Swissotel Bangkok = Deteriorating Benefits

100   Recommended
Executive Suite
January 25, 2020 by

 Map | 4 Reviews | 50% Recommended
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Swissotel Le Concorde, Bangkok
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Executive Suite

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Executive Suite

Last year I wrote a glowing review of Swissotel Bangkok and I did not feel the need to provide an update until things changed.  Unfortunately I must now report on significant cutbacks at this hotel regarding room upgrades and happy hour.  Service remains great and breakfast in the lounge is still top notch but going forward my enthusiasm is more tempered about returning.

Room

In the past I booked the Executive Suite and received a one-category upgrade to the Crest Suite.  For this stay I again booked the Exec Suite and I saw online that the vast majority of room types were available at time of check-in including the Crest Suite, therefore I was surprised to find out at the front desk that we were not getting upgraded so I asked if Crest Suites were available.  I was given some BS excuse about high occupancy and when I pointed out that there is availability online, the front desk agent went to the office in the back to discuss with a manager.  She came back and confirmed no upgrade and indicated that they no longer upgrade above the Exec Suite level.  This is disappointing to say the least and is akin to the policy we experienced at Banyan Tree Bangkok last year: if you book a suite you won’t get upgraded. In my opinion this is not competitive with other hotel chains where you can book a suite and get upgraded to a premium suite but in any event I can adjust my stay pattern accordingly.  My takeaway is that for best value I should book the entry level room at Swissotel and hope for a suite upgrade, but for stays where I want to book a suite outright there are better places to maximize value where they do not hesitate to upgrade to premium suites.

Dining

Happy hour in the lounge has been cut back from 2.5 hours to 2 hours only (6-8pm) but the most disappointing aspect is what they now offer in the lounge.  Whenever a lounge goes down from luxury appetizers such as oysters to mini-pizzas, that’s quite a fall from grace.  For this stay they also had tonkatsu and sushi but they frequently ran out and were very slow to refill.  The lounge was more crowded than what I reported in my previous review, but we were only about a dozen in there so it was still quite peaceful and a pleasant environment, and remains superior to the Banyan Tree lounge.  However 12 guests in the lounge is not many – struggling to keep up with refills leaves room for improvement.

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Breakfast in the lounge remains a strength of this hotel and I did not observe the same cutbacks as for happy hour.  They had seafood fried rice, the cold buffet also had scallops, mussels, and shrimps – very few lounges have such offerings for breakfast.  To go along the buffet they still have an extensive a la carte menu prepared by the chef at the live cooking station; I am glad this has not been taken away.  Fruit selection is also above average: I tend to rate breakfasts higher when they have special fruits such as mangoes and Swissotel ticks the box in that regard; they were so juicy!  

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Similar to my previous review, the lounge was very peaceful in the morning: only a handful of people were there besides us.  Given that top luxury hotels in Bangkok usually do not have a lounge, and that Athenee Hotel Luxury Collection (which is one of the higher end hotels with a lounge in the city) has cut sparkling wine from breakfast in their lounge recently, an argument can be made that as far as lounge breakfasts go, Swissotel is one of the best.

Service

Besides food not being replenished fast enough in the evening, service in the lounge remains superb – staff is always friendly and attentive, they recognized us from before and addressed us by name, etc. 

Overall

Overall I was disappointed by the lack of room upgrade and the now subpar happy hour.  For Platinum guests the best course of action in my opinion is now to book the basic room if willing to do so, save money and roll the dice for an upgrade, but when preferring to book a suite then it might be best to choose another hotel for the potential to be upgraded to an even higher suite category.  Given that the previous drawbacks of this property have not gone away (location, aging hardware), I must be more tempered than last time in my assessment of this hotel.  The breakfast and service will bring me back but possibly not as often as before because the recent changes are negative.   

 

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