Review Sofitel So Bangkok

100   Recommended
So Suite & So Lof...
May 13, 2018 by

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Sofitel So Bangkok
 Map | 10 Reviews | 50% Recommended

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So Suite & So Lof...

Liked:
Location
Service
Food
Amenities
Room
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Room
So Suite & So Lofty

Here is a new review of this hotel. Hope you will enjoy it !

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It was my 3rd stay in this hotel (I think). Overall a very good stay (5 nights), but as usual, not completely problem-free. But, what always make the overall experience good is that they always address the problems very well. I just like this hotel too much and clearly this is my Sofitel of choice in BKK, compared to Sukhumvit because of its very modern design and the stunning view from the rooms, infinity pool and rooftop bar. And the satff is really nice.

Check In

I was arriving from Paris in the morning and realized I forgot to inform the hotel about my wish for early check-in. I said to the bell boys that I was Platinum and was bring straight to the Club Millesime on the 25th floor.

Nice welcome at the lounge. I had an espresso and a welcome drink (not the one with the voucher), while they were taking care of the paperwork.

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I had booked a « So Comfy room, king bed, Lumphini park or city view ». I asked in the comment section to have a park view and either water or metal element room. I checked before arriving in the hotel and all room categories seem to be available.

My room was ready. As they were not talking about any upgrade or whatever, I asked which room category they gave me and I was told « So Comfy, water element »….OK….so no upgrade ? Ah ? Let me check….Another 10 min of wait, phone calls and computer keyboard use…OK we are happy to upgrade you in a nice So Suite, water element. OK, good recovery of 1st problem. But it has always been like that in this hotel : upgrades are never spontaneous. Sometimes (my previous stay) they try to tell you that the Club access is the upgrade, sometimes (this time) they don’t say anything special. This is not what should happen in a Sofitel. But, once you ask them, you normally don’t face further resistance.

Welcome letter was given + drink voucher (usable at lobby bar, red oven restaurant, or the rooftop bar (the best use IMO, to enjoy the stunning view).

Room

The So Suite was nice, although the bedroom and bathroom parts were a bit too dark, due to smaller windows compared to other rooms (and no window in the bathroom).

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I didn’t notice immediately the « problems » I will describe here after, because I wanted to unpack rapidly and go out. But when I came back to the room in the afternoon, I noticed plenty of dirty spots in several areas of the room, even a hole in the bedsheet. Clearly not acceptable IMO in a Sofitel (where the word « Luxury » is always used in conjunction) and furthermore in a suite.  Even if those are not always easy to take in pictures, I think they are self-explanatory. You will surely appreciate the beautiful hand trace on the door from the corridor to the bedroom part !

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The following morning, I informed the lounge attendant (same guy as the one who checked me in) and bring him into the room to show him what I was not happy with. He was apologetic of course and he asked me whether I would like to stay in this room after a special housekeeping service, or if I wanted to change room. I said both options could be considered, although I doubted that housekeeping could completely resolve the issues, as some of the dirt parts I saw are just « engraved » in the material. They insisted in showing me a new room and then I could make a decision. I was shown a So Lofty room on the 26th floor (just above the Club lounge), still water element. The room was very nice and I preferred it to the other one, so decided to move. I packed all my stuff and they came with the new keys, but to my surprise, it was not for the room I was bring in. It was the same one but on a nother floor. OK, no problem but then I discovered again some not clean spots (again this is engraved in the material and not cleanable by housekeeping).

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So not happy again, I went back to the lounge and asked why they didn’t gave me the room they just showed me ? They said that they thought this one was better and sot hey finally gave me the one they showed me initially above the lounge. He came to the room with me to inspect it and to confirm I was happy with it, which was the case. He remained very professional but it was obvious that he was starting to think that I was a kind of pain. Sorry, but I am not going to Sofitel in top rooms, and as a Platinum member, to have some kind of not-well-maintained rooms. The new room was not spotless but it was acceptable. Second (and last) problem, well addressed but this is taking way too much time to deal with. 

All my stuff being transferred, here are the pictures of the So Lofty room. Very nice !

You can take a bath or a shower enjoying the view. You have a separate dressing room with the safety box. One TV in each room with the nice Apple mini-Mac system. 

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Another minor issue : the welcome gift (see picture) consisted in a nice box with exotic fruits, but you have no plate, no cuttlery and no napkin.

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Swimming pool

A very enjoyable pool after a day in the heat of Bangkok. I could spend hours looking at this view !

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Clu Millesime

Still the same, but with one bad change : the happy hour cocktail time is now 4 to 6 pm instead of 5 to 7 !! Ridiculous change IMO. I asked of course why on earth did they change for this weird time ? I was answered that it was following to customer feedback !! I said that I was quite surprised and I will come back later in this review on this.

I don’t know if there was any relationship to this, but, while the hotel looked busy, the lounge was deserted most of the times, except for my last 2 evenings (which were weekend evenings). Also, even if the drink offering is still aceptable (see pictures of the menu), I found the wines being really cheap brands and not so good, outside the rosé and the Prosecco wich were good.

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BF can be taken at the lounge or at the main restaurant. The lounge was also not very busy at BF, maybe because most customers prefer to take i tat the main restaurant ? I took it at the lounge as usual, as I like the quieter environment and the food offering is more than enough for my needs at BF.

Management Reception

Every Wednesday evening (at 7 pm), there is a management cocktail reception for LCAH members on a private terrace above the rooftop bar. A nice touch IMO. GM was not there but management was represented by the F&B director and the guest experience manager, 2 French guys with whom I of course chatted with, especially the latter. He asked me if my stay was good (this was the day I changed room). I said yes but told him the issues I have encountered. He was of course very sorry. I told him that the issues are always the same at this hotel and that they should addressed that. I told him about the extraordinary room I had during my previous stay (see in this thread) and he said he would look the following morning if such a  room was available. I thanked him of course, but TBH I was not sure to want to change room again (note : he came to the lounge the following morning but no such room was available, so I stayed in my So Lofty and was perfectly happy in). I also asked him about this weird change of happy hour cocktail time at the lounge, and that I was not really buying the customer feedback thing, and that I was suspecting more a kind cost cutting measure. Indeed, if you are here for holidays, it’s too early as you are still in town or you are at the pool enjoying the best time of the day (less hot, less direct sun), and if you are here on business you are simply out for work. And you come back when it’s already over. So by changing it to an inconvenient time for most of the people, you decrease the number of persons and related drink consumption). He said that it was recently changed for a 3-month test period. He confirmed the customer feedback thing but I understood it has been a few customers having rooms on the lounge floor who complained about too many people traffic on this floor because of the lounge at a too late time (no comment about 7 pm being a too late time + sound proofing is very good at that time). But he admitted between the lines (without saying it explicitely of course), that operating costs and revenues were part of the equation. He mentioned that operating a lounge was costly (and that 2 Bangkok Sukhumvit  area hotels, the Park Hyatt and the Sheraton, recently shut down their lounges to make an additional suite*) and that, with the 5 to 7 pm time, many people were not hungry anymore after the lounge visit, sot hey were not having dinner in the hotel restaurant and so it was a loss of revenue. 

*he said also that they have only 12 suites at the So and that was not enough as they are often fully booked and soi t can be a problem for the Platinum upgrades

Of course, I can understand all this, but I tried to deliver clear messages to him, from my customer perspective :

  • a lounge is a great competitive advantage (I can choose an hotel vs another one because of this) and that the decision of the 2 competitors was really very stupid, IMO, especially in Asia
  • the new 4 to 6 pm cocktail time is bad, and they should come back to 5-7. 

Overall a nice discussion with somebody caring about guests enjoying the stunning view on Lumphini park and Bangkok skyline. This guy (and all the staff) really did their best to make my stay the most enjoyable.

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On a satellite discussion during this cocktail, you can see on the picture below a large space on the right of the park. Unfortunately, a major project is on the way, calles « One Bangkok ». It will be a shopping mall + hotel + appartments. It will hide a part of the view from the So, but the main part of the view will be preserved hopefully thanks to the Lumphini park. It will be a 7 years project and this is just the beginning (nothing has really started).

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Dining

Plenty of nice options at this hotel :

  • pool bar for lunch and all-day snacks
  • Red oven : the main restaurant for BF, lunch and dinner. The buffet is excellent and very good value for money
  • Club millesime if you have access to it (BF, evening cocktail and all-day soft drinks)
  • Rooftop fancy restaurant (called Park Society). I haven’t been this time (I have been only once and found it very expensive for what they serve)
  • Roof top bar. They serve also snacks (pizza, sandwiches, burgers, noodles, etc). I had dinner there twice, especially the last evening as I couldn’t get away from this view at sunset.

As always, the staff was great and was even caring, at the rooftop bar, to inform you when a better seat/table (for the view) was available.

Pictures of Red Oven restaurant:

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Pictures of rooftop bar:

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On a satellite note : I had dinner once at the nearby Banyan Tree splendid (but pricey !) rooftop restaurant, but I didn’t see any Accor signs or artifact ;) there.

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Overall

Overall, a very good stay despite the « issues » I have reported. OK, they should definitely address those repeating problems (the lack of spontaneous upgrade looks more as an hotel policy to me because of its systematic character), but as said previously, when you report a problem, they always address it very seriously.

I would return without blinking an eye. Bangkok is one of my favourite city on this small planet and the Sofitel So is my Accor hotel of choice there (BTW, I am always astonished by the number of Accor properties in Bangkok).

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