bthobe

Went on their website but couldn't find an e-mail address. Does anyone have that handy by chance?

yosithezet

[email protected]

bthobe

Thanks!

hyatt_otaku

I used starpoints to stay in one of the Grand Club rooms in January and was very impressed with the place. For some reason that I cannot recall, I didn't have very high expectations of the place before I stayed there, and only chose it because I wanted to get a free night with points but had already stayed at all the other Starwood properties in Bangkok.

I wrote a review of the hotel with some nice pictures that I took at the link below.

http://reservethaihotels.net/1007/pl...gkok-reviewed/

I'm a big fan of trip reports but I tend to think that my writing can be either dry or, in the other extreme , sound too "salesy".
I'm trying to find my "voice" in writing, and trying to write informative and interesting reviews/reports.

If some folks here could take a look and offer their thoughts and/or advice, I would greatly appreciate it.

Or if you didn't want to leave a comment (here or on the post), you might just find the info useful/interesting.

seanthepilot

Why wouldn't you post your report here?

Many members, inlcluding myself are not going to visit any report posted to an external link. Hence, you're missing the audience to whom you're asking the question.

Keyser

very true....

hyatt_otaku

I didn't post it here originally because there were links in the post and I didn't want people to think I was spamming the forum or anything like that.
Also, I wanted people to see the photos I tool as well, which I think turned out quite well.

Anyway, I loaded them up to Flickr and included them in the post here, in hopes of getting some constructive criticism on the writing style, as hopefully breaking it up with pictures might get more people to read it. I wasn't able to align them like they were in the original post I linked to- I'm not even sure BB code allows you to do that.
So anyway, here it is below for your reading pleasure
I'd be happy to know what anybody thinks.
Thank you


A review of the Plaza Athenee Bangkok.

A few years ago, we were staying at the Grand Hyatt Erawan while they were renovating the pool area, putting in the teak deck and building the i.sawan Residential Spa & Club. It was a bit of a bummer because we weren’t able to use the pool.

I had sometimes wondered what the 5 star hotels do in situations like this, when a major facility is unavailable. In this case they had made arrangements with nearby 5 star hotels to allow guests to use their pool and gym. A bus left the hotel every thirty minutes or so and delivered guests to a different nearby 5 star hotel every day. One of the days we were staying there, the hotel whose facilities were made available to us was the Plaza Athenee Bangkok.


That was my first experience at the Plaza Athenee, which carries the official name of Plaza Athénée Bangkok, A Royal Méridien Hotel and I recently had the opportunity to stay at this hotel for free using Starwood Points.

While there is a BTS Skytrain station (Ploenchit) within walking distance, when first arriving you might like to take a taxi from Sukhumvit Road, as it might feel a lot farther if you are dragging luggage along Bangkok’s notoriously rugged sidewalks.

The first thing we noticed was the magnificent sweeping lobby with polished marble floors, thick rugs and twin grand staircase in the center leading up to the second floor. To the left is the front desk and concierge, while on the opposite side was the all-day-dining Rain Tree Cafe, where the breakfast buffet and Sunday brunch is served.

At check-in, we chose a Royal Club Room, located on floors 24~28. Our room was on the 27th floor.


The Room

As you can see from the photo above, the room was well appointed and quite spacious. From the photo below you will see that behind the position from where this photo was taken is the entryway and bathroom.

Being on the 26th floor, views of Bangkok were great. Our room was on the Sukhumvit side of the building, so we had views all along Sukhumvit.

One of the things I liked about this room was that there was plenty of space for me to occupy that wasn’t just on the bed. I’m kind of weird in that I don’t like to mess up the bed, or even sit on it until I get into it to sleep at night. Our room at the Plaza Athenee not only had a workdesk (with an extra chair!) but there was also a comfortable 2-seater sofa with cushions and a small table in the space between the bed and the panoramic windows.



Though not nearly as large as some of the serviced apartments in Bangkok, the 44 square meters in floor space, large floor to ceiling windows, sofa, and the extra chair by the work-desk, certainly made the room feel larger than average and we certainly didn’t feel cramped at all.

Speaking of the work-desk, I have never seen a better equipped work-desk than the one in our room at the Plaza Athenee Bangkok. The work-desk is of a decent size and it comes with a comfortable ergonomic work chair, lamp and desktop calendar.

Inside one of the desk drawers was a compartmentalized stash of office supplies, including scissors, a stapler (with spare staples), sticky-tape, highlighter pen, paper-clips, pens, pencils, a ruler, note paper and Post-it notes.

Of course there was a multi-line telephone as well as the choice of wired or wireless internet connections.
The Bathroom

As for the bathroom, what can I say about it? It was pretty much your standard marble and glass bathroom that you will find in pretty much any 5 star hotel in Bangkok.

It was pleasant enough, quite spacious, with a separate bath tub and shower, with a telephone by the toilet, so you won’t have to miss those important calls.

There was no television above the bathtub like you find in some hotels, but that wasn’t a problem for me.

There were bathroom scales and a shaving mirror, and the hotel has it’s own range of Le Meridien toiletries, including a small bottle of mouth wash.

Le Royal Club

Our Royal Club room granted us access to Le Royal Club (26th floor), entitling us to complimentary breakfast, afternoon tea, all day tea, coffee and non-alcoholic beverages, evening cocktail, Wi-Fi Internet access, and garment pressing service. We also had the option of access to a private meeting room for two hours usage per stay, which we didn’t take up this time.

The Royal Club lounge itself was fantastic. It took up almost all of the 26th floor. We certainly took advantage of the afternoon tea and evening cocktails.

While it does cost extra to stay in a Royal Club room (though since we were using an award redemption, we just had to use extra points), I believe if you take advantage of what is on offer, it can be great value for money.

Before heading out for dinner, I like to start the evening with the free cocktails and Hors d’œuvre provided for club guests. The selections available at the Plaza Athenee Bangkok didn’t disappoint, with a good choice of beer, wine and cocktails. After a full day of traipsing around Bangkok either shopping up a storm or taking in the sights, a relaxing hour or two in the Royal Club is a great way I find to recharge and get ready for the evening.



The lounge area itself was very comfortable with plenty of room throughout the floor with plush sofas as well as tables and chairs. The sunlight from the Bangkok sunset shining through the wooden venetian blinds cast the western side of Le Royal Club in a golden hue.

There were a couple of desktop computers with internet access and also free wifi throughout the lounge. (Just quietly, I also noticed that if your room is close enough to the lounge, the wifi signal may be strong enough to reach it.)
The Pool


No review of the Plaza Athenee Bangkok, or just about any hotel in my opinion, would be complete without a mention of the pool.

I like to have a pool where I can do laps while traveling, and while this pool is a free form pool and doesn’t have any dedicated lanes, it is long enough and it has a straight enough section that allowed me to get some laps in.

The pool itself is quite nice, surrounded by frangipani trees and orchids. The pool is quite large with a maximum depth of 1.5 meters, as well as a shallow kid’s pool at one end.

The area around the pool is finished with large stone pavings, and there is also a slightly elevated, covered sala area, providing shade, in addition to the many parasols placed around the poolside. While I didn’t find the sun lounges particularly uncomfortable, they did look a little old to me.

There is of course a poolside menu offering drinks and snacks, which we didn’t take advantage of during our stay as it was overcast and not really pool weather.
The Location

Located on Wireless Road, off lower Sukhumvit, which is home to many embassies and consulates including the US embassy, as well as the embassies of Japan, Spain, New Zealand, Vietnam, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Switzerland. Wireless Road is a leafy street with a BTS Skytrain station within walking distance on Sukhumvit Road

Keyser

very nice report hyatt_otaku....

rsqx2

Starting day 2 of 3 day, night stay - here are a few comments. By way of background, I am a SPG Platinum, visit Bangkok 3 times a year. First and foremost this is a very nice hotel. In virtually any city in the world but Bangkok, it would be among the top 5 to 10 hotels in the city. In Bangkok however, the competition is quite a bit tougher than most cities. Therefore this note is just a head's up for things to consider.

1. Hotel looks great as always. Very attentive door staff and many people at the front desk waiting to help with no one in line.

2. As a Platinum member, did not receive a suite upgrade, but was placed on a club room floor. The room is very nice, and you can get a good idea of it by viewing the pictures in the post above. Not sure if the room is any different than a regular room, but unless your are Thurston Howell III, it should not really matter as it is a really nice room. The cable programming is a bit light, as it only carries CNN rather than both CNN and Fox News as many other hotels in do in Bangkok these days but if you do not watch Fox News it will not matter.

2. Room toiletries have changed - they are now some sort of LM branded product versus what were nicer herbal based products. I will stay at the LM Bangkok soon and will compare versus what is used there. Also, the standard bathroom setup has been scaled down. Just a pet peeve, but the bathroom only had 2 big towels, and given the heat and humidity in Bangers you need to take a couple of showers a day, so having 4 by default would be nice. Also the complimentary bottles of water were reduced in size - though it is a nice touch to have water in the room.


3. A great fruit plate welcomed me to the room. Mangostein and Rombutan are available and just a delight to snack on after a long walk - great touch.

4. The cocktail setup has been scaled back. Before it was possible to get cocktails in the Lobby bar (Glaze I think) or in the SPG Lounge. Now cocktails are only available in the Lounge. For me this is downgrade, had I known about this change, I probably would not have booked here but that again that is simply because Bangkok has so many choices. The lounge here is very nice, with great drink selection and nice appetizers at cocktail time but I enjoy having drinks in a bar setting. It is a pathetic sounding complaint, as the lounge area is where most hotels provide free drinks for frequent stayers, but again given the choices in Bangkok you get spoiled. More than anything I think it points to the importance of hotels providing a constant product. My expectation was that drinks would be in the bar, and losing that benefit was annoying.

5. Breakfast was outstanding. The selection was well balanced between East and West and all the dishes were well prepared. The morning "energy shots" are really nice and depending on which are available very spicy! The weak point here is the fruit selection which I think compares unfavorably to hotels that have a "live" fruit station. However, that is balanced out by an excellent "live" noodle bar and probably the best coffee in Bangkok (LM Bangkok shares in this award as well).

6. The hotel is running an amazing weekend promotion, where the rates are 50% and you get 50% off any food purchased on the property. This is a really promotion as the property has excellent restaurants. Smooth Curry, the Thai restaurant is excellent in presentation and taste. The French restaurant, Reflexions, has a great looking menu which I will try on this visit. So for you looking for a very nice hotel for the weekends, PA is a a great option.


Conclusion - This is a wonderful hotel. PA is a great property with an outstanding location and you will not go wrong staying here.

While for me eliminating the Glaz Bar SPG Plat cocktail option was a disappointment that had I known about would have led me to book elsewhere for the the 8 days I will stay here this month, that is more my own bias and will not likely affect most people's stay.

estnet

Actually the bar change is also important to me. It used to be that if u wanted mixed drinks u had to go to the bar or restaurant (where cocktails were also free)
I used to have cocktails then stay for dinner at the upscale restaurant guess I can't do that any more
As for the special rate - if it had been advertised I would have booked there for my trip next week instead of trying the Banyan Tree which had a very good advertised rate!

Plaza Athenee, BKK (Starwood)

We have to second that - very, very nice report!

rsqx2 - your feedback has been taken to heart from the points you mention. To clarify some of your comments:

Our Royal Club Deluxe rooms are slightly bigger from our Deluxe rooms (44 vs. 38 square m.). The Royal Club rooms also have floor to ceiling windows, making the rooms look more spacious.

There are several reasons why we no longer offer drinks at the Glaz Bar during Cocktail hour for our Royal Club Guests, but one reason was that we had introduced a "Rush Hour" promotion that we forecasted would cause the Glaz Bar to be quite crowded. From a logistical standpoint, and to be able to better cater to the needs of our Club Guests, we decided to limit the Cocktail consumption to the 26th floor.

Let us know if there are any other questions or feedback!

Best,
Plaza Athenee, BKK (Starwood)

FatManInNYC

Very well done, hyatt_otaku. Thanks for sharing. ^

FatManInNYC

Excellent point. What few nits I have had with the PA, that is one of them. I think you can ask ahead for more towels and have your desire added to your local profile. Once you ask for more, the staff seems to remember and replenishes the extra even through the daily housekeeping.

The occasional mango is also a pleasant bonus, and the turn-down sweets are nice as well.

With the turn down service also comes selection of bath salts and oils placed by the over-sized tub. While not typically something I would indulge, after walking more than five miles one day this last week (or so sayeth my pedometer), the salts made for a nice soak.

Love the noodle bar. LM has one as well, but it's a different experience than the PA's set-up.

I've found the fruit selection at the PA and LM to be occasionally below par compared to the rest of the offerings as well, but had some excellent watermelon and dragonfruit this last stay.

Emphasis mine

The booking engine requires the stay to start on a weekend night, but allows you to book into the next week. The rules state clearly, however, that only Friday and Saturday food is discounted. (might be a booking engine error, I suppose ... hope I didn't just kill my next reservation ...)

I strongly suggest anyone considering the PA to take a few extra moments and check out the hotel's special offers. One can find some outstanding deals there that don't come up in a standard date/rate search.

Great report - thanks for sharing.

GoingAway

Just got an offer from them ... pretty good 4100 bhat (~125 USD)

Save up to 50% while discovering the luxury of refined services and facilities with exclusive access to Le Royal Club Lounge, including:
• Private check-in upon arrival on the 26th floor
• Daily buffet breakfast for two at the Rain Tree Cafe or Le Royal Club Lounge
• Complimentary use of a private meeting room for two hours
• Daily afternoon tea from 3pm to 5pm
• Evening cocktails from 6pm to 8pm
• Complimentary wireless Internet access in WiFi Zone
• Late check-out until 4pm

Book between now and next Thursday, the 26th of August for stays throughout the rest of 2010 to enjoy an exclusive rate of THB 4’100++ in one of our Royal Club Deluxe rooms.

MDCLUB is the rateplan.

Chris27

Dear all,

Wanted to share my experience last month at Plaza Athenee, Bangkok.
My wife and me actually love the hotel and have stayed there 4 times during the past year, unfortunately this time was rather disappointing for various reasons.

Arrival / Check-In:
After two nights at Le Meridien, we moved over for another two nights at PA and as my wife - of course - preferred to go shopping, I went there alone on early afternoon and wanted to check-in for us.
This time we had booked the Club Room right away (previous stays we upgraded upon check-in) and the reservation was under my wife`s name due to her gold status with SPG.
Arrived with the taxi, the staff took the luggage and I entered the lobby and wanted to move on to the elevators for check-in in the lounge. One lady came and I explained her about our reservation and that I intended to go to the lounge for check-in. She literally didn`t let me proceed but insisted I need to verify first with the ground floor check-in desk.
Surprised about this procedure I went there and thought that if I show a print-out of our reservation (done via their homepage) everything should be fine and I could proceed upstairs, but it turned out to become a big hassle: they wanted to see all docs, passports, SPG membercards, etc. Overall they were pretty arrogant and gave me the feeling I tried to “cheat” myself into the hotel…
Finally, they confirmed all was in order and one lady accompanied me to the lounge apologizing for the inconvenience.
In the lounge I had to do the whole process again and needed to present all docs, passports, etc. again, so it took ages until I finally was “allowed” in our room.

Although I don`t know if it is the normal procedure to identify oneself first on the ground floor (anyone can confirm this ?), this was handled in a really unfriendly and not welcoming way – besides I wonder what the “benefit” of lounge check-in is then?

Later that day, we went to the lounge for the evening cocktails and there one of the same ladies asked my wife for her passport again… Annoying.

Lounge:
Still very nice atmosphere in a great location. During evening cocktails / snacks, drinks are now served by the staff, no more self-service at the counter. Basically a nice move, if the service was just more attentive.
Two of the long-time ladies working there seem to have left, they were in fact brilliant.

Breakfast:
Still fantastic, unfortunately service was not.
The evening before, we have asked in the lounge if they could reserve a table for us at breakfast in Rain Tree Café for the next morning, which they declined “as reservations aren`t possible for breakfast”.
When we went to Rain Tree Café the next morning, we had to wait nearly 5 minutes for a waiter to show up and allocate us a table. Just after we took our seat and wanted to order, another waiter came to our table and said we couldn`t sit there as this table had been reserved for someone else - what an irony. Didn`t want to start discussion on early holiday morning, so finally had to move to another table.

Customer Feedback:
As usual, I took the time and filled out the customer feedback form provided in the room, mentioning above experiences and handed it over upon check-out. Also wanted to know more on the correct procedure at check-in for next visit.
A month has passed now and didn`t hear anything back, very disappointing in fact.
One of the past stays, we received a letter signed from the GM thanking us for our input and mentioning some of our observations.


Anyhow, with the experience of this stay (especially the unfriendly treatment at some parts), I will seriously reconsider the hotel for our next stay over X-Mas, there are more than enough alternatives around in BKK.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment.