Kalboz

rally this promotion is for you!!!

I tried to book it online and couldn't find the rate ... maybe I am too early (as usuall) or maybe others will have a better luck. Their North America number is (866) 866-8086 Bangkok T: 02-204-4000 Phuket T: 76 601 999. Is it possible for our Seanthepilot to contact Mr. Gibbons to verify this rate, if he is back to Phuket:

Millennium & Copthorne has launched a special promotion at its two hotels in Thailand, with 1,000 room nights available from just THB1,000 (about US$30).

The promotion is available for stays at the 5-star Grand Millennium Sukhumvit Bangkok and Millennium Resort Patong Phuket between May 1 to June 15. Rooms under this promotion are available exclusively online through the millenniumhotels.com website.

The rates represent a discount of 70% off the hotels’ room rates, are valid for a maximum two-night stay, and even come with a complimentary 30-minute massage. Additional room nights are available at special rates at the two properties.

“If anyone can find an online deal better than this, we’ll match the price and give them a complimentary stay,” said Grand Millennium Sukhumvit‘s General Manager, Mr John Gerrard.

Mr Peter Gibbons, General Manager of Millennium Resort Patong Phuket, added, “ For the busy executive looking for a few days of serene relaxation and luxury, or the family who wants a holiday without breaking the piggy bank, this promotion is for you.”

rally

Hi.....

Great find , I will try and book it

Rally

seanthepilot

I called the hotel in Patong. It's a block away from my guesthouse.

She called it the PR Program. I was advised that they're still loading it into the system and that's why it's not able to be found. It should show up soon.

1st and 2nd nights at this rate. If you book more than 2 nights, only the 1st & 2 will be discounted. I guess multiple reservations will be required.

seanthepilot

I still cannot get the rate, but a google search found one report of the sale.

http://www.asiatraveltips.com/news09...romotion.shtml

jpatokal

I spent the better part of half a year at the hotel at one point and can't remember a single service screw-up. Sure, not all staff speak perfect English, but show me a hotel in Bangkok where they do. And the thing I remember best about the hotel is the indefatigable pint-sized girl whose job it was to open the door for you and choke back car exhaust all day long. Darned if I know how she did it, but she always had a genuine smile on her face!

Ratchaprarop between Pratunam and Chidlom is not the "busiest, dirtiest and most polluted area of Bangkok"... the closest BTS station is Ratchathewi, about 800m away straight down Th. Phetchaburi. Also, the Watergate has great access to the Khlong Saen Saep canal boat terminus at Pratunam, which provides an excellent shortcut straight into the tourist district of Rattanakosin or, alternatively, all the way down the canal east to Bang Na. (Assuming one can deal with the fragrant bouquet of the canal and rubbing shoulders with mere commoners, that is.)

BTW, ever look out the window at the Amari and wonder what that "slum" around the canal is doing there, nestled in between all the highrises? The place is called Ban Krua, and it's where the Cham (Khmer Muslim) silk weavers made famous by Jim Thompson live to this very day. It's also nowhere near poor as one might think from first glance, just go in for a walk and count the SUVs...

As is the case for most all 5-star hotels in Bangkok. This is why you walk out to the road in front of the hotel -- one can also do this in airconditioned comfort through the Tex-Mex restaurant -- and hail a passing cab, who will be happy to use the meter.

* * *

And just to clarify my view here -- no, I don't think the Amari Watergate is the best hotel in town, or even particularly close to it. But it's a very solid, very respectable business hotel, with decent (not amazing, but decent) connectivity to the rest of the city and some off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods to explore around it.

yosithezet

I remember her!

We used to have a great corporate rate at the Amari Watergate. We used to have a friendly relationship with the residence director before he moved to on of the Amari resorts and then on to a place in Washington Square I think. I was not yet the Starwood devotee that I am today and had not experienced the ease getting around on the BTS.

Though I haven't stayed there in about two years, the Amari Watergate was a fine hotel when I stayed there. Never had any complaints about service. I never had any problems with English. The breakfast buffet was quite good at that time. The proximity to Panthip Plaza and Central World were a bonus. I'd never call it the Siam Square area and not use it if proximity to the BTS was the priority they are for me now. I'd have no qualms recommending it to others, and have in the past.

Kalboz

Thank you seanthepilot for the clarification.

It's on or something comprable to it, THB 1000 room only including tax for June 5 & 6 for the Bangkok Grand Millennium Sukhumvit:

MAY MADNESS - RO - INC TAX -- - ROOM ONLY - INC TAX - USED FOR ONE TIME PER COUPLE - NOT COMMISSIONABLE

Deluxe 1 King Bed
6/5 ~ 6/6 THB 1000.00
-SEPARATE SHOWER AND LONG BATH - LCD TV -BROADBAND - COFFEE AND TEA MAKING

Policies CXL by 7 days prior to arrival to avoid charge of 1 night.
Valid Credit Card required to guarantee bookings.

Deluxe 2 Twin Beds
6/5 ~ 6/6 THB 1000.00
SEPARATE SHOWER AND LONG BATH - LCD TV -BROADBAND - COFFEE AND TEA MAKING

Policies CXL by 7 days prior to arrival to avoid charge of 1 night.
Valid Credit Card required to guarantee bookings.

MAY MADNESS - RO - INC TAX
- ROOM ONLY - INC TAX - USED FOR ONE TIME PER COUPLE - NOT COMMISSIONABLE
Promotion Rates for May Madness. Room Only Rates. Rates are Only allowed to book for One time per couple. Rates are Inclusive of Tax. Rates are Not Commissionable. Maximum of 2 nights stay required. Any request of Extend stay can be only made through Front Office and charged at THB3000 per night . One night Non-refundable deposit will be required at time of booking. New Rates may apply for any amendments to arrival dates. 20pct discount on Food and Beverage. 50pct discount on Spa&Massage Treatments. Guaranteed Early Check In from 8am and Late Check Out till 4pm. Offer is not applicable in Conjunction with other promotions. Offer is only available for first 250 bookings.

Kalboz

HOTEL DETAILS
Hotel Name Grand Millennium Sukhumvit
Hotel Address 30 Sukhumvit 21 Asoke Road Klongtoey Nua, Wattana BANGKOK 10110 TH
Main Phone +66 2 2044 000
Reservation Phone
Fax +66 2 2044 188
E-mail [email protected]

RESERVATION DETAILS
Confirmation Number xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Arrival Date Friday, June 12, 2009
Departure Date Sunday, June 14, 2009
Number of Guests 2
Number of Rooms 1
Room Type Deluxe 1 King Bed
Rate Type MAY MADNESS - RO - INC TAX
Policies CXL by 7 days prior to arrival to avoid charge of 1 night.
Valid Credit Card required to guarantee bookings.

Room Requests Non Smoking
Comments

PRICE DETAILS
Total Including Tax THB 2000.00
Daily Rate 6/12 ~ 6/13 THB 1000.00

Slave Daddy

Hi Kalboz and seanthepilot,

Do you know if they allow for a second or third 2-night stay reservations so in effect you pay 4k for 4 consecutive nights or 6k for 6 consecutive nights? Even for two nights 2k is a fantastic deal.

mcgahat

I dont think so. I think they reduced the hours after the airport closure but I definitely dined there on my last trip in early March. They had some specials going on also, something like 20% off for in house guests but definitely open in early March.

Kalboz

MAY MADNESS Terms & Conditions:

• Offer is valid from 1 May to 15 June 2009
• All rooms subject to availability
• Must be booked directly through out Corporate website or the Hotel’s website at www.millenniumhotels.com or www.millenniumpatong.com
• Rates are non-commissionable
• Maximum 2 nights stay at the rate booked and maximum 1 booking per couple
• Rates are inclusive of service charge and prevailing government taxes
• Rates are for Room Only basis unless otherwise specified
• New rates may apply for any amendment to arrival dates
• Cancellation required 7 days prior to arrival
• Cancellations made within 7 days of arrival, a one nights’ cancellation will apply
• One nights’ deposit is required when making reservation
• Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers

Kalboz

Had I not had the bad service and maltreatment as a hotel guest, I would not have invested the time to write this review about the Amari Watergate. The above is what I experienced and I stand 110% behind my post.

I expect the staff to speak good enough English to properly service the foreigners who compromised the majority of guests at the time of my stay. However, at a minimum, in a 5-star hotel, I’d expect the concierge to speak excellent English. And this was not the case at the Amari Watergate.

I do remember the cute female porter (so cute to the point of being cartoonish-looking) but no it was not she that laughed when I requested a meter taxi, it was a male porter.

The property has a potential, but a 5-star hotel it is NOT. Misleading statement on Amari.com states that the hotel is a 5-star property located between Sukhumvit and Siam Square (????) It is not located at Siam Square. Location location location … is a very important factor to a 5-star property in a metropolis such as Bangkok

And for balance, I did enjoy the food and the atmosphere at Grappino Italian Restaurant on the third floor.

Cheers!

seanthepilot

We're going to have to do without this thread for the next little while. I'll have it open again, please bear with me.

MegatopLover

I've saddened to report that, based on what I've seen in the last few days, Thai tourism is not on the rebound. What we saw last December and January following the airports crisis might have been less of a rebound and more of a dead-cat bounce. The tourists who showed up in December and January might have booked their trips before the airports crisis or, indeed, before the financial crisis reached its world-changing apex in September, then decided (or felt they had little choice) to come anyway. The slump I'm seeing now may be the traveling public's delayed reaction to the financial crisis and recession or the airports crisis or (perhaps for shorter-range travelers) the Songkran riots.

Here are my data points...

Chiang Mai was very very quiet. The streets of the old section of the city were largely deserted during the day on Saturday. Traffic moved freely. Le Coq d'Or, a Chiang Mai legend for French food for decades, had perhaps eight diners all night. This is the low season for CNX, but that's really slow. Especially for a Saturday. The Chedi was not quite as dead but still rather quiet. A whole wing (the one extending toward the river) was closed off, best as I could tell. Breakfast at the restaurant and in the club lounge alike was eerily quiet. You had to feel bad for the staff eager to extend warm hospitality but with few guests to host. Shops in the towns around Chiang Mai on Sunday were no more bustling. Most had just a few others patrons, some had no others. One furniture store had no one minding the store at all-- everything wide open to the street. Notably, though, this did not seem to be resulting in much price pressure on shopkeepers. The Sunday "walking street" market around Wat Chedi Luang and Rachamankha Road at least had some farang walking about, though not altogether many; it was much more easy to walk the pathways among the stalls than in Patpong, for instance. The restaurant we stopped, a sit-down Thai place, had just a handful of diners. Other tourist spots we hit on Monday were equally quiet, and the Night Bazaar was oddly so. Vendors were really hurting for patrons. Comparing it to what he'd seen in low-season visits in years past, Mr. Megatop said it bordered on "ghost town" status.

I haven't been out much on the streets of Bangkok yet, as I just arrived today. But the larger newer wing of the Shangri-La, believe it or not, has the first thirteen floors of guestrooms closed off, the windows and (curiously) the balcony railings papered over with brown wrapping paper. It could be just chronically low occupancy, or the hotel could be taking advantage of time to do a major rooms renovation. I tend to think it's the latter: the brown paper would probably work less effectively than blackout night curtains at keeping heat out as an energy-saving measure, the floors having been closed off already, but the brown paper would be needed in the absence of curtains (removed during the renovations) to keep out heat and prying eyes. Whatever the reason, thirteen out of twenty-one rooms floors in the new wing at the Shangri-La are evidently closed. I can't tell about the other wing, as yet.

The MO looked dark in its lower floors last Friday, but I couldn't see well enough to take a stab at occupancy. Same goes for the Sheraton and Hilton upriver. The Peninsula is quiet too. Jesters has closed temporarily, and RC&T wasn't offering a lunch buffet today. Mei Jiang seemed to be operating normally and with patrons. But last Friday morning, breakfast at RC&T was sadly quiet. Staff are as attentive as ever, and it doesn't feel quite as empty as back in mid-December, but it does remind me of that period.

I'll report further on my amblings tomorrow.

FWIW, our cab driver at Suvanabhumi who picked us up at 11:45 a.m. said that he'd waited since 8:00 a.m. for us, his first fare. We made it a good one for him-- first to the Riverside area, then to the Chatuchak area. Last week and again today, Mr. Megatop and I had made a conscious decision to support the cabbies who play by the rules by using the normal cab stands. We view the 50-baht fee as payment for hassle-reduction (use of the meter is not really fought over) and our patronage better given to the guys who play by the rules than the ones who break them upstairs and then, ever willing to cheat a cheater, refuse to use the meter.

LoungeLizzard

Thank you very much Megatoplover for the good - or rather not so good -observations. I'm sad to hear that things seem to be still far from normal and Thai people have to suffer from this.

Just a few thoughts on the issue. No intention at all to contradict you or to make things look nice which they quite obviousely aren't. Just looking for a little silver lining...

Shangri La
As far as the Shangri-La goes, that renovation has been planned for a long time already. It's even mentioned in some travel agent's brochures. So the closing of the lower floors wouldn't worry me.

Example:
Renovation Notice: The hotel will be refurbishing the lower guestroom floors of the Shangri-La Wing from February 1, 2009. This is scheduled within normal working hours and planned to keep any inconveniences to a minimum. The hotel meanwhile continues to operate normally, with uninterrupted service.


Cab Drivers waiting at BKK
Also the issue with cab drivers waiting for a very long time at the airport has come to my ears over a year ago when everything was fine. I did believe it then and I do believe it now, and it's certainly very bad for the driver. It just doesn't necessarily mean there are no passengers, it can also be the consequence of many other factors. (Day of week, time of day, waiting in the wrong line, etc)

A few more examples why probably not everything is as bad as one might think at first sight: (This is Thailand, after all...)

Hotels for sale?
Even newspapers seem to be keen on picking up stories about downturn, crisis, and so on. One such example is "The Nation", which published an article about several hotel properties being on sale. Again, I can't prove that this is not true, but at least for the top end luxury property in Chiang Mai, the Nation itself printed a contradictory statement a few days later, stating that the hotel which they had hinted on earlier was NOT for sale.
Source

Real facts?
So overall, I'd say it's very difficult to gather precise facts. Peronally, I would expect this to be the lowest season for tourists in Thailand, due to the climate being hot as well as rainy, and few school holidays at least in the few countries I'm aware of.
So it would be good to have real facts, like numbers. Right?
Ok, so have a look at a reliable source, like for example an independent, newspaper which is surely not influenced by any politicans: The Straits Times

They say tourism in Thailand has dropped by 50% in the first quarter vs. last year. All right, you might say, this is a definitive fact, and they surely know the numbers. Can't be that hard to calculate, can it?
But if you read furhter in the same little article, you might start to have a little less trust in their figures, as they claim: Quote: The tourism sector, generating about 540 billion baht (S$23 million) annually (....)Unquote.
Well... either the SGD has risen really really sharply, or SGD 23 Million just won't buy 540 Billion Baht. So, just a "little" error with factor 1000 between facts and what they write.

Practical BKK Tourist index
If your "further amblings tomorrow" lead you to use the BTS, I'd be interested to know if it's still packed as much as it allways was, and if they're still using a single train composition only. (i.e. one that does by far not cover the full length of the stations.)
Thank you! - And please enjoy the extra "ellbow room" - I think it will be gone again soon.