St.Regis Bangkok = Suite Upgrade this Time, But Competition Gets Better Too

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Metropolitan Suite
May 12, 2019 by

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The St. Regis Bangkok
 Map | 10 Reviews | 60% Recommended

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Metropolitan Suite

Liked:
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Metropolitan Suite

I wrote a review of St.Regis Bangkok six months ago so I would normally not have anything material to add but I thought it would be worthwhile to provide an update because:

  • I was upgraded to a different room type this time
  • I did not go to happy hour, the gym, or the pool last time so my review was incomplete
  • I stayed at Waldorf Astoria immediately before my stay at St.Regis this month and I thought the comparison might be worthwhile

Room

After my breakfast at Waldorf Astoria, I casually walked over to St.Regis around 8am without luggage to inform them of my arrival and I told them that I did not need the room right away because I was checking out from WA at 2pm.  I knew the Metropolitan Suite was available online but they only upgraded me to the Grand Deluxe room.  I asked if they normally upgrade Ambassador guests to suites and they said yes, but that the room was not ready and I could get it only if I was willing to wait.  I thought that was an odd answer - I had already said at the beginning of the conversation that I certainly did not expect or need my room at 8am.  I wish the upgrade had been a bit more proactive but in the end I was glad to get the Met Suite because I was curious to see how that room type looks like.  

I do not know if my memory fails me, but I thought the Grand Deluxe room I had in November was perhaps renovated more recently than the Met Suite.  Perhaps the hotel is not old enough to have done renovations yet, and instead the explanation could be that there has just been more wear and tear in the suite I had, anyway I thought the condition of the suite was a notch below my room a few months ago unless I am mistaken.  Nothing drastic but it did not seem as spotless as the Grand Deluxe: some stains on the carpet and chairs for example.  Or perhaps the fact that I had just stayed in the pristine Deluxe Suite at WA and the dropoff to the 8-year old St.Regis was more apparent.  In any event, in terms of hardware WA is far better than St.Regis if we compare the two suites.  Everything is more high end at WA and technological features far more advanced at WA.  My suite at WA was in the back of the hotel so no Park view, yet there was still a nice view of the city, compared to no view at all in the StR Met Suite since all you see is a tall building in front.  However for people who care about space, the Met Suite is far bigger than the Deluxe Suite at WA, it’s not even close.  The Met Suite has a full separate living room, a dining room, and kitchen appliances, whereas WA has none of that, plus the suite at StR has 1.5 bath and only 1 at WA.  Therefore I believe some people will prefer the suite at WA and some will prefer the one at StR.  A couple of interesting features I liked from the suite at StR: the large mirror and big window with blinds in the shower, and the sliding panel in the dining room to hide the “kitchen” if desired.

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Dining

For breakfast my comments from before stand: StR is inferior to some other options within Marriott and given what’s on offer at WA there is no debate : WA is clearly better.  Unlike some reports earlier in this thread, I do not think the buffet improved recently at StR, if anything it’s unchanged or perhaps a bit downgraded from last time.  For example fried rice did not have anything in it, not even veggies – just eggs.  A far cry from the fried rice with protein I had at WA (for example, seafood fried rice).  On the plus side, StR has sushi unlike WA, and StR has more choices of juices.  Regarding the restaurant setting, the environment in the WA restaurant is superior by a significant margin due to the sparse layout of tables compared to the packed StR restaurant.  

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For this stay I went to happy hour.  Besides perhaps Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, the bar at StR is possibly the best venue for happy hour drinks in Bangkok among the hotels I have visited before.  The Platinum drinks list includes cocktails and I was surprised that happy hour includes more than just a drink, they also offered a small appetizer – I expected no food at all.  I had a small dish of larb gai which was tasty, followed by a few crunchy snacks.  The equivalent at WA is not nearly as generous especially for long stays: 500 THB food & beverage credit per person, per stay.  StR wins easily here because it’s one drink per person per day.

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Pool

Based on advice from @Kacee last time, I did check out the pool.  I concur: it is very nice and in fact better than the pool at WA which is a bit small and more sterile.  There are lots of chairs available at StR, some under the roof for those who want shadow, and some closer to the pool.  The only drawback is that the view of the park from the pool could be fantastic but the pool is not close to the edge so you cannot really enjoy the view much unless you stand up outside the pool.  There are chairs near the edge but they face the pool not the park.  In this aspect only, the pool at WA wins because it’s an infinity pool that ends right in front of a glass wall with views of the park and the city.  

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Gym

The gym at St.Regis was disappointing.  There are only two treadmills and two elliptical machines and the TV was not functioning very well on any of them.  Some channels had a fuzzy image or no image at all.  On the plus side, there are several weight machines which is nice, and interestingly there is a small boxing ring. Other than that, the new and shiny machines at WA with big TVs trump the old ones at StR.  

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Service

While service at WA was personal, friendly, and they made clear efforts to be as helpful as possible, nonetheless there is simply more staff available at StR to handle any request from guests so service at StR is superior in my humble opinion.  Also in my previous review of StR I made a mistake: the laundry benefit for Plat/Tit/Amb is not 2 pieces of laundry per person per day (=4 for a couple), it’s 4 per person per day so a whopping 8 per day for a couple.  At WA as Diamond I got nothing at all, in fact they provide an ironing board in the room.  There is no iron at StR because with 8 pieces a day you don’t need it!

Wifi

Last time at StR I did not notice issues with wifi but it was quite spotty this time.  It stopped working completely on a few occasions which should not be happening for a hotel of this caliber.  

Overall

Overall I think different guests will have different preferences between WA and StR depending on what they value most. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic room at WA and the breakfast buffet, and I value that more than the extra space of the Met Suite, the more generous happy hour at StR, and the better service at StR too.  I wish the suite was bigger at WA, but the high end finishes make up for it.  Regarding happy hour if I am in a drinking mood I won’t go to either StR or WA; I will pick Le Meridien, Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, or hotels with a lounge such as Athenee.  And service is great at StR but it’s not like WA was mediocre (it was good too) so I would not pick StR exclusively based on service especially not in a city where I do not need service as much as if I was a first time visitor.  But that’s just me, admittedly.  So it’s nice to have different options depending on needs and preferences, for me I can see WA deserving a price premium over StR which is generally the case on average based on my observations so far.  The other issue for StR is that on my last stay at Athenee I was upgraded to a suite for the first time, it was newly renovated, and frankly it just looked sharper than the one at StR.  Not that I would expect to get a suite every time at Athenee (one does not make it a trend), but comparing apples and apples if upgrades are becoming more generous at Athenee going forward, there is a lounge, breakfast is better at Athenee, and prices are lower than at StR… so in my mind StR has to deal not only with WA’s arrival as a decent competitor but perhaps also deal with improving rooms at Athenee too. 

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