Two weeks ago I stayed at the Peninsula Bangkok after reading many rave reviews here on the Luxury Hotels board at FlyerTalk. I had to see for myself what the hype was about. Here are my experiences and observations.

I will start off as usual, with some vital statistics, pro's and con's and then will fill in more detail in subsequent posts.

Room booked: Deluxe Suite, Virtuoso rate, $368USDinclusive of one-way airport transfer, early check-in and late check-out, as well as one category upgrade subject toavailbility at check-in, complimentary buffet breakfast for 2 at River Cafe & Terrace plus the other standard amenitiessuch as free internet, fruit plate, etc etc

Room received: Grand Deluxe suite, 23rd floor with 4:00pm late check-out

Pro's: Probably the best value luxury hotel in Bangkok Well appointed rooms Excellent breakfast buffet Decent concierge service

Con's:

-The coldest check-in experience ever in a luxury hotel-Mediocre service (the Four Seasons BKK is miles ahead in terms ofservice)

-shoes were unshined despite putting them into that cutesecurity concern box, putting on the switch AND calling the relevant department -dated and staid decor..... the rooms felt generically international 5star -- I felt I could move the Pen BKK into Shinjuku area of Tokyoand it would fit in there too.... -a room service menu with nary any Thai food on it!!!! In this respect,the Oriental and Four Seasons shine....... why come to Bangkok to eatsupreme of chicken???

Check In

We stayed at the nearby, and new, Millennium Hilton Bangkok the night before and took a cab from the Hilton to the Peninsula. The arrival at the Peninsula was nothing out of the ordinary, though our luggage was swiftly unloaded and we were generally shown the way to the Front Desk to check-in.

The check-in agents were the most unfriendly, coldest, and emotionless Thai ladies I have ever met. Robotic, no smile, no welcome to the Peninsula, no courtesy. I would have expected this in Geneva, Berlin or Zurich but not in Bangkok...... she unceremoniously gave us some orchid thing and then told us to follow her to our room.

After the check-in agent left a parade of staff members visited the room, first with a fruit plate (a little larger than the one already in the room, which, curiously was taken away), fresh mango juice, Peninsula brand chocolates; then with some hot jasmine tea, cold oshibori towels; and then finally with our luggage.

This arrival ritual was quite impressive and the chocolates, cookies, fruit, juice and tea made for a very nice snack. The complimentary high speed internet was very welcome.

Room

The room was luxe, if not staid, and was a Grand Deluxe suite on the 23rd floor with very nice views of the river and of the Oriental Hotel across the river. Entering the suite there is a small foyer which leads you left towards the work desk. Behind the work desk is a guest toilet with river views. From the work desk the living room opens up with a small dining table for four, a couple arm chairs and a sofa. On the dining table was a small fruit plate and a box of Peninsula cookies. There is a puny old school TV in a built-in armoire. There is a door separating the living room from the rest of the suite. Behind that door is a small corridor; to the left leads you to the bedroom with a small reading nook by the window, a make up table, and armoire with small old-school TV. Directly in front of the door to the living room is the spacious marble bathroom with two single vanities, a separate stall shower, separate WC cubicle, and large deep soaking tub with small TV in the wall. To the right of the corridor leads you to the dressing room area where the small cubby hole for shoe shine, newspaper delivery, etc is located. The TV were of note since the Hilton next door, at half the price, had Sharp Aquos LCD TVs in the suites.

Service

Since we were both left Japan with the cold/flu we were simply too exhausted to go out for dinner and reluctantly cancelled our reservations at Celadon. We decided to order room service and was astonished to see about 5 Thai food items on their menu. The hotel obliged my request for the Thiptara menu to be brought to the room from which we ended up ordering from. Knowing that Thiptara tends to cater to a western taste we asked for the food to be served at local spice levels. The food was very good and came in generous portions -- the steamed bass in spicy lemon sauce was very nice as was their duck curry (though the one at Spice Market at the Four Seasons is still better). The only issue with room service was that the food was not delivered anywhere near the promised 25 minutes. The food arrived nearly 20 minutes late. We also enjoyed khao pad and some stir fried vegetables to round off our meal.

The buffet breakfast at the River Cafe & Terrace was one of the nicest breakfast buffets I have seen in quite some time. The selection was staggering and the service was pretty good. The quality of the western food was decent but the Asian choices, as one would expect, was wonderful. Still recovering from our colds we decided to eat indoors. Having this included in the rate was an excellent value.

Overall

Check-out procedures were handled at the same desk by the same frosty Front desk agents. The Concierge had confirmed our Mercedes limousine to the airport for 4:00pm which was the same time as our check-out.

Due to traffic, our limousine was waiting for us at the Peninsula Pier side, adjacent to the Oriental Hotel. Our luggage was already loaded on a private Peninsula boat which was solely reserved for our use. Crossin the Chao Phraya, the Taksin bridge was a virtual parking lot and the Concierge made an excellent call in having our car wait for us on the other side.

Another point of interest was that when the Mercedes transfer is included in the rate you are not able to pay a supplement, that is the difference between the Mercedes and the RR, for the Rolls Royce. You have to pay the entire Rolls Royce amount. While the rate is VERY reasonable for the Rolls Royce, it would be a nice gesture for the hotel to allow one to pay the supplement and use the Rolls Royce. I don't quite understand this stinginess on the part of the hotel.

Once at the Peninsula Pier our luggage was quickly loaded into the trunk and we were off to Don Muaeng for our Gulf Air flight to Bahrain. Of note, there were no cold towels nor chilled bottles of water provided in the car like the Oriental, Four Seasons, and Inter-Continental provide.

At the airport, Peninsula does not have an airport representative there to help departing passengers with check-in. This is a very nice service that the Four Seasons Bangkok provides -- there is a representative to meet and assist both arriving and departing guests.