I recently tried the new Sindhorn Kempinski hotel which opened in October and it was a pleasant surprise – an excellent addition to the group of luxury hotels in Bangkok.  I found our suite to be built to a good standard, it was the most spacious we ever stayed in Bangkok, the service was attentive, and finally the hotel has potential with its wellness theme and spa still under development.

Location

Sindhorn Kempinski is located in the Sindhorn village next door to Kimpton Maa-Lai which has the same owner as Kempinski.  There are many upscale shops, cafes and restaurants in the viscinity as it caters to some of the local residents in the Kempinski Residences Tower, which is separate from the hotel.  

Room

I booked an Executive Club Room and received a 2-category upgrade as GHA Black to the Grand Executive Suite.  In some GHA hotels a 2-category upgrade is a very modest upgrade and not competitive with large hotel chains, but at this Kempinski the value of the upgrade was aligned with what I often receive at other hotels in the city.  All rooms at Kempinski are quite large to begin with (the entry level room is 66 sqm) and the Exec Club Room I booked was 80 sqm.  My upgrade to the Grand Exec Suite was significant in terms of the price difference between room types but also in space available: our room was 145 sqm.  With all things considered of the 40 different hotels we stayed in Bangkok in the past, this suite at Kempinski was probably the second nicest room we ever had, right behind the Astoria Suite at Waldorf.  

Our Grand Exec Suite had a very large living / dining area with a full kitchen and one advantage over the Astoria Suite at WA is that Kempinski had a large balcony whereas there is no outdoor sitting area at WA, however in the aggregate I still prefer the suite at WA despite the fact that it’s a bit smaller (140 sqm) because it’s a better use of space for a couple given the fact that the Astoria Suite at WA only has one bedroom whereas there are two at Kempinski so the second bedroom was not so useful in our particular situation.  That said, I found the Grand Exec Suite to be very well built including nice hardwood floors and thick walls + doors.   

Service

Service was generally quite good during our stay especially considering the hotel is still fairly new.  Before our stay at Kempinski we were staying next door at Kimpton and I was curious to see Kempinski so we walked there one morning just to look at the hotel.  It was not even our check-in day but when I told staff that we were staying at Kimpton they knew my name right away which was impressive.  During the stay service was quite attentive and they are clearly eager to improve as it’s still a new hotel and frequently asking for feedback.  I saw a few staff members who used to work at WA – they hired staff with experience working in a luxury hotel. The GM also stopped by to greet us one morning and he also reached out to me after our stay by e-mail to ask for our feedback.  The one area of improvement I noticed would be in the restaurant where staff was not always proactive with refills unlike the top luxury hotels in the city.  

Dining

Breakfast was entirely a la carte and to match with the wellness theme of the hotel, there were several healthy type dishes including freshly pressed juices.  The rainbow bowl was a unique dish not found in other hotels in the city and we enjoyed it, but for the rest of the menu I would say it could get fairly repetitive during a long stay for people who prefer Asian options rather than a western breakfast.  

Unfortunately the Club Lounge was not open due to a lack of guests and they provided executive benefits in a separate part of the restaurant.  This was a bummer because for me the value of the lounge is not only food & beverage but also having a nice quiet and private place to relax or have a drink and also where I tend to make miscellaneous service requests (rather than ask staff near reception).  Anyway the lounge will have to wait for another day.  The drinks menu during happy hour was good quality including cocktails, sparkling wine and spirits, whereas the hors d’oeuvres were so-so and not on par with some other lounges in the city for example JW Marriott or Athenee (Luxury Collection, Marriott).  The same crispy shrimps also came back too often on the menu.

As part of the club benefits, they also served afternoon tea with some sandwiches and desserts.  

Overall I am not sure the value of paying for lounge access was quite there given that it was in the restaurant, unless intending to drink but my conclusion might be different once the lounge is fully operational.  I would also note that part of the price difference between the basic room and an exec room is not just the lounge but it’s also the fact that the rooms are not the same: the exec rooms are a big larger so lounge access is not completely disjointed from the room choice.

Spa

The hotel will have a large spa which was only partially open at this time but I got a tour of the facilities.  In various treatment rooms they will have advanced equipment for different kinds of massages.  One part of the spa which was open was the Thermal Experience which included an aroma steam room, a Finnish sauna at 80C, a bio sauna, and a cold room at -5C, all of which were great to try.

Pool

The swimming pool was quite nice with seating areas in the shade and the pool extending outdoors which is an interesting building design feature.  

Gym

The gym had plenty of modern equipment as can be expected for a new hotel.

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Wifi

Wifi worked well during our stay with speeds of about 50 Mbps.

Overall

My main takeaway is that this hotel is solid in various ways: the rooms are good quality, we had more space available than we could handle, service was on par with luxury hotels, breakfast was decent, and the spa gives the hotel an edge over competitors by providing a dimension that others do not have.  For people who value having a spacious luxury room you cannot go wrong here because even the basic room is big and even more so for elite members of the GHA program because you can end up with a suite so large that it competes with the top priced suites at other 5-star hotels.   Many other luxury hotels in Bangkok provide far less space especially if booking the lower level of rooms for example at Mandarin Oriental the second room type is only 35 sqm, which will never be a problem at Sindhorn Kempinski.