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Bangkok: Which SPG hotel should I choose? [Master Thread]

Old Sep 20, 2014, 3:26 am
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Bangkok: Which SPG hotel should I choose? [Master Thread]

Old May 24, 2018, 11:22 pm
  #2176  
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Originally Posted by dsquared37
In both quality and breadth of offerings LM is heads and shoulders above what CY serves in the MoMo Cafe and claiming that it's equivalent to a 'lounge' breakfast is folly. Me thinks you're getting this mixed up with another hotel because the LM has an extensive breakfast layout
The best lounge breakfast I know of in Bangkok is Athenee, and I agree that LM's breakfast in the restaurant is better than Athenee's lounge breakfast.

In fact, as far as restaurant breakfasts go, LM might not be on par with SGS or Athenee in terms of food, but I do enjoy the quiet Plat area and the bubbly. This is in contrast with other hotels where we need to compromise quiet vs spread when choosing lounge or restaurant. At LM, you can get both so LM therefore provides a strong point that others do not have, to somewhat offset the negatives such as not having a lounge.

In my humble opinion LM has its place in the Starriott portfolio of hotels and it can please people who put less value on a lounge and location, but care more about suites, breakfast, and happy hour drinks, for a reasonable price point below all hotels except for Aloft, 4P, ROS, and CY. I could survive without LM of course, but I would rather have the choice available than not have it.

The properties which I question their value for Plats are rather Aloft and to a lesser extent 4P, not LM. You hardly get any Plat benefits and for select service hotels I think we can do better in other chains, such as Hyatt Place. At the higher end, I have never been to W and based on what I read I cannot say that I will go soon. If LM gets some heat for not having a lounge, then W seems even worse in terms of Plat benefits and you pay ~40% more than LM. In fact W is more often than not more expensive than Athenee, only surpassed by JW and St.Regis.
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Old May 25, 2018, 9:48 am
  #2177  
 
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When staying at LeM it's very simple to avoid the Patpong touts to/from the BTS: simply avoid Patpong and use Soi Japan instead ( ie the next Soi up from Patpong heading towards Rama4). Caucasian foreigners are not welcome in the establishments there and you won't be harassed . It's a very easy walk through to Silom and Sala Daeng BTS.
Personally I like LeM but do agree that the happy hour thing is a bit lame ( said by one who likes coffee and a snack at around 6.00pm but not alcohol).
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Old May 25, 2018, 10:27 am
  #2178  
 
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Originally Posted by paolo64
When staying at LeM it's very simple to avoid the Patpong touts to/from the BTS: simply avoid Patpong and use Soi Japan instead ( ie the next Soi up from Patpong heading towards Rama4). Caucasian foreigners are not welcome in the establishments there and you won't be harassed . It's a very easy walk through to Silom and Sala Daeng BTS.
Personally I like LeM but do agree that the happy hour thing is a bit lame ( said by one who likes coffee and a snack at around 6.00pm but not alcohol).
I may have done that route once. Is there a supermarket on that route? It was actually a pretty nice market if so. You avoid the more crowded Sois but not all the activity as some of it spills onto Surowang.

To respond to a couple other posts, yes I did not like the LM by Patpontg and that certainly impacts my opinion, but I went in with an open mind. Since the merger I have had great stays at SPG properties, including in Prague (recommended to friends who will be there in two days over the Marriott), Bali and Siam Reap. I am not, as someone via email accused, an SPG hater. I appreciate that others like this hotel, but as I have stated over and over, if you are used to the full service Marriott properties in Bangkok the LM is probably not going to be your new favorite. By comparison I found it lacking, but YMMV.
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Old May 25, 2018, 11:53 am
  #2179  
 
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Originally Posted by paolo64
When staying at LeM it's very simple to avoid the Patpong touts to/from the BTS: simply avoid Patpong and use Soi Japan instead ( ie the next Soi up from Patpong heading towards Rama4). Caucasian foreigners are not welcome in the establishments there and you won't be harassed . It's a very easy walk through to Silom and Sala Daeng BTS.
Personally I like LeM but do agree that the happy hour thing is a bit lame ( said by one who likes coffee and a snack at around 6.00pm but not alcohol).
For those looking for it on a map, I believe you are referring to Soi Thaniya. There are a lot of Japanese restaurants but at night it still has a lot of drinking establishments catered towards the Japanese, although it is more pleasant to walk through unless you are a fairer skinned Asian - in which case the girls sitting around are just as grabby. Strangely enough, walking through Patpong as an Asian results in less harassment. I don't mind the Patpong area as much as the other red light districts, honestly. Walking through the middle row of the night market, you are basically left alone, since the touts that harass people are on either side where the bars are. I am a guy who prefers the W hotel, however. Walk though Silom Square building right to Chong Nonsi BTS, without ever having to deal with any of that.

Originally Posted by CJKatl
I may have done that route once. Is there a supermarket on that route? It was actually a pretty nice market if so. You avoid the more crowded Sois but not all the activity as some of it spills onto Surowang.

To respond to a couple other posts, yes I did not like the LM by Patpontg and that certainly impacts my opinion, but I went in with an open mind. Since the merger I have had great stays at SPG properties, including in Prague (recommended to friends who will be there in two days over the Marriott), Bali and Siam Reap. I am not, as someone via email accused, an SPG hater. I appreciate that others like this hotel, but as I have stated over and over, if you are used to the full service Marriott properties in Bangkok the LM is probably not going to be your new favorite. By comparison I found it lacking, but YMMV.
That is Patpong 2 which has a Foodland supermarket. I don't like walking down there at night since cars and motorbikes still go down that road at night, which isn't especially safe since it is so narrow and there are sometimes people stumbling around the street. Soi Thaniya is a two alleys over, between there is an alley before Soi Thaniya that is full of restaurants that opens up on Silom but doesn't go through all the way to Surawong.

Last edited by eccentricfusion; May 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 11:08 am
  #2180  
 
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Some interesting moves on the new redemptions. Both ROS and 4P at 12500 a night seems good value. Aloft at 17k not so much. TA, LM and W all drop to 25k which is pretty much where they were a year ago.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 11:14 am
  #2181  
 
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Originally Posted by geminidreams
Some interesting moves on the new redemptions. Both ROS and 4P at 12500 a night seems good value. Aloft at 17k not so much. TA, LM and W all drop to 25k which is pretty much where they were a year ago.
The Courtyard is also 12.5k/night and it is a fantastic property. It is nothing like an American CY and even has a very good CL. Breakfast can be there or in the restaurant which has a nice buffet. The hotel is in a quiet street with wide sidewalks near Erawan Shrine. The hotel is quiet, in a great location and has a wonderful staff.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 9:18 pm
  #2182  
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Originally Posted by geminidreams
Some interesting moves on the new redemptions. Both ROS and 4P at 12500 a night seems good value. Aloft at 17k not so much. TA, LM and W all drop to 25k which is pretty much where they were a year ago.
And SGS climbs to 35k. Marriott criteria, which focus on redemption popularity rather than price, clearly at play here, because that's a poor redemption on a cents per point basis.

Meanwhile the FS Soi 57 drops to 17.5k. That's a real bargain.
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Old Jun 29, 2018, 5:57 am
  #2183  
 
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Just spent another week in Bangkok which I used to do a little bit of hotel hoping and unfortunately need to totally revise my order of preference from March up thread!

This time I stayed at SGS, The Athenee and the W, views below.

SGS - consider me an officially signed up member of the SGS fan club, what a wonderful place. Yes, the rooms are slightly old fashioned but very well maintained; I was also lucky enough to get an upgrade to a Luxury Suite from a Grande Room which was beautiful but I won't be counting on it happening again. As has been said many times here, it's all about the service though, which was close to flawless from the in-suite check in to leaving. The Executive Breakfast at Rossini's is wonderful as has been stated many times. The attention to detail is evident, including seeing the Manager circulating and chatting to guests at the Platinum drinks hour in The Living Room. Great stay, will definitely be back.

The Athenee - this has, unfortunately, gone from my number one choice in Bangkok to not sure I'll ever go back given there are so many great hotels in Bangkok. The hard product is beautiful, I still think you could change the logos everywhere to Peninsula and no one would suspect it isn't from a hard product perspective (ironically, the hard product is, I think, possibly nicer than the Bangkok Peninsula!). However, two stays and both unfortunately had service issues - stay one as reported on the Platinum upgrade thread I was upgraded to a smoking room for no discernible reason when arriving at 8pm to a fairly empty hotel (which I can't stand), possibly made worse by the fact that there seemed to be no reason for it given they instantly moved me to a non-smoking room of the same category when I went back to complain. Stay two I thought I would give the hotel a second chance and booked a Royal Club Suite to try it out, unfortunately when I turned up a little after 4pm to check in I was told the room wouldn't be ready for another two hours (fine, suites are likely to be occupied by Platinum upgrades so it happens, but why did they email me to ask what time I was arriving ahead of time and respond to say 'Thank you, we will prepare everything for your arrival', then? Surely that was the perfect opportunity to tell me the room might not be ready then so I didn't make plans around this?).

Other more serious service issues encountered on the second stay included a member of staff trying to enter the suite to give me a message without knocking when I was about to have a shower (fortunately stopped by the latch being on) and construction work starting at 9.30am in the room above the suite the following morning (surely the two hours I spent sat around in the lounge was the perfect time to warn me about this?). Also, why when booking the hotel limo do they clunkily walk you to the front desk to stand around and then decided to walk you to the club lounge to then check in? I'm struggling to fault the suite I was given from a hard product perspective, but some of the service was a bit amateurish. I tried to flag the check in and construction noise issues on check out but I don't think the agent understood.

W - I really like this place, still don't understand why this isn't a more popular choice here. Yes, it attracts a certain demographic and it probably helps that I fit squarely into it, but the service was genuinely better than The Athenee, the restaurant choices are better - I find in crazy that The House on Sathorn is part of SPG Cravings and can also be used as part of Starwood Luxury Privileges credit! Booked one night in a Wonderful Room and one night in a Studio Suite, which resulted in a nice upgrade to a Fantastic Suite for both nights. Service clearly nowhere near SGS standard but this is a great W nevertheless.

All in all, then, my new order of preference in Bangkok (ignoring price, which normally further relegates the St. Regis) is probably SGS > St. Regis / W > The Athenee.
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Old Jun 29, 2018, 9:23 pm
  #2184  
 
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Originally Posted by lost_in_translation

The Athenee - this has, unfortunately, gone from my number one choice in Bangkok to not sure I'll ever go back given there are so many great hotels in Bangkok. The hard product is beautiful, I still think you could change the logos everywhere to Peninsula and no one would suspect it isn't from a hard product perspective (ironically, the hard product is, I think, possibly nicer than the Bangkok Peninsula!). However, two stays and both unfortunately had service issues - stay one as reported on the Platinum upgrade thread I was upgraded to a smoking room for no discernible reason when arriving at 8pm to a fairly empty hotel (which I can't stand), possibly made worse by the fact that there seemed to be no reason for it given they instantly moved me to a non-smoking room of the same category when I went back to complain. Stay two I thought I would give the hotel a second chance and booked a Royal Club Suite to try it out, unfortunately when I turned up a little after 4pm to check in I was told the room wouldn't be ready for another two hours (fine, suites are likely to be occupied by Platinum upgrades so it happens, but why did they email me to ask what time I was arriving ahead of time and respond to say 'Thank you, we will prepare everything for your arrival', then? Surely that was the perfect opportunity to tell me the room might not be ready then so I didn't make plans around this?).

Other more serious service issues encountered on the second stay included a member of staff trying to enter the suite to give me a message without knocking when I was about to have a shower (fortunately stopped by the latch being on) and construction work starting at 9.30am in the room above the suite the following morning (surely the two hours I spent sat around in the lounge was the perfect time to warn me about this?). Also, why when booking the hotel limo do they clunkily walk you to the front desk to stand around and then decided to walk you to the club lounge to then check in? I'm struggling to fault the suite I was given from a hard product perspective, but some of the service was a bit amateurish. I tried to flag the check in and construction noise issues on check out but I don't think the agent understood.

W - I really like this place, still don't understand why this isn't a more popular choice here.
I agree I like the W and dont know why it doesnt get much love in the forum.
I usually try not to judge too much as people have different tastes and different requirements and what is great for someone is ho hum for someone else. However to class the above service issues as serious is a bit of a stretch. None of that was more than a minor inconvenience.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 12:31 am
  #2185  
 
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Originally Posted by geminidreams
I agree I like the W and dont know why it doesnt get much love in the forum.
I usually try not to judge too much as people have different tastes and different requirements and what is great for someone is ho hum for someone else. However to class the above service issues as serious is a bit of a stretch. None of that was more than a minor inconvenience.
I am pretty critical, I know. It was all avoidable, however, with really very little input from the hotel and others of a similar level are capable of managing it. If I were staying at a Sheraton Id agree they would all be small non-issues.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 1:42 am
  #2186  
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@geminidreams and @lost_in_translation: the reasons why W does not get much love are documented well in the W thread. I have personally never stayed at W but I have read the thread and I am always open to comments and can change my opinion. I would not mind trying W if I saw more people happy with their stay. While you seem happy with the place, there are also far more people unhappy so feedback seems mixed, plus the fact that I am not seeing a lot of very tangible strong points for me to change my mind at this point.

Like you said, different people, different tastes and different requirements, I agree. But from my non-informed point of view, I am seeing very weak Platinum treatment and "cheap" behavior from management. If you want breakfast, you won't get 500 points. Which other SPG hotel in BKK does that? Minimal drink vouchers. Most other hotels you get free flow drinks. Heck you even get unlimited drinks at LM and Athenee in the morning, let alone for happy hour. No food in the evening. Not dissimilar to SGS but that does not exactly set W apart here if you compare to Westin, Athenee, even LM to some extent, and god forbid, Royal Orchid Sheraton. Breakfast is good at W? I don't have much to complain about breakfast at Athenee, SGS, LM, and Westin so I cannot see breakfast being the factor that will bring me to W. I am glad to read that lost_in_translation got upgraded to a nice suite, but he already had a suite for 1/2 night and there are plenty others that seem to only get minimal upgrades to corner rooms. As far as I know, Athenee, SGS, and LM will pretty much always upgrade Plats to suites if available, even when booking the entry level room. Service at W is good? I would not know since I have not been there, but they don't beat SGS so service is not what will bring me to W. Agreed with Athenee dropping the ball in that respect, I had my own personal negative experience documented in the Athenee thread, and they have indeed lost some stays from me as a result. And last but not least, W is generallly speaking not priced very differently from Athenee and SGS on average, and above LM. Given all of the above, so far I have not been swayed to try W because it does not seem to be worth it. I am ready to book there once I start seeing better Platinum treatment. But at the moment I am far more inclined to try some Marriott properties next which get good reviews, rather than W.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 3:00 am
  #2187  
 
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I have stayed twice at W. Both times I was told breakfast or 500 points and ended up getting both. Breakfast there is good. Yes they are stingy with the drink vouchers but with the 50% off vouchers you get really good cocktails for the price of something drab from a local bar. If food and drink is the main driver for a hotel visit then yes you would be disappointed. I was upgraded first time to a junior suite and second time used SNA for a Marvelous suite so I was well looked after. My main dislike about W is the area is a little further out and a bit dull. Given that both times I stayed I paid about 3300 baht I thought it was pretty good value for money. As far as service goes I dont even know what people talk about, all of the SPG hotels I have been in BKK have looked after me well and met all my requirements. Then again I spent 4 years living in a Ger in Mongolia having to walk 50 meters in -35C temperatures in winter to have a shower or go to the toilet so Im pretty relaxed about what makes me happy!
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 4:16 am
  #2188  
 
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I love the W and it is my favorite SPG property in Bangkok. I guess if you are looking for a lounge, you wouldn't pick it, but I always enjoyed my stays there. The House on Sathorn has some wonderful food as well. Of course, I do prefer the quiet area, but that is up to personal preference. I have never had a bad experience for any SPG or Marriott property that I have stayed at in Bangkok though. I agree with geminidreams and think they all offer excellent service.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 8:51 am
  #2189  
 
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I don't like W BKK because the BTS noise that is very audible from the rooms I have stayed in (maybe about 3-4 times).
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Old Jul 4, 2018, 4:52 pm
  #2190  
 
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Well, I'm back at Le Meridien this weekend. It's become my second home in Asia and I've tried many of the others but I don't get such a personal experience at them and I do love the breakfast prosecco and the cocktails in Bamboo Chic. I hope the cats are back at the shrine.
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