When I stayed at Four Seasons Bangkok a few weeks ago I noticed that the new Capella hotel was immediately next door and found out that both properties actually have the same owner which raised my interest.  I decided to try Capella for the first time and was more impressed than by our stay at Four Seasons.  I suspect some travelers will choose Four Seasons based on name recognition and the lower price tag for the entry level rooms but in my opinion Capella is well worth the price premium and beats Four Seasons in almost every aspect.  Capella views their main competitor to be Mandarin Oriental rather than FS.  I found the service at Capella to be more down to earth therefore appealing to a different age bracket than the more formal Mandarin Oriental.  Many people generally consider MO to be the #1 hotel in Bangkok and I predict that in short order Capella will gain a significant number of fans and will eventually overtake MO as the top luxury hotel in the city.  In addition I would note that Capella is part of larger hotel alliances: it is a member of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) and also Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) where elite loyalty program benefits can exceed the limited ones offered by FS and MO if having GHA Black status.

Location

Capella is located on the river and guests can easily go from Capella to FS via the riverfront promenade and enjoy some facilities of the other hotel.  For example I quite liked the BKK Social Club at Four Seasons and staying at Capella does not prevent from enjoying FS’s bar.  To maximize the advantage of being located on the river, the vast majority of rooms at Capella are directly facing the river, even the entry level rooms.  This is quite different from Four Seasons where the first two room types have no view or only partial views.  For direct river views you need the third room type at FS and for this reason alone it automatically makes price comparisons between the two hotels flawed if only comparing the price of the cheapest rooms at both properties.  In other words, Capella is less of a price premium over FS than we would be led to believe at first glance.

Room

The entry level room at Capella is the Riverfront room type which are the rooms on the 4th floor only.  The second room type Riverfront Premier is identical but located on floors 5-10.  Those rooms avoid the main drawback of the entry level rooms which is that they are sitting immediately above the Verandah rooms and have less privacy because from the terrace of the Verandah rooms, if looking back up you can partially see in the living room of the 4th floor rooms despite the tinted windows.  

The third category of rooms used to be Verandah but because they have been far more popular than expected, the hotel moved them up to 4th room type.  The Verandah rooms are the same as Riverfront and Riverfront Premier except that instead of having a small terrace, they have a large terrace with a private plunge pool which makes them unique.

The Courtyard Suites (formerly 4th room type, now 3rd) are larger than the other rooms mentioned above (over 100 sqm) but no river views.  

Before my stay I asked the hotel which upgrade they would normally offer to GHA Black guests and they responded 2-category upgrade as per the normal GHA program rules and that in my situation I would end up in the Verandah room if I booked the entry level room.  Upon check-in I was surprised to only receive a one-category upgrade to Riverfront Premier on the top floor.  I showed the e-mail exchange I had with staff previously and they told me the 3rd and 4th room types had been swapped and they thought the Riverfront Premier room on the top floor would be better than a Courtyard Suite.  That might be right but a better service approach would have been to give me the choice rather than upgrade me below the normal rules.  Anyway after only a few minutes I got a call in our room and was told that we would move to the Verandah room which I was pleased with.

The two rooms we saw were similar as Four Seasons which is good but perhaps not the highest quality build in the city.  The materials did not always come across as ultra-luxury for example the cabinets, some of the furniture, and for flooring there was too much carpet to my taste – the hardwood floor was only a small fringe on the sides of the bedroom; quite narrow so nobody could walk there.  In that regard I think Waldorf Astoria and Sindhorn Kempinski feel more luxurious with more expansive hardwood floors.  The bathroom was smaller at Capella than at Four Seasons and the bathtub being in the middle of the bathroom was a bit cumbersome, and similar to FS the toilet was not a Toto washlet, another luxury miss in my opinion and a notch below what can be found in the suites at Waldorf Astoria and Park Hyatt, and also found at lower levels of hotels such as Athenee and Le Meridien.  Bathroom amenities at Capella were great, 100 ml metallic bottles custom-made for Capella Bangkok from La Bottega which reminded me of the bottles at Mandarin Oriental.

The strength of the rooms at Capella is location and having river views.  The extra unique feature is for guests who stay in the Verandah rooms or the Verandah suites on the 3rd floor – while they will not be confused with luxury pool villas in Phuket or Koh Samui, those rooms are hard to beat for any other hotel in Bangkok because of the private plunge pool.  Privacy was fairly good on each side due to vegetation providing a natural wall between rooms.  

For people who want to spend even more, Capella also has villas right on the river rather than the rooms in the main building, the villas also having their own private plunge pool as well but having the advantage of more privacy because they are not visually exposed to rooms above them.  

Service

Service during our stay was not perfect but it would be unfair to expect a 6-month old hotel to perform as well as MO which is over 100 years old and one of the best service-oriented hotels in all of Asia.  Some minor mistakes were made for example the room assignment as mentioned above and also during the stay when I asked if I could visit the Courtyard Suites I was told none were available because maintenance was currently there.  I believe if a customer wants to see new room types to steer future stays, they should propose alternatives (time or other rooms) rather than send me back.  Anyway, overall service was very friendly and down to earth, in contrast to the highly polished, formal, and professional service at MO.  This was the case at reception, in the restaurant, the bar, etc. and overall superior to what we experienced at Four Seasons which is almost an equally new hotel.  At Capella I should also note that they prepared a welcome arrangement in the room and also gave us a frame of the picture they took of us at check-in which was a nice touch.  I believe in the next few months Capella will continue to make some strides and be better positioned to rival MO although with a different style, and probably fitting to a different clientele profile than MO so maybe not direct competition.  

Dining

Breakfast was mostly a la carte and I found the menu to be a step above The Siam, MO, and FS.  In my opinion the best luxurious breakfast in Bangkok remains 137 Pillars and the best buffet is Waldorf Astoria but Capella was definitely top 5 of those I tried before.  Breakfast included an in-house Champagne welcome drink, a Japanese breakfast set with grilled salmon (which was specifically excluded when we stayed at MO) among the several choices in the extensive a la carte menu.  Service could have been a bit better for small details, for example at Waldorf Astoria staff constantly refill drinks as soon as our glass is half empty and they promptly replace cutlery after every dish which was not always done at Capella in the morning.

The Stella bar had live music and seems to be quite popular already as it was almost full even on week evenings.  Service was excellent with staff providing detailed explanations of their different types of in-house cocktails representing 4 countries: Thailand, China, India, and Japan.  

While Mandarin Oriental has Le Normandie restaurant, at Capella they are attempting to outdo MO with the Côte restaurant from 3-Michelin starred chef Mauro Colagreco.  We tried their Inspiration Menu which was absolutely superb and the highlight of our stay, particularly service-wise which was highly attentive and personal.  Similar to Stella, it was surprising to find out that they were almost full already and in fact they expected to be fully booked starting in one week’s time.  Since my wife is pregnant we did not try the wine pairing but next time we dine at Côte I am looking forward to pick that option for a more complete experience.

Common Areas

The gym had modern equipment with screens to connect to, but it was not a room with views so not the best gym I have seen before.  The swimming pool had moderate river views partially blocked by the villas down below.  

Wifi

Wifi worked well with speeds of almost 100 Mbps.

Overall

Overall while Capella was not perfect it did well in almost all aspects: (1) not the best room but if considering river views and especially the room types with a private pool it gives an edge over other hotels; (2) some minor service improvements are needed but already considerably ahead of FS and making guests feel comfortable at home; (3) the Stella bar can compete toe to toe with Bamboo bar at MO; (4) the fine dining Côte restaurant has potential to become the very best in the city, both food-wise and service-wise; and (5) location is as good as it gets for a leisure-oriented hotel.  The price point is similar to MO but rooms at Capella are far more spacious (60+ sqm) than the smallish room we had to MO last time (35 sqm) and while Capella is more expensive than FS if we compare to the rooms with river views at FS then the price difference becomes modest.  It should also be emphasized that FS is a big hotel with 300 rooms while Capella only has 100 rooms which is more appropriate for an ultra-luxury property and it will almost always be easier for Capella to deliver top notch service than FS.  I can highly recommend to luxury hotels lovers to try Capella and see if it meets what they are looking for - it did for us.

After a promising start soon after hotel opening when I stayed last year, I returned to Capella Bangkok this year to see what changed.  Overall I had a good stay however there were a few small issues which popped up leaving them still below the level where they need to be in my opinion, and not part of the cream of the crop yet.

Room

Almost all top tier hotels do not have a loyalty program to speak of (Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Rosewood) so in theory Capella being part of GHA which gives plus 2 room category upgrade to Titanium guests could end up being better value than other hotels in part due to this feature.  Last year it ended up being the case but not before a somewhat bungled initial room assignment, and this year was worse.  I booked the courtyard suite and was hoping for an upgrade to a higher category of suites.  In the days before our stay I asked by e-mail how hotel occupancy was and what room type I could expect to receive but they only responded to other questions of my e-mail and remained silent about the upgrade.  On the day of check-in I looked at room availability online and noticed that many room types above mine were fully booked so I was not surprised about the lack of upgrade at check-in.  When chatting with staff it emerged that it would not have mattered anyway because they made the internal decision that upgrades would not go beyond the courtyard suite which is probably something they should have communicated earlier, and also possibly a lost opportunity to differentiate themselves versus the competition.

To be honest after staying in the courtyard suite for a few days I can say it is not my favorite room type and in fact, is possibly why they hesitated to upgrade me to that room type in the first place during our stay last year.  First off Capella is a riverside hotel but this room is one of the very few which does not have river views.  In some circumstances I might not mind some kind of garden view but the problem is that the room was L-shaped with the windows on the inner portion of the L which made the room a bit dark even during the day.  

The main positive is that they prepared a great birthday arrangement in the living room for our daughter; I can imagine older children being quite excited at the opportunity to sleep in a hotel teepee.  

Dining

The breakfast menu was largely the same as when we stayed last year with the only notable difference being that the breakfast champagne drink has been eliminated.  Cin Cin hour from 5-6pm was at the living room next to reception last year and the venue has been improved to the Stella bar instead.  The cocktails they prepared during happy hour were excellent quality and service was great.  The lone black mark was that on one of the days of our stay there was a private event at Stella due to a wedding and they moved Cin Cin hour to a poor venue without any seats and people standing up.  

While children are normally not allowed at Stella in the regular hours after 6pm, the hotel made an exception for our daughter’s birthday and they organized a small party 6-8pm before the bar became more crowded, which was a nice gesture.  The manager of the Côte restaurant whom we met last year even went out of his way to stop by and greet us for the occasion.  This is something I witnessed in other occasions during our stay as well: various managers are making their presence felt and having contact with guests which is definitely a strong positive at Capella.  

To conclude with dining I would note that the Côte restaurant has received its Michelin star which I am not surprised at all given our superb experience last year.  Too bad we could not take advantage of Côte for this stay, perhaps when our daughter is older it will be more suitable or alternatively we could use the hotel babysitting service.  

Service

One service issue which came up during our stay was that one day we had the do not disturb light on during the morning because we preferred for housekeeping to be done in the afternoon when we had planned a lunch at the Phra Nakhon restaurant.  We had a reservation at 1:30pm and I removed the DND light before heading to lunch so the hotel should have known the timing was good to clean the room, unfortunately when we came back at 4pm the room had not been done so obviously nobody went there to check all afternoon.  By then our daughter needed to nap so we could not delay housekeeping any longer and we wanted to stay in the room during the evening.  To make matters worse, when I wanted a refill of water because we were running low, I called several times before going to sleep but nobody ever picked up the phone so we had an unclean room and lack of water.  The next day at breakfast when our culturist (as they call them) asked for feedback about our stay so far, I outlined the positives but commented about the housekeeping plus the phone, and found out that there was an electrical problem resulting in phones not working which explained the issue.  I was thanked for my feedback including my (less than stellar) opinion about the courtyard suite and was offered to move to another room type for the end of our stay.  I preferred to stay put because it would have been a bit of a hassle to pack up so instead they offered a river suite upgrade for our next stay which I will be sure to take advantage of.

Overall

All in all it was not a perfect stay and in the future I would book either a non-suite which all have river views, or a suite category higher than courtyard.  I continue to believe the hotel has great potential but it’s not a well-oiled machine yet.  Nonetheless I still prefer it to the other hotels listed earlier in various ways so I will continue to return to Capella.