always hate in Bangkok is drivers refusing to use the meter.

AlwaysAisle

I stayed at Conrad Bangkok a week ago, I had no complaint about the hotel. Sure, if being picky then Conrad Bangkok may not be the best Conrad I have stayed. However, just because it is not the best Conrad, does it make Conrad Bangkok as not good hotel? I do not think so.

As first time visitor to Bangkok I was little worried about how taxi situation will turn out. Every taxi I took from Conrad was meter. I ended up taking taxi under non-meter just once, while I was touring around the city and wanted to catch taxi back to Conrad. Initially taxi driver ask for 200 Baht which I knew that way beyond ridiculous, then the driver lowered to below 100 Baht. I know it was still a murder but hot humid condition I really did not want to walk around further to catch a taxi which uses meter. That was the only time I ended up taking taxi under non-meter. All other taxi ride I did was meter including all rides from Conrad.

FlytheTail

Yes, it is. I was quite impressed by the lounge. It's quite small but the snack selection was good, as was the variety of alcoholic beverages.

I assume you booked a corner room if you were given lounge access as a Gold? A bit surprised check-in was in the lounge, as they seem to do most check-ins in the lobby (a change in the last year or so).

As for taxis, a regular taxi to the airport approaches 400 baht including tolls, so 100 baht more for a van seems reasonable to me. Most of the time, my taxis from the Conrad are metered, with some exceptions for trips to the airport. They usually ask 500 baht and I negotiate to 400 baht. Not worth haggling over $1-2 especially when it's a 30+ minute trip.

Jaimito Cartero

I booked the cheapest room. I'm currently on a Diamond challenge. I asked for lounge checkin, as most properties end up doing it anyway. My last visit, they took me direct to my room, and did the checkin there, but that was over a decade ago.

The metered vans are the same price. Since so many taxi's now have reduced trunk space, I didn't want to chance a problem for $3, or have to carry luggage on my lap.

SK AAR

So you checked in as HH D or HH Gold? If Gold (despite being on Diamond challenge) you were very lucky. It has been reported many times in this thread that HH Golds are upgraded to corner room (i.e. no lounge access) if basic/cheapest room is booked - 1 category upgrade seems to be strictly enforced at this property.

ItchyBackSide

This is slightly worrying. I have an upcoming reservation there. I booked the Executive room. As a Diamond, do I get a suite or do I get the Executive Corner room?

thbe

Depends on availability. They will try to give you an Executive Suite or even better (Terrace, Deluxe). But if that is not available, you may end with an Executive Corner room, which is quite good from my point of view.

It's also possible but not likely, that you don't get an upgrade.

My personal experience with upgrades at the Conrad BKK is really good.

JCary

I am HH Gold and booked corner room. What's the chance of upgrade to EL floor?

FlytheTail

You should be near the top of the list for a suite, but of course if the suites are sold out (not uncommon) or other Diamonds who booked an executive corner room fill the suites, you'll likely get an executive corner room.

Funny, since as a Diamond, the one time I booked an executive corner room is when I didn't get an upgrade. I usually now just book a standard room and almost always get a corner room (which I quite like anyway) but have received suites 3 times (but twice on 1 night stays). I think it also depends on check-in time and duration of stay; early check-ins and longer stays are less likely to receive suite upgrades.

Extremely likely.