escape4

After the hiccup regarding pillows I was told the duty manager would come meet us during breakfast the next day. They were true to their word and they did. However the visit was brief and simply told us to let them know if we needed anything, rather than ask for our feedback about our stay which I was willing to provide. That was different than the chef who did in fact ask for our opinion and probably got useful feedback from us.

I also met the guest relations manager at front desk but it was me going to her with a question about Capella Hotel next door, rather than them proactively engaging with me.

ChateauMargaux

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to checking this out if Thailand really opens up to vaccinated tourists in a few months.

Aventine

Capella's breakfast blows this one away and they let you have it in-room. They have everything from high quality fruit, dim sum to the Thai breakfast omelette and congee. Same for Rosewood's breakfast and they have the TOTOs. Barta should know better since he started in Bangkok.

livefromtuscany

Many thanks for your review! The product looks great and I hope they can improve their service standards over time.

I do appreciate your views on this. Unfortunately, we live in an era where more and more people think it's perfectly acceptable to go for breakfast right after working out, all sweaty and in gym clothes.

ppppewang

The hardware quality disappointed me. I stayed in a suite with non-label basins and the bathtub already has stains. They did show me a dexlue room, which is their sample room. In that room, the basin looks the same as the one in my suite, but it has duravit label...
Many rooms & suites have privacy problem as they are facing each other. Be sure to ask a room/suite on the first row.

scented

Gathy likes to work with Duravit and Koehler. Think he used Koehler for the Otemachi property. The individual elements are not really impressive on their own, his design lives from scale and his signature dramatic lines.

Interesting details, thank you!

escape4

I am assuming "first row" you mean the room type 'premier river view'? This was my room type, looking straight at the river and absolutely no privacy issues, the room was great. I do believe it's worth paying extra for this room, it would be a bummer to stay at FS to be right by the river, but end up in an entry level room without views whatsoever except for the rooms in front of you.

Personally, I did not think the hardware was a weakness of FS. It's not over the top wow but there are not many hotels in the city which would rank higher for hardware. 137 Pillars and Waldorf Astoria are very nice but we can find hardware faults to those two as well. Mandarin Oriental is great but the room much smaller than FS and older despite renovations so when all things considered I would still pick the room I had at FS unless you move up a few categories of rooms at MO but then price-wise the comparison is not fair to FS. The Siam is completely different style than FS so no comparison, St.Regis is starting to have wear & tear, Park Hyatt hardware is weak.

ppppewang

The thing is they use in Duravit in their sample room. Come to the real room, it become no-label.
The owner of FS Bangkok must did some budget cuts in development.

ppppewang

Yeah. Premier river view room and Executive Suite.

offerendum

I think the room looks pretty small. I always thought even the rooms at the MO are quite big.

escape4

Blame it on my poor camera The entry level room at MO is 43 sqm and last year I was upgraded to Chao Praya Room which is even smaller at 35 sqm. The room at FS felt much bigger and the disclosed size of 50 sqm felt accurate to me rather than distorted by some kind of creative accounting. The major difference was the bathroom: very small in MO's Chao Praya Room, and reasonably spacious at FS. The living area and bedroom are more comparable.

Aventine

They could only do so much with the existing building. Even the Mandarin Room bathroom is tiny compared to FS or Capella.

SocialAdept

Given the proximity to MO I guess the comparisons were inevitable. From what I'm reading in the thread it seems the opinion is that the hard product is better at the FS but MO has a slight edge on the soft side.

I'm planning a belated 40-yo surprise vacation for the missus so FS bangkok is definitely on my radar now.

escape4

From my experience the edge of MO over FS is not 'slight' on the soft side, in fact quite material. However I heard from someone who stayed at MO recently who was not overly impressed by service.

scented

To be honest, staycations (as important as they are right now) have a terrible effect on service levels and staff morale. This is well known in Bangkok and several other locales. The teams just seem to make a more limited effort and guests have different expectations.