escape4

Thanks for clarifying, that's great to hear indeed we value similar things then. Multiple room category upgrade, 9pm check-out, welcome gifts, etc. = I appreciate all of those. I hope to have similar perks on my next visit.

If you don't mind, which other hotels in Bangkok did you stay which you thought were inferior to Conrad?

PaulH1

escape4

Thanks! In all fairness, DT and MH are in a lower price range than Conrad however. For Marriott I am assuming you mean the one on Soi 57 and not Marriott Surawongse? If so, I agree that one is good for comparison purposes. I am not familiar with Chatrium but I will take your word for it!

gav0106

Sounds like you got them on an off day. I stay around once a month or more. Never had any issues. Management often there to meet and greet and indeed all staff remember my name, which I find very good attention to detail, as I am there often but not all the time. Check-in lounge is a personal thing for me is a waste of time, what's the point to go all the way up, to come back down to the room, they have never offered it to me, maybe they think we rather just check-in?
Room, yes the blinds are annoying, I raised this with them as I tested the room. The toilet does have hot water, there is a temperature dial. Turndown is an odd one, they normally very good at this.
Lounge, again never any issues, staff remember my food/drink choices, and food is always good and high quality, more than enough.

My feelings are opposite to yours Hilton Phuket is a mess, completely run down, sold out to major tours, and management not interested, I had several bad stays and raised concerns to never get one reply from a manager.

Hopefully, you return and get a better stay

escape4

Despite my experience of Conrad BKK not being as good as yours, I fully agree with this. Conrad BKK is much better than Hilton Phuket, no doubt about it.

Red259

Had a one night stay here. The room was nice. Had lounge access as a diamond. Solid lounge. I think this may be the lounge that had the sushi in it that was really good quality salmon and other good food selections. Overall good hotel and the only issue I had with it was its not really convenient in terms of location and requires a bit of walking to get to transit if you don't want to use cabs. I was only passing through bangkok so its very good for that. For the price it was a good deal.

Chang11

There is a shuttle that stops at the hotel lobby that takes you to the Skytrain about 5 minute trip.

simonsmith

Sorry a fuller write up: We have reviewed this hotel before. We have stayed 14 times since 2004 , our first stay not being long after it opened. It has until now always been our favourite Conrad and our favourite hotel in Asia. This time we were disappointed with our stay. We fed this back to a delightful assistant front office manager, who took the time to listen and advised us she would feed back to management. We had asked to discuss our stay before we left and she met us on check out.

The stay came after a superb stay at the Hilton Phuket which we have reviewed separately, suffice to stay the excellent management team including the amazing GM there were always visible and approachable. This compares to the Conrad where the management team seem to hide away, we never had any email response from the GM who seems to delegate customer issues down to the lovely assistant front office manager. Our previous stays when the hotel has been under a different GM have always been much more personal and the team much more obvious.

We had booked a King Premier room with executive lounge access which is what we received. These rooms have been newly partially refurbished. Check in was done downstairs unlike in previous years where you were escorted to the executive lounge. Gone are the welcome towels and drinks. We were not recognised as returning guests or Gold customers but as we had not stayed in one of the new rooms before we were escorted to it in order to show us how things worked. Despite asking on three separate occasions we were not given the usual welcome letter with executive lounge opening times, gold welcome , the usual complimentary pressing etc. In fact there was nothing to indicate a welcome back as on usual occasions. Because of this when asked the receptionist gave us incorrect lounge opening times which was later annoying.

The lobby has been refurbished and the check in desks are now smaller and fewer. The refurbishment has made little difference other than the area now feels smaller and less impressive.

We were shown our room which had been partially refurbished. Great play was made of this especially the blinds which automatically raise when you enter the room and drop on leaving. These proved to be wildly annoying as they go up on entering the room even at night. The room books etc are all gone and the TV is meant to be the source of all information, which it is not. It is also meant to link to your phone, but we gave up after half an hour of trying. The bathroom is unchanged but refreshed. there is now a japanese american standard toilet, which is one of the cheaper ones. The seat does not warm and it only squirts ice cold water at you rather than the usual heated water you get with a Toto. Its quite eye opening! The old wooden blinds are still there as is everything else , even the shower controls are the same.
The room itself has been "ikea e fied", the thai silks and gold wooden sculptures are all gone and replaced with pale gray leather bed backs. There are no longer any ornaments or pictures and so the rooms have lost their Thai feel to them, you could be any where.

The bedside lamps are perplexing, you do not seem to be able to turn one on one side on and off without turning lots of other lights on. On the other side you can, or could if the knob to do this had not already gone missing.

The fruit menus and exotic fruits have gone as have little things such as the mending kit and there was only one bath robe. Even the complimentary elephant toy has got smaller! The bed is as comfortable as ever and the pillow menu still there. Nespresso machine has gone; now you get a kettle, 2 teabags and coffee sachets.

We had jackets to press and called down. The member of staff that came to collect could not have been more miserable if he tried. In fact none of the staff we met were particularly personable or smiley as they have been in the past. Even the executive lounge staff were not chatty as usual and really just interested in getting your room number to ensure you should be in the lounge.

We went out for 4 hours , asked for a turn down , left the room makeup light on , but the room was not touched. This was in comparison to the Hilton Phuket where this happened without asking every night.

The executive lounge offerings were reasonable but not up to the standards they have been in the past, fewer in type and quality , the two wines were of not good quality.

We rang to complain in the evening about the lack of fresh towels / turn down etc, the duty manager was rather ineffective and all he offered was to pass on our comments to a manager the next day, which to be fair he did. Its a shame he could not be bothered to come up to the room to have a chat.

We felt he issue here was that so much was made of the partial refurbishment that consideration of the guest has been lost as has the personal and valued feel that we are used to when staying at a Conrad. The cutting back in items and quality is also apparent when you have stayed there before. The rooms have lost that feeling of opulence and luxuriousness, and are now more modern so it depends on your tastes. The GM and team needs to step out of their office and interact more with the hotel and the customer as they did so well in Phuket.

I know this all seems critical but its been such an amazing place to stay in the past, its taken a bit of time and effort to put down these thoughts and we hope that they are helpful in restoring things.

Kacee

A considered yet devastating review. Sounds like rampant cost cutting, both in cap ex and amenities. The reports of unhappy staff are particularly troubling, as that is so not the norm in Thailand.

I did see recently that Conrad rates were in the mid-3000 THB range, whereas the better SPG properties (StR, SGS, Athenee) were all over 5000 THB. I wonder if perhaps Conrad is now sighting lower down the scale, and leaving the higher end to the W/A.

There are so many properties in Bangkok which offer better, it's hard to see this working out well for Conrad.

AutoModerator

What are the differences between Deluxe Twin and Premium Twin?

gav0106

escape4

Thanks for the detailed review and sorry to hear that your stay was not very good. The previous GM was excellent indeed; FYI he is now at Conrad Bora Bora.

You might be right but personally I would not draw that conclusion just yet. Conrad used to be in the 5k THB range, then in the middle of 2018 it dipped below 4.5k regularly, and particularly in June 2018 I noted it was not unusual to find rates below 3.5k. I thought perhaps they were coming down lower on the scale as you observed, only to go back up above 5k for most of September-December 2018 so it turned out to be temporary.

I see June 2019 is mid 3k again for some dates, just like June 2018. Usually hotels in Bangkok do not have all that much seasonality in their rates so I am not sure what is the issue here, but only if I see rates below 4k for several consecutive months will I conclude that it is the new normal rather than a cyclical thing.

JJeffrey

Deluxe is the base room, while Premium is the newly renovated room. Here is the room hierarchy not including suites:

Deluxe King/Twin: standard room
Deluxe King Corner: corner room
Premium King/Twin: newly renovated but same size as Deluxe King/Twin
Executive King/Twin: same as Deluxe King/Twin but with lounge access
Grand Premium King/Twin: same as Premium King/Twin but with lounge access

teemuflyer

I wouldn't be surprised if there are indeed some snowball effects of the introduction of the W/A into the Bangkok market. When the Conrad was the top dog of the Hilton Honors options, it could command somewhat of a premium, knowing that there are many within the loyalty program, willing to pay it, and redeem the benefits, rather than shop around with non-Hilton properties for a high-end stay.

Now that the W/A has replaced the Conrad as the most premium Hilton property, or at least provided another option, it has created more supply for premium property seekers amongst the loyalty program guests. It has to have some effect based on basic supply and demand laws.

Dad to Rei

I am staying here now. Though this is my first stay at this property.

I consider myself a pretty high touch guest (Exec lounge at least daily - with my kid), Concierge conversation probably every day. Had Laundry sent out twice now, Used the hotel car service, order food pool-side......

I am on a 5 night points stay, and paid up to guarantee the newly refurbished room.

I have to say while only anecdotal, my experience has been great. The staff has all been friendly and helpful. I have not had any issues at all. The rooms are to be sure more generic than i expect at a Conrad, but by no means do i consider them 'Bad'. We have made extensive use of the pool and fitness center (it's a very good fitness center).

I agree with the commentary about the WA now being here, it was tempting to book there instead, but two of the restaurants i wanted to try are within a stones throw of the Conrad.